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AMERICAN 
WOMEN OF 

SCIENCE 

SINCE 1900 




TIFFANY K. WAYNE 






/ 



American Women 
of Science since 1900 



American Women 
of Science since 1 900 



Tiffany K. Wayne 



Q ABC-CLIO 



Santa Barbara, California • Denver, Colorado • Oxford, England 



Copyright 2011 by ABC CLIO, LLC 

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a 
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, 
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a 
review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data 

Wayne, Tiffany K., 1968 

American women of science since 1900 / Tiffany K. Wayne, 
p. cm. 

Includes bibliographical references and index. 

ISBN 978 1 59884 158 9 (hard copy : alk. paper) ISBN 978 1 59884 159 6 (ebook) 
1. Women scientists United States Biography Dictionaries. 2. Women scientists United 
States History 20th century Dictionaries. 3. Women in science United States Biography 
Dictionaries. 4. Women in science United States History 20th century Dictionaries. 
I. Title. 

Q141.W42 2011 
509.2'273 dc22 2010026838 

ISBN: 978 1 59884 158 9 
EISBN: 978 1 59884 159 6 

15 14 13 12 11 12 3 4 5 

This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. 
Visit www.abc clio.com for details. 

ABC CLIO, LLC 

130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 

Santa Barbara, California 931 16 1911 

This book is printed on acid free paper 00 

Manufactured in the United States of America 



Contents 



List of Essays and Entries, vii 

Acknowledgments, xvii 

Introduction, xix 

Issues, 1 

Disciplines, 61 

A-Z Entries, 179 

Women Nobel Prize Winners in the Sciences, 999 

Scientists by Discipline Index, 1001 

Chronology, 1019 

Index, 1-1 



List of Essays and Entries 



Issues, I 

History of American Women 
in Science 

Is There a Science Gene? 

The Impact of Feminism on Scientific 
Research 

Science and Technology Education 
for Girls 

Women and Science in College and 
Graduate School 



Jobs for Women Scientists: Academia 

Jobs for Women Scientists: 
Government 

Jobs for Women Scientists: Industry, 
Business, and Nonprofit Research 

Work/Life Balance for Women 
Scientists 

Minority Women in the Sciences 



Disciplines, 61 

Aerospace and Astronautics 

Animal Sciences 

Anthropology and Archaeology 

Astronomy and Astrophysics 

Biochemistry 

Biology 

Biomedical Sciences 

Botany 

Chemistry 

Computer Sciences and Information 
Technology 

Crystallography 



Economics 

Engineering 

Environmental Sciences and Ecology 

Genetics 

Geography 

Geology 

Mathematics 

Medicine 

Meteorology 

Neuroscience 

Nutrition and Home Economics 

Ocean Sciences 



VII 



viii | List of Essays and Entries 



Paleontology 

Physics 

Primatology 



Psychology and Psychiatry 

Sociology 

Zoology 



A-Z Entries, 1 79 



Aberle, Sophie Bledsoe 

Abriola, Linda M. 

Ackerman, Bernice 

Adams, (Amy) Elizabeth 

Adelman, Irma Glicman 

Agogino, Alice M. 

Ajzenberg-Selove, Fay 

Altmann, Jeanne 

Altmann, Margaret 

Ancker-Johnson, Betsy 

Anderson, Gloria (Long) 

Anderson, Mary P. 

Angier, Natalie 

Anslow, Gladys Amelia 

Apgar, Virginia 

Archambault, JoAllyn 

Attneave, Carolyn (Lewis) 

Austin, Pauline Morrow 

Avery, Mary Ellen 

Avery, Susan K. 

Baber, Mary Arizona "Zonia" 

Baca Zinn, Maxine 

Baetjer, Anna Medora 

Bahcall, Neta 

Bailey, Florence Augusta Merriam 



Banfield, Jillian F. 
Baranescu, Rodica 
Bartoshuk, Linda 
Bascom, Florence 
Bates, Grace Elizabeth 
Bateson, Mary Catherine 
Beall, Cynthia 
Beattie, Mollie Hanna 
Bell, Gwen (Dru'yor) 
Benedict, Ruth Fulton 
Benerito, Ruth Rogan 
Benesch, Ruth Erica (Leroi) 
Benmark, Leslie Ann (Freeman) 
Bennett, Joan Wennstrom 
Berenbaum, May Roberta 
Berezin, Evelyn 
Berger, Marsha J. 
Berkowitz, Joan B. 
Bertell, Rosalie 
Blackburn, Elizabeth 
Bliss, Eleanor Albert 
Blodgett, Katharine Burr 
Bonta, Marcia (Myers) 
Boring, Alice Middleton 
Boyd, Louise Arner 



List of Essays and Entries | ix 



Braun, Annette Frances 

Braun, (Emma) Lucy 

Bricker, Victoria (Reifler) 

Brill, Yvonne (Claeys) 

Briscoe, Anne M. 

Britton, Elizabeth Knight 

Brody, Jane Ellen 

Brooks, Carolyn (Branch) 

Brooks, Matilda Moldenhauer 

Broome, Claire Veronica 

Brothers, Joyce Diane (Bauer) 

Brown, Barbara B. 

Brown, Rachel Fuller 

Brugge, Joan S. 

Buck, Linda B. 

Buikstra, Jane Ellen 

Bunce, Elizabeth Thompson 

Bunting (Smith), Mary Ingraham 

Burbidge, (Eleanor) Margaret 

Butler, Margaret K. 

Cady, Bertha Louise Chapman 

Caldicott, Helen Mary (Broinowski) 

Calloway, Doris (Howes) 

Cannon, Annie Jump 

Carey, Susan E. 

Carothers, (Estrella) Eleanor 

Carr, Emma Perry 

Carson, Rachel Louise 

Caserio, Marjorie Constance (Beckett) 

Charles, Vera Katherine 

Chase, (Mary) Agnes Meara 

Chasman, Renate (Wiener) 

Chesler, Phyllis 



Chilton, Mary-Dell (Matchett) 

Chory, Joanne 

Clark, Eugenie 

Clarke, Edith 

Cleave, Mary L. 

Cobb, Geraldyne M. 

Cobb, Jewel Plummer 

Cohn, Mildred 

Cole, Johnnetta (Betsch) 

Collins, Eileen 

Colmenares, Margarita H. 

Colson, Elizabeth Florence 

Colwell, Rita (Rossi) 

Conway, Lynn Ann 

Conwell, Esther Marly 

Cordova, France Anne-Dominic 

Cori, Gerty Theresa Radnitz 

Cowings, Patricia Suzanne 

Cox, Geraldine Anne (Vang) 

Cox, Gertrude Mary 

Crane, Kathleen 

Crosby, Elizabeth Caroline 

Daly, Marie Maynard 

Darden, Christine V Mann 

Daubechies, Ingrid 

Davis, Margaret Bryan 

Davis, Ruth Margaret 

DeFries, Ruth 

De Laguna, Frederica Annis 

Delgado, Jane L. 

Delmer, Deborah 

De Planque, E. Gail 

Densen-Gerber, Judianne 



x I List of Essays and Entries 



DeWitt-Morette, Cecile Andree Paule 

Diamond, Marian Cleeves 

Dicciani, Nance Katherine 

Dick, Gladys Rowena Henry 

Donnay, Gabrielle (Hamburger) 

Downey, June Etta 

Drake, Elisabeth (Mertz) 

Dreschhoff, Gisela Auguste-Marie 

Dresselhaus, Mildred (Spiewak) 

Dunbar, Bonnie J. 

Earle, Sylvia Alice 

Eastwood, Alice 

Edinger, Tilly 

Edwards, Cecile Hoover 

Edwards, Helen Thom 

Ehrlich, Anne (Fitzhugh) Howland 

Elders, (Minnie) Joycelyn (Jones) 

Elion, Gertrude Belle 

Ellis, Florence May Hawley 

Elmegreen, Debra Meloy 

Emerson, Gladys Anderson 

Esau, Katherine 

Estrin, Thelma Austern 

Evans, Alice Catherine 

Faber, Sandra (Moore) 

Farquhar, Marilyn (Gist) 

Farr, Wanda Kirkbride 

Fausto-Sterling, Anne 

Fedoroff, Nina Vsevolod 

Ferguson, Angela Dorothea 

Ferguson, Margaret Clay 

Fink, Kathryn Ferguson 

Fischer, Irene (Kaminka) 



Fisher, Anna L. 

Fitzroy, Nancy (Deloye) 

Flanigen, Edith Marie 

Flugge Lotz, Irmgard 

Fossey, Dian 

Fowler Billings, Katharine Stevens 

Fox, Marye Anne (Payne) 

Free, Helen (Murray) 

Friend, Charlotte 

Fromkin, Victoria Alexandria (Landish) 

Fuchs, Elaine V. 

Furness, Caroline Ellen 

Gaillard, Mary Katharine (Ralph) 

Gantt, Elisabeth 

Gardner, Julia Anna 

Garmire, Elsa (Meints) 

Gast, Alice P. 

Gayle, Helene Doris 

Geiringer (Von Mises), Hilda 

Geller, Margaret Joan 

Gerry, Eloise B. 

Giblett, Eloise Rosalie 

Gibson, Eleanor Jack 

Gilbreth, Lillian E. Moller 

Gill, Jocelyn Ruth 

Gleitman, Lila R. 

Glusker, Jenny (Pickworth) 

Goeppert-Mayer, Maria 

Goldberg, Adele 

Goldhaber, Gertrude Scharff 

Goldman-Rakic, Patricia 

Goldring, Winifred 

Goldwasser, Shafrira 



List of Essays and Entries | xi 



Good, Mary (Lowe) 

Goodenough, Florence Laura 

Gordon (Moore), Kate 

Gordon, Ruth Evelyn 

Graham, Frances (Keesler) 

Graham, Norma 

Graham, Susan Lois 

Grandin, Temple 

Granville, Evelyn (Boyd) 

Grasselli (Brown), Jeanette 

Graybiel, Ann Martin 

Greene, Laura 

Greer, Sandra Charlene 

Greibach, Sheila Adele 

Greider, Carol W. 

Griffin, Diane Edmund 

Gross, Carol A. (Polinsky) 

Gross, Elizabeth Louise 

Guthrie, Mary Jane 

Guttman, Helene Augusta (Nathan) 

Haas, Mary Rosamond 

Hahn, Dorothy Anna 

Hamerstrom, Frances (Flint) 

Hamilton, Alice 

Hamilton, Margaret 

Hammel, Heidi 

Harris, Jean Louise 

Harris, Mary (Styles) 

Harrison, Anna Jane 

Harrison, Faye Venetia 

Harrison-Ross, Phyllis Ann 

Hart, Helen 

Harvey, Ethel Browne 



Haschemeyer, Audrey E. V. 

Hatfield, Elaine Catherine 

Hawkes, Kristen 

Hay, Elizabeth Dexter 

Hazen, Elizabeth Lee 

Hazlett, Olive Clio 

Healy, Bernadine Patricia 

Helm, June 

Herzenberg, Caroline Stuart 
(Littlejohn) 

Hewlett, Sylvia Ann 

Hibbard, Hope 

Hicks, Beatrice Alice 

Hockfield, Susan 

Hoffleit, (Ellen) Dorrit 

Hoffman, Darleane (Christian) 

Hollingworth, Leta Anna Stetter 

Hollinshead, Ariel Cahill 

Hopper, Grace Murray 

Horner, Matina (Souretis) 

Horning, Marjorie G. 

Horstmann, Dorothy Millicent 

Howard (Beckham), Ruth Winifred 

Howes, Ethel Puffer 

Hoy, Marjorie Ann (Wolf) 

Hrdy, Sarah C. (Blaffer) 

Huang, Alice Shih-Hou 

Hubbard, Ruth (Hoffman) 

Hughes Schrader, Sally (Peris) 

Hutchins, Sandra Elaine 

Hwang, Jennie S. 

Hyde, Ida Henrietta 

Hyman, Libbie Henrietta 



xii | List of Essays and Entries 



Intriligator, Devrie (Shapiro) 

Irwin, Mary Jane 

Jackson, Jacquelyne Mary (Johnson) 

Jackson, Shirley Ann 

Jameson, Dorothea A. 

Jan, Lily 

Jeanes, Allene Rosalind 

Jemison, Mae Carol 

Johnson, Barbara Crawford 

Johnson (Masters), Virginia 
(Eshelman) 

Johnston, Mary Helen 

Jones, Anita Katherine 

Jones, Mary Ellen 

Kalnay, Eugenia 

Kanter, Rosabeth (Moss) 

Kanwisher, Nancy 

Karle, Isabella Helen Lugoski 

Karp, Carol Ruth (Vander Velde) 

Kaufman, Joyce (Jacobson) 

Keller, Evelyn Fox 

Kempf, Martine 

Kenyon, Cynthia J. 

Kidwell, Margaret Gale 

Kieffer, Susan Werner 

Kimble, Judith 

King, Helen Dean 

King, Mary-Claire 

Klinman, Judith (Pollock) 

Knopf, Eleanora Frances Bliss 

Kopell, Nancy J. 



Koshland, Marian Elliott 

Kreps, Juanita (Morris) 

Krim, Mathilde (Galland) 

Krueger, Anne (Osborn) 

Kiibler-Ross, Elisabeth 

Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf, Doris 

Kurtzig, Sandra L. (Brody) 

Kwolek, Stephanie Louise 

LaBastille, Anne 

Ladd-Franklin, Christine 

Laird, Elizabeth Rebecca 

La Monte, Francesca Raimond 

Lancaster, Cleo 

Lancefield, Rebecca Craighill 

Leacock, Eleanor (Burke) 

Leavitt, Henrietta Swan 

Ledley, Tamara (Shapiro) 

Leeman, Susan (Epstein) 

LeMone, Margaret Anne 

Leopold, Estella Bergere 

Lesh-Laurie, Georgia Elizabeth 

L'Esperance, Elise Depew Strang 

Levelt-Sengers, Johanna Maria Henrica 

Leverton, Ruth Mandeville 

Leveson, Nancy G. 

Levi-Montalcini, Rita 

Lewis, Margaret Adaline Reed 

Libby, Leona Woods Marshall 

Linares, Olga Frances 

Lippincott, Sarah Lee 

Liskov, Barbara Huberman 



List of Essays and Entries | xii 



Lochman-Balk, Christina 

Loeblich, Helen Nina Tappan 

Long, Irene (Duhart) 

Long, Sharon (Rugel) 

Love, Susan M. 

Lubchenco, Jane 

Lubic, Ruth (Watson) 

Lubkin, Gloria (Becker) 

Luchins, Edith Hirsch 

Lucid, Shannon (Wells) 

Lurie, Nancy (Oestreich) 

Maccoby, Eleanor (Emmons) 

Macklin, Madge Thurlow 

MacLeod, Grace 

Macy-Hoobler, Icie Gertrude 

Makemson, Maud Worcester 

Maling, Harriet Mylander 

Maltby, Margaret Eliza 

Marcus, Joyce 

Margulis, Lynn (Alexander) 

Marlatt, Abby Lillian 

Marrack, Philippa Charlotte 

Martin, Emily 

Marvin, Ursula Bailey 

Mathias, Mildred Esther 

Matson, Pamela Anne 

Matthews, Alva T. 

Maury, Antonia Caetana de 
Paiva Pereira 

Maury, Carlotta Joaquina 

McCammon, Helen Mary (Choman) 

McClintock, Barbara 

McCoy, Elizabeth Florence 



McCracken, (Mary) Isabel 
McFadden, Lucy-Ann Adams 
McNutt, Marcia Kemper 
Mc Sherry, Diana Hartridge 
McWhinnie, Mary Alice 
Mead, Margaret 
Medicine, Beatrice A. 
Meinel, Marjorie Pettit 
Mendenhall, Dorothy Reed 
Menken, Jane Ava (Golubitsky) 
Michel, Helen (Vaughn) 
Micheli-Tzanakou, Evangelia 
Mielczarek, Eugenie Vorburger 
Miller, Elizabeth Cavert 
Mintz, Beatrice 
Mitchell, Helen Swift 
Mitchell, Joan L. 
Mitchell, Mildred Bessie 
Moore, Emmeline 
Morawetz, Cathleen (Synge) 
Morgan, Agnes Fay 
Morgan, Ann Haven 
Moss, Cynthia Jane 
Murray, Sandra Ann 
Napadensky, Hyla Sarane (Siegel) 
Navrotsky, Alexandra A. S. 
Nelkin, Dorothy (Wolfers) 
Neufeld, Elizabeth (Fondal) 
New, Maria (Iandolo) 
Nice, Margaret Morse 
Nichols, Roberta J. 
Nickerson, Dorothy 
Nielsen, Jerri Lin 



xiv | List of Essays and Entries 



Nightingale, Dorothy Virginia 

Northrup, Christiane 

Novello, Antonia (Coello) 

Ocampo, Adriana C. 

Ochoa, Ellen 

Ogilvie, Ida Helen 

Osborn, Mary Jane (Merten) 

Ostrom, Elinor 

Owens, Joan Murrell 

Palmer, Katherine Hilton Van Winkle 

Pardue, Mary Lou 

Parsons, Elsie Worthington Clews 

Partee, Barbara (Hall) 

Patch, Edith Marion 

Pate-Cornell, (Marie) Elisabeth 
Lucienne 

Patrick, Jennie R. 

Patrick, Ruth 

Patterson, Flora Wambaugh 

Payne, Nellie Maria de Cottrell 

Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia Helena 

Payton, Carolyn (Robertson) 

Pearce, Louise 

Peckham, Elizabeth Gifford 

Peden, Irene (Carswell) 

Peebles, Florence 

Pennington, Mary Engle 

Pert, Candace Dorinda (Bebe) 

Petermann, Mary Locke 

Phillips, Melba Newell 

Pitelka, Dorothy Riggs 

Pittman, Margaret 

Pool, Judith Graham 



Poole, Joyce 
Pour-El, Marian Boykan 
Pressman, Ada Irene 
Prichard, Diana (Garcia) 
Prince, Helen Walter Dodson 
Prinz, Dianne Kasnic 
Profet, Margie 
Quimby, Edith Hinkley 
Ramaley, Judith (Aitken) 
Ramey, Estelle Rosemary White 
Rand, (Marie) Gertrude 
Ranney, Helen Margaret 
Ratner, Sarah 

Ray, (Marguerite) Dixy Lee 
Rees, Mina Spiegel 
Reichard, Gladys Amanda 
Reichmanis, Elsa 
Reinisch, June Machover 
Reskin, Barbara F. 
Resnik, Judith A. 
Richardson, Jane S. 
Ride, Sally Kristen 
Riley, Matilda (White) 
Rissler, Jane Francina 
Rivlin, Alice (Mitchell) 
Roberts, Edith Adelaide 
Roberts, Lydia Jane 
Robinson, Julia Bowman 
Roemer, Elizabeth 
Rolf, Ida P. 
Roman, Nancy Grace 
Romanowicz, Barbara 
Rose, Flora 



List of Essays and Entries | xv 



Rose, Mary Davies Swartz 

Rosenblatt, Joan (Raup) 

Rowley, Janet Davison 

Roy, Delia Martin 

Rubin, Vera (Cooper) 

Rudin, Mary Ellen (Estill) 

Rudnick, Dorothea 

Russell, Elizabeth Shull 

Sabin, Florence Rena 

Sager, Ruth 

Saif, Linda 

Sammet, Jean Elaine 

Sarachik, Myriam Paula 
(Morgenstein) 

Savitz, Maxine (Lazarus) 

Scarr, Sandra (Wood) 

Scharrer, Berta Vogel 

Schwan, Judith A. 

Schwarzer, Theresa Flynn 

Scott, Juanita (Simons) 

Seddon, Margaret Rhea 

Sedlak, Bonnie Joy 

Seibert, Florence Barbara 

Semple, Ellen Churchill 

Shalala, Donna Edna 

Shapiro, Lucille (Cohen) 

Shaw, Jane E. 

Shaw, Mary M. 

Sherman, Patsy O'Connell 

Shields, Lora Mangum 

Shipman, Pat 

Shockley, Dolores Cooper 

Shoemaker, Carolyn (Spellmann) 



Shotwell, Odette Louise 

Shreeve, Jean'ne Marie 

Simmonds, Sofia 

Simon, Dorothy Martin 

Simpson, Joanne Malkus (Gerould) 

Singer, Maxine (Frank) 

Sinkford, Jeanne Frances (Craig) 

Sitterly, Charlotte Emma Moore 

Slye, Maud Caroline 

Small, Meredith F. 

Smith, Elske (van Panhuys) 

Solomon, Susan 

Sommer, Anna Louise 

Spaeth, Mary Louise 

Spelke, Elizabeth 

Spurlock, Jeanne 

Stadtman, Thressa Campbell 

Stanley, Louise 

Stearns, Genevieve 

Steitz, Joan (Argetsinger) 

Stern, Frances 

Stickel, Lucille Farrier 

Stiebeling, Hazel Katherine 

Stokey, Nancy 

Stoll, Alice Mary 

Stroud-Lee, F. Agnes Naranjo 

Stubbe, JoAnne 

Sudarkasa, Niara 

Sullivan, Kathryn D. 

Sweeney, (Eleanor) Beatrice Marcy 

Talbot, Mignon 

Taussig, Helen Brooke 

Taussky-Todd, Olga 



xvi | List of Essays and Entries 



Taylor, Kathleen Christine 
Tesoro, Giuliana (Cavaglieri) 
Tharp, Marie 

Thomas, Martha Jane (Bergin) 
Thompson, Laura Maud 
Thornton, Kathryn (Cordell) 
Tilden, Josephine Elizabeth 
Tilghman, Shirley M. 
Tinsley, Beatrice Muriel (Hill) 
Tolbert, Margaret Ellen (Mayo) 
Townsend, Marjorie Rhodes 
Treisman, Anne 
Turkle, Sherry 
Tyson, Laura (D'Andrea) 
Uhlenbeck, Karen (Keskulla) 
Van Rensselaer, Martha 
Van Straten, Florence Wilhemina 
Vaughan, Martha 
Vennesland, Birgit 
Villa-Komaroff, Lydia 
Vitetta, Ellen Shapiro 
Waelsch, Salome Gluecksohn 
Walbot, Virginia Elizabeth 
Wallace, Phyllis Ann 
Warga, Mary Elizabeth 
Washburn, Margaret Floy 
Watson, Patty Jo (Andersen) 
Wattleton, (Alyce) Faye 



Way, Katharine 

Weertman, Julia (Randall) 

Weisburger, Elizabeth Amy (Kreiser) 

Weisstein, Naomi 

Westcott, Cynthia 

West-Eberhard, Mary Jane 

Westheimer, (Karola) Ruth (Siegel) 

Wexler, Nancy Sabin 

Wheeler, Anna Johnson Pell 

Wheeler, Mary F. 

Whitman, Marina (von Neumann) 

Whitson, Peggy A. 

Widnall, Sheila (Evans) 

Wilhelmi, Jane Anne Russell 

Williams, Anna Wessels 

Williams, Roberta 

Witkin, Evelyn Maisel 

Wood, Elizabeth Armstrong 

Woods, Geraldine (Pittman) 

Woolley, Helen Bradford Thompson 

Wright, Margaret H. 

Wrinch, Dorothy Maud 

Wu, Chien-Shiung 

Wu, Ying-Chu (Lin) Susan 

Yalow, Rosalyn Sussman 

Young, Anne Sewell 

Young, Roger Arliner 

Zoback, Mary Lou 



Acknowledgments 



I want to thank my editors at ABC-CLIO — Steven Danver for presenting this project 
to me; James Sherman for keeping me going on it; and Kim Kennedy-White for 
seeing it through to completion. 

My most sincere thanks go to Martha J. Bailey, the author of the two earlier 
ABC-CLIO volumes on American women scientists, whose research provided 
the foundation for my work here and who is, technically, the co-author of many 
of the biographical entries. Her work on women scientists began more than 
15 years ago, and I hope she is proud to have her name still attached to the project. 

Thanks to Kally Kedinger and Michelle Delgado for tracking down scientists and 
citations, and handling my last-minute and often confusing research requests with 
grace and professionalism. Appreciation goes also to all of the scientists who 
responded to our email queries and provided up-to-date information on their work. 

My family has shown unwavering enthusiasm and patience for my often slow- 
going work. David Wayne has encouraged me in all of my pursuits and has always 
given me the freedom and the space (mental and physical) to do my work. So 
many of the women scientists profiled here trace their own passions and interests 
back to childhood, and I hope that Miles and Lillian — with their love of nature 
and animals, and their innate curiosity about the world — will read this book and 
be inspired to hold onto those passions and to continue to dream big. 



XVII 



Introduction 



Nineteenth-century astronomer Maria Mitchell noted in an 1875 address to the 
Association for the Advancement of Women (of which she was the first president) 
both "how much women need exact science" and "how much science needs 
women" (Wyer 2001, 3). Her words could not be truer today. Science and technol- 
ogy are more important than ever to our society as we become a postindustrial 
high-tech "knowledge" society. It is important that science takes women into 
account, but women want and need to participate in the creation of that knowledge 
as well. 

Women have reached the heights of achievement in the sciences and hold some 
of the most visible positions. Several women scientists now serve as presidents of 
major research universities, and in 2009, President Barack Obama appointed 
women scientists as directors of government research agencies such as the U.S. 
Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration (NOAA). Women have soared, so to speak, to the stars with 
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as astronauts, shuttle 
pilots, and members of the International Space Station. Women scientists serve on 
international advisory councils, affecting policy on everything from global 
warming to public health, and have founded and led biotechnology, pharmaceutical, 
and computer software companies. Women are professors, deans of medical and 
engineering schools, directors of research centers, inventors, and Nobel Prize 
laureates. A girl growing up in the twenty-first century will seem to have no lack 
of role models, no limits to her own interests and pursuits. 

The history of women in science, however, is the history of not only individual 
achievement, but of social attitudes, institutional barriers, and legislative and 
policy initiatives. It is important to realize that access, beginning with the early 
education and recruitment of girls and young women into the sciences, is the first 
step to women's success in the sciences. Women have fought hard for that access 
and for opportunities for gainful employment, confronting the attitudes of employ- 
ers, coworkers, family members, and society at large, many of whom have been 



XIX 



xx I Introduction 

resistant to change. From the belief that women are not as interested or as capable 
in science as men, to society's inability (or refusal) to create family-friendly work- 
places, women have been engaged in a century-long struggle for access to educa- 
tion and careers in the sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics 
(collectively known as "STEM"). 

While individual women have achieved the pinnacles of success, women as a 
group are still underrepresented in professional recognitions, such as with member- 
ship in the National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Engineering. 
In 2009, for example, only 1 1 women out of 72 new members were elected to the 
National Academy of Sciences. Likewise, although several high-profile women have 
won Nobel Prizes in the sciences — and 2009 was a particularly good year for 
women, with three American women scientists (and one Israeli woman scientist) 
named as winners — in the history of the Nobel Prize, only 35 women have won in 
any category out of a total of 789 prizes awarded; of these 35 women, only 15 have 
been in the sciences. 

The past several decades have seen steady increases in the numbers of women 
earning science degrees and entering science and engineering professions, but 
there is still a small percentage of women at the highest levels. In 2006, women 
earned 38.4% of STEM doctorates. The numbers and percentages vary greatly 
by field, with women earning nearly 50% of Ph.D.s in the biological sciences, 
56% in anthropology, and greater than 70% in psychology, the most popular field 
for women in the sciences. But women earn significantly lower percentages of 
doctorates in other disciplines, including only 20% of doctorates in combined 
engineering fields and only 16.6% of Ph.D.s in physics (NSF Table F-2). 1 There 
are also fewer women the higher up the academic career ladder one goes. In 
2006, women made up 31% of all science and engineering faculty, but only 25% 
of tenured faculty and only 19% of full professors in science and engineering 
fields (NSF Table H-25). 

In her 1988 AAAS presidential address (speaking more than 100 years after 
Maria Mitchell), Sheila Widnall outlined the problem of this "leaky pipeline" that 
has come to define women's representation in the sciences. The problem begins as 
early as high school, when boys and girls still have nearly equal interests and 
grades in subjects such as math. By the end of high school, boys will slightly 



Note that these numbers include only Ph.D.s, or research based fields, and do not include profes 
sional degrees of M.D., D.D.S., D.Pharm., or Psy.D.; nor do they include second doctorates, so that 
persons changing or combining fields may only be counted in the first field. It is worth noting that 
inclusion of these other degrees and occupations might significantly alter the overall numbers of 
women in science related fields. See notes on "Survey of Earned Doctorates" at http://www 
.nsf.gov/statistics/srvydoctorates/. 



Introduction | xxi 

outnumber girls in completion of higher-level mathematics courses, but the first 
major split occurs when choosing a college major, with nearly three times as many 
boys selecting science and engineering paths. A high percentage of women who 
do major in STEM subjects will complete their degrees and go on for a master's 
degree, but another drop or split occurs between men and women who continue 
on for the doctorate. Widnall created a hypothetical scenario (based on the current 
statistics) in which, out of 2,000 ninth graders (1,000 boys and 1,000 girls) taking 
comparable high-level mathematics courses, 140 men and 44 women will go on to 
major in STEM in college; of these, 46 men and 20 women will receive bachelor's 
degrees, but only 5 men and 1 woman will receive the science or engineering 
Ph.D. (Widnall 1988). The particular struggles facing women at each of these vari- 
ous stages along the educational and career path are addressed separately in the 
"Issues" section that follows. 

The gender wage gap, glass ceiling, and work/life balance are not just issues for 
women in the sciences, but affect women across the professions. Women's access, 
opportunity, and success in the professions is intertwined with other issues in 
twentieth-century American history, such as social and economic changes, 
government needs and policy, and the rise of feminism. The larger question of 
"women in science" is actually twofold; it is the question of women's presence 
and representation in scientific disciplines and employment, as well as the ques- 
tion of what effect women's presence has on science itself. There are, therefore, 
both quantitative and qualitative questions to consider when talking about women 
in the sciences. The statistics show that the numbers of women in STEM disci- 
plines and careers has steadily increased over the course of the twentieth century, 
but we must also consider how women (and feminism) have changed science itself 
in terms of the questions asked, the methodologies used, and the new knowledge 
discovered. 

The present volume addresses both aspects of this history and the status of 
American women in science since 1900 by looking across the century at the work 
done by more than 500 individual women, and their innovations and contributions, 
as well as the challenges they faced in pursuing that work. The book includes the 
following sections: "Issues" (ten essays on specific topics related to American 
women in science, such as education, employment sectors, minority women, etc.), 
"Disciplines" (entries on the presence and impact of women in 29 different scientific 
fields, such as biology, chemistry, physics, etc.), and the biographical entries from 
AtoZ. 

This work is an update, revision, and expansion of Martha Bailey's original 
two-volume biographical dictionaries, American Women in Science: Volume I 
(1994) and American Women in Science: 1950 to the Present (1998). The present 
volume focuses only on those scientists who lived and had significant career 



xxii | Introduction 

activity after 1900, updating or revising many of Bailey's original entries and add- 
ing new entries on significant early women scientists not included in Bailey's 
original volumes. Carrying the story of American women in science forward, this 
volume also updates the career information and accomplishments of many scien- 
tists still working since Bailey's report of 1998, and adds entries on a new genera- 
tion of scientists emerging in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. 

Reaching back to the nineteenth century, Bailey included many more women 
who were not necessarily professionally trained as scientists or did not conduct 
scientific research, but who supported scientific work through writing, indexing, 
cataloging, or popularizing scientific information. In preparing the present vol- 
ume, however, I eliminated many entries on women who were certainly pioneers 
in their fields, but who did not hold regular positions as researchers or teachers 
of science; these were usually in fields opened to and heavily dominated by 
women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as nutrition, bot- 
any, ornithology, and nature writing and illustrating. Women in the earlier part of 
the century often had more eclectic careers than their later counterparts — they 
combined research and travel (often self-funded) with writing, illustrating, and 
teaching, not only in colleges or universities, but in public schools as well. Many 
(although not all) women of that crucial turn-of-the-century era did gain access 
to higher education, but still were not always able (or chose not) to secure perma- 
nent, formal, or regular employment. In some cases, I eliminated entries for which 
there simply was not enough specific career information available. And although I 
cut out much of the personal information Bailey had collected for the original vol- 
umes, some of that information on individual women's experiences of combining 
work and family life, advice to young women scientists, and specific instances of 
discrimination or other bias over the course of their careers has made its way into 
my summaries in the "Issues" and "Disciplines" sections of this book. I refer read- 
ers to Bailey's Volume I for a more thorough overview of women's roles in the sci- 
entific disciplines in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and, although our 
projects and purposes were originally quite different, I am indebted to her recovery 
of and preliminary research on many of those early scientists. 

The focus in this volume is primarily on women who made significant impacts 
in their fields and who received professional recognition for their work, whether 
through career positions and advancement, membership in professional societies, 
or scientific awards and honors. However, my criteria for inclusion itself was an 
inexact science, and I also maintained a sampling of early women who worked 
in less represented fields, even if they did not have significant research contribu- 
tions (for example, including a few representative women as early astronomers, 
entomologists, botanists, mathematicians, paleontologists, and geologists). I also 
sought to emphasize women who accomplished "firsts" in their careers, to 



Introduction | xxii 

emphasize to readers the relatively recent history in which women scientists have 
begun to break down the barriers in specific disciplines. I included many women 
who were the first presidents of professional scientific societies, the first to receive 
doctorates in specific disciplines, the first faculty members in specific institutions, 
or women scientists who worked at high levels of government or academia, on 
presidential councils, cabinets, or as university presidents. In deciding which dis- 
ciplines to include, I looked to the sections of the National Academy of Sciences; 
the emphasis, therefore, is on the physical and natural sciences, although some 
social scientists are included. The resulting list is certainly not inclusive, and 
undoubtedly there will be names or accomplishments or disciplines I have missed. 
As with any reference work, the hope is that readers and students will be inspired 
to further research these and other women in the history of American science. 

Although the women scientists profiled here lived and worked within the spe- 
cific social and political contexts of twentieth-century America, it is worth noting 
that, in terms of research commitments, career paths and affiliations, and scientific 
advances, a somewhat false line is drawn between the work of U.S. and non-U.S. 
scientists. Indeed, many women profiled here participated in projects and profes- 
sional networks that were international in scope. Non-U.S. women came to the 
United States for education or jobs, and American women pursued fellowships 
or visiting appointments abroad. Some of the greatest achievements by individual 
women scientists of the twentieth century belong to European researchers, such as 
physicist Marie Curie of France and her daughter, Irene Joliet-Curie, both of 
whom won Nobel Prizes; English crystallographer Rosalind Franklin; German 
physicist Lise Meitner; or British primatologist Jane Goodall. While these figures 
are not included in the present volumes, other foreign-born women who spent 
the majority of their careers or achieved their highest successes employed in 
American institutions are included. Of course, women scientists around the world 
continue to work together through collaboration and through professional organi- 
zations that recognize the broader challenges to women's education and advance- 
ment in the sciences, regardless of national origin. Many other fine volumes exist 
that take a broader view of women's scientific contributions and work, either 
across regional boundaries or with a longer chronological view. 

References and Further Reading 

Abir-Am, Pnina G. and Dorinda Outram. Uneasy Careers and Intimate Lives: Women in 
Science, 1789 1979. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1987. 

Ambrose, Susan A. 1997. Journeys of Women in Science and Engineering: No Universal 
Constants. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. 

Bart, Jody, ed. 2000. Women Succeeding in the Sciences: Theories and Practices across 
Disciplines. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press. 



xxiv | Introduction 

Hanson, Sandra L. 1996. Lost Talent: Women in the Sciences. Philadelphia, PA: Temple 
University Press. 

Herzenberg, Caroline L. 1986. Women Scientists from Antiquity to the Present. West 
Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill Press. 

Kass-Simon, G. and Patricia Fames, eds. 1990. Women of Science: Righting the Record. 
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990. 

Kirkup, Gill and Laurie Smith Keller, eds. 1992. Inventing Women: Science, Technology, 
and Gender. Cambridge, MA: B. Blackwell. 

Morse, Mary. 1995. Women Changing Science: Voices from a Field in Transition. New 
York: Insight Books. 

National Science Foundation. "Table F-2. S&E doctoral degrees awarded to women, by 
field: 1999 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and 
Engineering. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, 
Survey of Earned Doctorates, 1999 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/ 
tabf-2.pdf. 

National Science Foundation. 2006. "Table H-25. S&E doctorate holders employed in uni- 
versities and 4-year colleges, by broad occupation, sex, race/ethnicity, and faculty rank: 
2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. 
National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Survey of Doc- 
torate Recipients, 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabh-25.pdf. 

Rosser, Sue V. 1997. Re-engineering Female Friendly Science. New York: Teachers 
College Press. 

Rosser, Sue V. 2004. The Science Glass Ceiling: Academic Women Scientists and the 
Struggle to Succeed. New York: Routledge. 

Rosser, Sue v. 2008. Women, Science, and Myth: Gender Beliefs from Antiquity to the 
Present. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. 

Rossiter, Margaret. 1982. Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940. 
Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Bossiter Margaret. 1995. Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 1940 
1972. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Ruddick, Sara and Pamela Daniels, eds. 1977. Working It Out: 23 Women Writers, Artists, 
Scientists, and Scholars Talk about Their Lives and Work. New York: Pantheon Books. 

Schiebinger, Londa L. 1989. The Mind Has No Sex?: Women in the Origins of Modern Sci- 
ence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 

Stanley, Autumn. 1995. Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History 
of Technology. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. 

Tang, Joyce. 2006. Scientific Pioneers: Women Succeeding in Science. Lanham, MD: 
University Press of America. 



Introduction | xxv 

Vare, Ethlie Ann and Greg Ptacek. 1988. Mothers of Invention: From the Bra to the Bomb; 
Forgotten Women & Their Unforgettable Ideas. New York: Morrow. 

Warren, Wini. 1999. Black Women Scientists in the United States. Bloomington: Indiana 
University Press. 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington D.C.: Joseph Henry Press, 2002. 

Whaley, Leigh Ann. 2003. Women's History as Scientists: A Guide to the Debates. Santa 
Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. 

Widnall, Sheila E. 1988. 'AAAS Presidential Lecture: Voices from the Pipeline." Science 
241: 1740 1745. (September 30, 1988). 

Wyer, Mary et al. 2009. Women, Science, and Technology: A Reader in Feminist Science 
Studies. 2nd edition. New York: Routledge. 



Issues 



History of American Women in Science 

The history of American women's contribution to the scientific endeavor is not 
merely a story of forward progression from exclusion to full participation as 
equals. Rather, the history of women in science moves from early access and par- 
ticipation as amateurs, to the closing of the professions through specialization and 
university-based (doctoral-level) scientific endeavor in the late nineteenth and 
early twentieth centuries, to expanded opportunities for women in education and 
employment in the latter half of the twentieth century. Likewise, it is a story that 
is repeated, with some variations, throughout the world, as women's contributions 
to scientific knowledge vary by country and region as different social and political 
circumstances influence women's access to education and employment. 

In the United States, the scientific revolution of the eighteenth century brought 
with it a new professional identity for scientists, and much of what had been tradi- 
tional knowledge and the realm of women (agriculture, animal care, herbs and 
medicines, care of the sick, and midwifery) — or at least accessible to women as 
amateur observers and recorders of the natural world (through botany, chemistry, 
and astronomy, for example) — slowly became the realm of self-proclaimed pro- 
fessional scientists and doctors. The professionalization of scientific endeavor 
led to the exclusion of women justified, ironically, by new scientific studies of 
the era that proclaimed the physical and intellectual differences of men and 
women and, not surprisingly, the inferiority of women's bodies and minds. 

Although the first scientific organizations and scientific journals (in fields such 
as natural history, botany, chemistry, and medicine) were founded soon after the 
American Revolution, the first major professional societies were not founded until 
the mid-nineteenth century. For example, the American Medical Association (AMA) 
was founded in 1847, the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
(AAAS) in 1848, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 1863 (the first female 
member of the NAS, Florence Sabin, was not elected until 1925), and the American 



2 | American Women of Science since 1900 




Museum of Natural History opened in 
New York in 1869. The nineteenth cen- 
tury was the era of the consolidation of 
scientific interest and specialization, 
with the American Dental Association 
in 1859, the American Society of 
Civil Engineers in 1867, and both 
the American Physical Society and 
the Astronomical and Astrophysical 
Society of America (precursor to today's 
American Astronomical Society) were 
founded in 1899. The U.S. government 
also established its commitment to sci- 
ence by the mid-nineteenth century with 
the creation not only of the NAS, but 
also the U.S. Department of Agriculture 
(USDA), created in 1862, and the U.S. 
Geological Survey (USGS) in 1879. 

These first formal educational pro- 
grams and professional organizations 
did not always exclude women specifi- 
cally, but they were founded at a time 
when women were generally excluded from the institutions of higher education 
necessary for advancement in the professions and thus professional acknowledge- 
ment. For example, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was estab- 
lished in 1865 and did not explicitly deny women entry, although its first female 
student, chemist Ellen Swallow Richards, was not admitted until 1 870 and female 
applicants were not regularly admitted until 1883. Richards, indeed, had a special 
role as an early woman at MIT and became the college's first female instructor as 
well. Some organizations included many "lay" (nonprofessional) members, and 
were thus more open to practicing female scientists. In 1850, Maria Mitchell, 
who had been educated by her father and had discovered a comet in 1847, became 
the first female member of the AAAS. Mitchell became professor of astronomy at 
Vassar College, and is considered the first professional American woman scientist. 
Through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, many women prac- 
ticed science outside of academia, working as illustrators, specimen collectors, or 
popular writers on topics such as botany and ornithology. Many more women 
worked behind the scenes, as lab or research assistants for male professors or as 
assistants or unpaid collaborators in support of their husbands' higher-profile 
careers. Still others, having studied science as undergraduates and with or without 



Physician Florence Sabin was the first woman 
to hold a full professorship at Johns Hopkins 
School of Medicine and, in 1925, became the 
first woman elected to the National Academy 
of Sciences. (National Library of Medicine) 



Issues | 3 



Margaret Cavendish 

Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1623-1673) 
is considered England's first woman scientist and was a prolific writer on topics 
related to science and natural history. She was one of the earliest women writers 
to publish under her own name and contributed to some of the key ideas of the 
scientific revolution, including the separation of religious belief from scientific 
inquiry, the establishment of a scientific method, and arguments for animal rights. 
As a member of "The Newcastle Circle" salon, she debated with some of the 
most important philosophers of the seventeenth century, including Thomas 
Hobbes and Rene Descartes. She promoted her own ideas, sometimes directly 
challenging other prominent thinkers, through the publication of several works, 
including Philosophical Letters: or, Modest Reflections upon some Opinions in 
Natural Philosophy, Philosophical and Physical Opinions, and Observations upon 
Experimental Philosophy, often sending copies of her books to university schol- 
ars. She also published a Utopian romance, The Blazing World, considered one 
of the earliest works of science fiction. Cavendish was the first woman allowed 
to visit meetings of the newly created Royal Society of London, which did not 
admit women as members until the twentieth century. 



advanced degrees, taught science at the high school level or in women's colleges, 
helping to establishing first-rate programs for women. The first co-educational 
college was Oberlin College, founded in Ohio in 1833. Oberlin accepted not only 
female students, but African American students as well, although only certain 
programs were initially open to women. Swarthmore College was founded in 
Pennsylvania in 1864 and was also co-educational, and the nineteenth century 
saw the creation of the "Seven Sisters" East Coast women's colleges — Mount 
Holyoke (1837), Vassar (1865), Smith (1875), Wellesley (1875), Radcliffe 
(1879), Bryn Mawr (1885), and Barnard (1889) — several of which were begun as 
female auxiliaries or annexes to male schools or programs. 

The establishment of the land-grant colleges in the Midwest beginning in 
the mid-nineteenth century also opened up women's access to education in 
agriculture-related fields such as animal sciences, biology, nutrition, and home eco- 
nomics. And although many women scientists pursued their educations and careers 
as teachers at women's colleges, some advanced through positions at co-ed and black 
schools. In 1879, for example, Josephine Silone Yates became the first woman to be 
appointed professor and head of Natural Sciences at Lincoln University in Missouri. 

The first medical colleges were established and the first scientific doctorates 
were awarded in the mid- to late nineteenth century, securing formal and certifi- 
cated higher education as the standard for the professional title of "scientist." 



4 | American Women of Science since 1900 

Women's rights activists and health reformers pushed for women's access to the 
most prestigious medical colleges and helped create the first women's medical col- 
leges and hospitals. The first woman to earn a medical degree was Elizabeth 
Blackwell in 1849 (from Geneva College in New York). In 1857, Blackwell 
opened the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, where she also trained 
other women physicians. Only 30 years after its founding did the American Medi- 
cal Association elect its first female member (AMA, "Women Physicians"). By the 
turn of the century, the first women received advanced degrees in the sciences. By 
1889, only 25 American women held doctorates, 6 of them science degrees; within 
just a decade, by 1900, that number had risen to more than 200 doctorates awarded 
to women, one-quarter of those in the sciences and mathematics (Rossiter 1982, 
35-36). 

Bryn Mawr College was the first women's college to offer the Ph.D., and grad- 
uates often went on to careers as teachers at the women's colleges. By the early 
twentieth century, schools such as Mt. Holyoke, Vassar, and Smith had built 
exceptional undergraduate science programs in fields from astronomy and chemis- 
try to botany and zoology, making science an acceptable course of study for 
women and training a new generation of women scientists. With heavy teaching 
and administrative duties, however, the female faculty at women's colleges did 
not publish as often as male faculty or otherwise achieve recognition as research 
scientists. It is also notable that female faculty rarely, if ever, married, as combin- 
ing career and family remained a primary challenge for professional women, 
including women scientists, throughout the twentieth century. 

The situation for women's higher education continued to improve through the 
early decades of the new century. The 1910s were a historic high for women 
receiving medical degrees, and the 1920s were the first peak for women receiving 
other scientific doctorates in the United States. So positive was the outlook for the 
future of women scientists that the president of Bryn Mawr College declared 
confidently in 1921 that "the doors of science have been thrown wildly open 
to women." Indeed, throughout the 1920s, women were earning an average of 50 
science doctorates a year, and that number tripled in the 1930s (Rossiter 1982, 
35). The number of women earning doctorates in the physical and biological 
sciences dropped between the 1940s and 1960s, finally climbing again beginning 
in the 1970s with the advent of modern feminism and policies promoting equity 
in education and employment. 

During and immediately after World War II, the federal government had a new 
commitment to scientific research in the name of military technology and then the 
Cold War-era nuclear arms and space exploration races. The new government 
science mandate, combined with a shortage of men due to the war, provided new 
opportunities for women scientists and engineers in academic and government 



Issues | 5 



Hedy Lamarr 

Austrian-bom actress Hedy Lamarr (1913-2000; born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler) 
was a beloved Hollywood star of the mid-twentieth century, but she was also an 
inventor. Lamarr and her colleague, American composer George Antheil, received 
a patent in 1942 for their "Secret Communications System," a method of securing 
radio transmissions via a special code or frequency shifting between transmitter 
and receiver that could not be intercepted by enemy forces. They developed the 
system during World War II as a contribution to efforts to defeat the Nazis, but 
the system was not put into use by the U.S. military until two decades later, during 
the Cuban Missile Crisis of the early 1960s. By that time, the patent had expired 
and neither Lamarr nor Antheil received any compensation for their invention. 
Lamarr chose acting over inventing, however, and went on to have a successful 
film career, appearing in dozens of films with the biggest names in Hollywood of 
the 1 940s and 1 950s. The transmission technology she helped develop had enor- 
mous significance as the basis of later wireless communications systems via cel- 
lular phone, modems, faxes, and the Internet. In 1997, Lamarr and Antheil were 
recognized with a Pioneer Award of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and 
Lamarr was the first woman to receive the prestigious BULBIE Gnass Spirit of 
Achievement Award for inventors. 



research positions. In the 1940s and 1950s, women made their mark in medicine as 
well as in the fields of nuclear science, crystallography, engineering, and aero- 
space. Although the numbers of women entering science increased exponentially 
in these years, the overall percentage of women among college students remained 
low due to the extraordinary number of men receiving degrees through the GI Bill 
for education for returning veterans. After the war, the numbers of women earning 
doctorates continued to climb, but the job market for women scientists in the 
1950s and 1960s was still difficult, due to social pressures (such as the postwar 
emphasis on women's domestic roles) and a decreased labor need (due to the 
availability of more male scientists), especially in the higher-level research posi- 
tions. In this social and economic climate, women who held college degrees had 
a difficult time finding jobs to fit their education, and women who did secure such 
jobs faced discrimination and challenges specific to the era; for example, in an 
environment with little social support or even acknowledgement of women's 
workplace contributions, there was little social or political attention to issues such 
as unequal pay or access to childcare. 

Still, many women scientists continued to forge ahead during and after the war. 
Women found careers with government research projects such as U.S. Army nutri- 
tion and medical studies, crop and animal studies for the more science-oriented 



6 | American Women of Science since 1900 

USDA, and work on the atomic bomb with the Manhattan Project. The federal 
government funded scientific research for its own projects as well as for academic 
and industrial or corporate research projects. The World War II-era dislocation of 
many European scientists, followed by the Cold War emphasis on scientific and 
technological progress as a sign of political strength (the rise of the "military- 
industrial complex"), meant that many foreign scientists found their way to the 
United States for educational and employment opportunities as well. 

In the 1960s and 1970s, new social and political concerns about equity brought 
the Civil Rights Act and the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, which outlawed 
discrimination, both overt and covert, that had previously been the status quo for 
women in the workplace. The women's movement introduced the term "sexism" 
and pushed for legislation that guaranteed not only equal access (opening up non- 
traditional fields for women, such as military combat and firefighting) but also 
equal treatment in educational and employment environments, challenging dis- 
criminatory hiring (separate male and female job ads), unequal pay, and sexual 
harassment, among other issues. These social and political changes also made it 
more important than ever to track women's entrance into and progress in different 
fields of study and employment. By the early 1980s, efforts were made to keep 
regular statistics on women in science, to track progress (or lack thereof) in con- 
crete numbers and percentages, and to bringer wider public awareness to areas 
where women and minorities were underrepresented. Finally, the women's move- 
ment brought attention to subtler forms of discrimination and their effect on wom- 
en's educational and career pursuits. Feminist sociologists and psychologists 
began to study how gender roles and expectations were ingrained in family 
dynamics, childrearing practices, elementary school classrooms, and, finally, on 
the job, all of which discouraged girls and women from, in this case, pursuing 
science- and technology-related majors and careers in the first place. 

By the early 1980s, women reached the point of earning fully half of all under- 
graduate degrees awarded, and in 2006, women earned close to 58% of bachelor's 
degrees in all fields combined (NSF Table C-14). In 2006, women actually earned 
a slightly higher number of science and engineering bachelor's degrees than men, 
but the problem extends beyond the undergraduate years in a phenomenon some 
have called "the leaky pipeline"; that is, the higher up one moves through the edu- 
cational and career pipeline, the fewer women are present. Despite equal numbers 
of women and men receiving science-related bachelor's degrees, in 2006, women 
accounted for only 38.4% of combined science and engineering doctorates (NSF 
Table F-2). (Note that this includes research doctorates only, and NSF science 
figures do not include the M.D., D.D.S., Psy.D., or D.Pharm. degrees.) Continuing 
along the career path, women made up only 24% of employed American scientists 
and engineers in all professions (NSF Table H-7) and 25% of tenure-track faculty 



Issues | 7 

(NSF Table H-25). Even fewer women scientists (19% in 2006) are represented 
among the highest faculty rank in academia, that of full professor (NSF Table H-25). 
Researchers since the 1980s have discussed the source and solutions for educa- 
tional disparities and established programs to encourage girls and young women 
to pursue science, engineering, and math majors and careers. While women 
have gained access to science-related education, and it is no longer socially 
acceptable or legal to limit the educational or vocational pursuits of girls and 
women, the subtler forms of discrimination and barriers still remain for women 
scientists and affect many men as well, such as the tensions between family life 
and work expectations, lack of affordable childcare, or the need to change the 
tenure clock in academia. The history of American women in science so far 
reveals not so much a clear march of progress, but a series of forward movements 
and continued obstacles, a history still being written. 

References and Further Readings 

American Medical Association. "Women Physicians and the AMA." Timelines AMA His- 
tory. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-history/timelines-ama-history/ 
women-physicians-ama.shtml. 

"Chronology of Science in the United States, 1790 1910." http://home.earthlink.net/ 
~claellioU7chronmain.htm (accessed 7/24/09). Adapted from Clark A. Elliott, History 
of Science in the United States: A Chronology and Research Guide. New York and 
London: Garland Publishing, 1996. 

Levin, Miriam R. 2005. Defining Women's Scientific Enterprise : Mount Holyoke Faculty 
and the Rise of American Science. Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England. 

National Science Foundation. "Table C-14. Bachelor's degrees, by race/ethnicity, citizen- 
ship, sex, and field: 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science 
and Engineering. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, 
special tabulations of U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education 
Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, Completions Survey, 
2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabc-14.pdf. 

National Science Foundation. "Table F-2. S&E doctoral degrees awarded to women, by 
field: 1999 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and 
Engineering. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, 
Survey of Earned Doctorates, 1999 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/ 
tabf-2.pdf. 

National Science Foundation. "Table H-7. Employed scientists and engineers, by occupa- 
tion, highest degree level, race/ethnicity, and sex: 2006." Women, Minorities, and Per- 
sons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. National Science Foundation, 
Division of Science Resources Statistics, Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System 
(SESTAT). http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabh-7.pdf. 



8 | American Women of Science since 1900 

National Science Foundation. "Table H-25. S&E doctorate holders employed in univer- 
sities and 4-year colleges, by broad occupation, sex, race/ethnicity, and faculty rank: 
2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. 
National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Survey of 
Doctorate Recipients, 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabh-25.pdf. 

Rossiter, Margaret. 1982. Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940. 
Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Rossiter, Margaret W. 1995. Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 
1940 1972. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Schiebinger, Londa. 1999. Has Feminism Changed Science? Cambridge, MA: Harvard 
University Press. 

Wyer, Mary et al. 2009. Women, Science, and Technology: A Reader in Feminist Science 
Studies. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. 



Is There a Science Gene? 

The debates over sex-based differences when it comes to scientific interest and 
ability are not new. The scientific revolution of the eighteenth century brought 
new credibility to explanations for the significance of differences between male 
and female anatomy, skull size and shape, and brain size, among other anatomical 
features, as well as the social significance of racial differences. Science, in the 
name of "nature," has often been used to justify keeping women (and racial minor- 
ities) from educational and professional opportunities. As social and educational 
barriers to women's full participation in science have been removed, the fact 
remains that there are still fewer female than male scientists. If we have reached 
a historic moment of both equal access and condemnation of gender discrimina- 
tion, then how to explain women's continued minority presence in science and 
engineering careers? The question remains: Can the smaller numbers of women 
scientists be explained by social factors alone, or are there biological or innate fac- 
tors to consider? And if there are identifiable genetic or neurological differences 
between the sexes, do such differences, in turn, explain differences in math test 
scores or, more generally, do they explain anything about ability or aptitude for 
skills required in the sciences, engineering, and math? 

This was the set of questions addressed by Harvard University president 
Lawrence Summers at a 2005 conference on "Diversifying the Science & Engi- 
neering Workforce." While Summers addressed several possibilities to explain 
the smaller numbers of women in high-level scientific research and faculty posi- 
tions, the most controversial aspect of his remarks was the suggestion that there 
are innate differences between the sexes that limit women's interest in and aptitude 



Issues | 9 

for science and math — what he called a "different availability of aptitude at the 
high end." Summers specifically addressed the fact that there are fewer women 
scientists the higher up the professional ladder one climbs, and came up with a for- 
mula that accounted for the fact that the top-level scientists (he specifically 
focused on physics, perhaps the most prestigious scientific discipline precisely 
because it is seen as so difficult, thus requiring some innate talent rather than mere 
education) are already smarter than the general population, so that any differences 
in aptitude between the sexes among talented individuals will become more appar- 
ent the higher one advances. Summers referred to the greater number of male 
physicists as an "unfortunate truth" that he wished could be explained away as 
"a serious social problem," but that must take into account other factors, such as 
"taste differences between little girls and little boys that are not easy to attribute 
to socialization." In other words, if parenting and education have changed to 
encourage more girls into science, and to make opportunities available, why are 
more girls not choosing science as a career path? Summers concluded that, while 
negative socialization and discrimination still exist, these only compound (rather 
than explaining away) the basic reality of "intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of 
the variability of aptitude" (Summers 2005). Summers's remarks prompted a 
series of responses from scholars and subsequent conversations and debates that 
ultimately led to his resignation (WISELI 2009). 

The irony is that, while science has been used in the past to limit women's 
opportunities, it is more science that is needed to answer the questions. The ques- 
tion of the nature (and significance) of differences between the sexes has been 
taken up by twentieth-century psychologists, neuroscientists, geneticists, and 
evolutionary biologists, as well as by social scientists. Not surprisingly, scientists 
became interested in understanding any potential biological component to scientific 
ability at the precise moment when women began entering the scientific profes- 
sions in greater numbers — a case of social concerns guiding research questions. 
Of course, many of those same women scientists were there to challenge and guide 
the research being done with their own questions. The main areas of this research 
have been in questions of genetic, hormonal, neurological, and cognitive differ- 
ences between the sexes. 

Despite the title of this section, there have never been found any genes related 
to spatial reasoning or math skills. Interest in finding a "science gene" dates to a 
study in the 1970s in which "an X-linked recessive gene was thought to cause 
sex differences in spatial abilities . . . However, subsequent research, involving 
larger samples, failed to replicate the initial findings" (Hines 2007, 104). Still, 
other scientists continue to pursue this line of inquiry and ask how to explain the 
exceptional case of a mathematical genius, for example, who rises from a negative 
social, economic, or educational environment with what appears to be innate 



10 I American Women of Science since 1900 

talent. One recent researcher suggests that "a role for genes" should not be dis- 
missed as an explanation for scientific or mathematical ability and genius, point- 
ing out that while we regularly look to a biological or genetic basis for diseases 
or psychological issues, we become defensive over the idea of inquiring into the 
biological, genetic, or cognitive difference of sex (Haier 2007). 

While genetics, specifically, has yielded few answers to this question to date, 
endocrinologists have shown that hormones do affect brains differently, and that 
a higher presence of male hormones (androgens), beginning prenatally, correlates 
to greater spatial reasoning. Finding a firm link between sex hormones and spatial 
reasoning (or verbal or mathematical ability, or IQ) is still an active and controver- 
sial area of research. The current research shows that, at most, spatial skills can 
vary with hormone levels within an individual; that is, they can be affected by 
changes such as puberty or menstruation, although there is no clear evolutionary 
advantage for having these different abilities at different times in one's life or 
hormonal cycle. Some scientists find the evidence convincing for innate ability, 
arguing that superior male spatial-reasoning skills may not be significant enough 
to explain social phenomena, but these sex-based differences do exist across 
cultures and across time, regardless of education levels. Others point out that it is 
not the hormones specifically that explain cognitive differences, but rather the 
activities or experiences that people seek out because of hormones; for example, 
hormones may predispose a female child (but not all female children) to an inter- 
est in playing with dolls, which, in turn, may develop specific kinds of cognitive 
and emotional abilities that are then identified as innately "female." In the end, 
then, education and environment remain the most important factors, as brains are 
changed by training and experience (Ceci and Williams 2007). 

Thus, hormonal and neurological aspects overlap in explaining more broadly 
observed sex-based differences. Neuroscience has stepped in with new technolo- 
gies, such as brain imaging, to track activity in different regions of the brain and 
to track differences between men's and women's brains. Researchers have found 
that men tend to be more object-oriented and women more language-oriented, 
but while men and women might use different parts of their brains to problem 
solve, they are capable of arriving at the same conclusions. Most researchers admit 
that it is difficult to separate specific skill sets (based on test results or problem- 
solving techniques) from education and socialization. For example, if differences 
between boys' and girls' math test scores do not appear until high school, are boys' 
higher scores explained by innate ability at this higher level, or by compounded 
negative messages girls have received about their math ability? One study was con- 
ducted on men and women who received the same math scores on the SAT and 
found that their brains did, indeed, function differently while taking the test, even 
though the scores were the same. The researchers also conducted MRIs on the 



Issues | I I 

students to determine whether there was a sex-dependent correlation between IQ 
and brain structure. But even when IQ scores were the same for men and women, 
their brains were still different (Haier 2007, 115; Ceci and Williams 2007). 

The question, then, remains as to what difference, if any, sex makes, and what 
the significance of that difference is. Other scientists have pointed out that if we 
are interested in determining innate mathematical ability, it would make more 
sense to break down the specific skill sets involved and assess children when they 
are younger, since by the time students take the SAT, they are already a self- 
selected group of college-bound, higher-level students. Some feminist education 
researchers have pointed out other ways in which test questions and methods favor 
male students, and ask whether performance on college-entrance exams even has a 
direct correlation to future success (or failure) in science, technology, and math 
careers. Research into sex-based brain differences has not been in vain, how- 
ever. While they may not yet explain science and math ability, such findings 
may provide insight into sex-based differences in diseases such as Alzheimer's, 
schizophrenia, or depression (Cahill 2006). 

The work of psychologists and social scientists not only adds to but overlaps 
with biological and neurochemical studies of the brain. Some of the latest research 
looks at the effect of playing video games, computers, and with Legos and other 
building toys on boys' spatial reasoning and brain development. But this research 
brings us back to the question of whether boys play those games because o/an 
innate ability, or whether the games create the skills. We must also ask whether 
and how interest in such activities is socially encouraged in boys or, conversely, 
discouraged in girls. One study found that parents are more likely to set up com- 
puters in their sons' rooms, but whether that is because boys are more interested 
in computers or because parents expect sons to be more interested in computers 
is still up for debate. Psychologists look at behavior differences between boys 
and girls and ask which skills can be taught or developed regardless of sex. 

Feminist psychologists have argued that many theories presented to explain sex- 
based differences are in fact framed to fit with our social beliefs about gender, and 
that those theories or questions often become circulated as "facts" without critical 
analysis. For example, sex difference fits into evolutionary psychology (or sociobiol- 
ogy) explanations for why men might need better spatial skills for activities such as 
hunting, building, or navigating large distances. But there is no acknowledgement 
that the same or a similar skill set was needed by women to gather, weave, or make 
weapons (Newcombe 2007). While the questions of genetic, neurological, and cog- 
nitive explanations for human behavior are of fascinating interest to researchers 
and to the general public, many scientists still maintain that most differences, even 
in research on the youngest babies (such as work done by Harvard psychologist 
Elizabeth Spelke), point to social factors rather than biology (APA Online 2006). 



12 | American Women of Science since 1900 

Last, a limited focus on a particular skill set (such as spatial skills or abstract 
reasoning) as the most important indicator of scientific or mathematical interest or 
ability precludes inquiry into not only the social and institutional barriers to women 
in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers, but also to the impor- 
tance of other skills necessary for career success. Surely imagination, creative prob- 
lem solving, written and oral communication skills, persistence and focus, and a 
range of interpersonal skills needed for working collaboratively on research and 
mentoring are all just as important factors for success in scientific research and 
teaching careers, and may be possessed by or nurtured in individuals of either sex. 

References and Further Readings 

APA Online. 2006. "Think Again: Men and Women Share Cognitive Skills." Psychology 
Matters. American Psychological Association. (18 January 2006). http://www.apa.org/ 
research/action/share. aspx. 

Cahill, Larry. 2006. "Why Sex Matters for Neuroscience." Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 
7: 477 484 (June 2006). http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v7/n6/full/nrnl909.html. 

Ceci, Stephen J. and Wendy M. Williams, eds. 2007. Why Aren't More Women in 
Science?: Top Researchers Debate the Evidence. Washington, D.C.: American Psycho- 
logical Association. 

Chodorow, Nancy. 1999. The Reproduction of Mothering. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of 
California Press. 

Eliot, Lise. 2009. Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow into Troublesome 
Gaps And What We Can Do about It. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 

Gilligan, Carol. 1993. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Develop- 
ment. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 

Haier, Richard J. 2007. "Brains, Bias, and Biology: Follow the Data." In Why Aren't 
More Women in Science?: Top Researchers Debate the Evidence, edited by Stephen J. 
Ceci and Wendy M. Williams, 113 119. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological 
Association. 

Hines, Melissa. 2005. Brain Gender. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Hines, Melissa. 2007. "Do Sex Differences in Cognition Cause the Shortage of Women in 
Science?" In Why Aren't More Women in Science?: Top Researchers Debate the Evi- 
dence, edited by Stephen J. Ceci and Wendy M. Williams, 101 112. Washington, 
D.C.: American Psychological Association. 

Newcombe, Nora S. 2007. "Taking Science Seriously: Straight Thinking about Spatial Sex 
Differences." In Why Aren't More Women in Science?: Top Researchers Debate the 
Evidence, edited by Stephen J. Ceci and Wendy M. Williams, 69 77. Washington, 
D.C.: American Psychological Association. 

Schiebinger, Londa. 1993. The Mind Has No Sex?: Women in the Origins of Modern 
Science. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 



Issues | 1 3 

Summers, Lawrence. 2005. "Remarks at NBER Conference on Diversifying the Science & 
Engineering Workforce." Harvard University. Office of the President. (14 January 
2005). http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/summers 2005/nber.php. 

Women in Science & Engineering Leadership Institute (WISELI). 2009. "Lawrence 
Summers on Women in Science," University of Wisconsin-Madison. http://wiseli 
.engr.wisc.edu/archives/summers.php. 



The Impact of Feminism on Scientific Research 

Not only has feminism challenged the idea of innate differences between the sexes 
when it comes to technical abilities or interest in math or science, but the steady 
rise of the numbers of women in scientific professions over the course of the last 
century has introduced new questions and new research agendas in many fields 
as well. Different scientific fields have responded to and been affected by the 
presence of more women scientists, and by the challenges of feminism as a social 
and political movement over the course of the twentieth century. While 
academic feminism has had an obvious impact on the social sciences, such as 
psychology and sociology, the physical or "hard" sciences especially have been 
seen as gender-neutral realms of knowledge and inquiry. On the contrary, the 
medical and life sciences have been at the forefront of establishing new findings 
about the nature of sex and gender. The question of the impact of women and of 
feminism on science is twofold, then: First, what has been the impact of including 
women (and gender) as subjects of science? Second, what has been the impact of 
women as scientists and of feminism on research? Is there a female, or a feminist, 
approach to science? 

The first feminist intervention into science was to reject the exclusion of women 
from scientific professions and from participation in the scientific pursuit as 
researchers and teachers. Early women scientists and reformers pointed out wom- 
en's limited access to education, institutional support, and jobs, and sought to rem- 
edy the situation. Once women entered into the scientific professions, feminist 
scientists began to question the sexism inherent in the research itself. What they 
discovered is that science itself has been used to keep women out, to limit their 
opportunities, and to silence their voices. The greater representation of women in 
the sciences is a worthy goal, feminists argue, not only as a political commit- 
ment to equality, but because women change the very questions asked by science 
and therefore have an impact on the creation of scientific knowledge. 

Historian of science Londa Schiebinger calls "femininity" and science "the 
historical clash of . . . two cultures," which was epitomized in the Western European 
and American traditions with the late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century 



14 | American Women of Science since 1900 

split between the private realm of the family and the public world of work. The 
scientific revolution of the Enlightenment paved the way for the professionalization 
of science and the exclusion of women from higher education and the professions for 
another century. Besides institutional barriers, women have long faced social pres- 
sures and expectations as to which employments are suitable for women; histori- 
cally, science has not been one of those professions. From the earliest scientific 
inquiries to the scientific revolution of the mid-eighteenth century and beyond, 
"men of science held that creative work in the sciences lay beyond the natural 
capacities of women!' One nineteenth-century practitioner defined science as "anti- 
feminine," and the scientist as one whose "mind is directed to facts and abstract 
theories, and not to persons or human interests . . . they have little sympathy with 
female ways of thought" (Schiebinger 1999, 70-71). In the late nineteenth century 
(not coincidentally, as women began to gain access to professional and graduate 
schools), doctors began to warn of the negative effects of rigorous study for women, 
particularly when women were menstruating or pregnant. Women's bodies and minds 
were seen as unsuitable to the scientific pursuit of knowledge; biology was destiny. 

Of course, race and racism have also factored into scientific understandings 
of bodies and minds. Whereas white women in the eighteenth and nineteenth 
centuries were portrayed as physically fragile and mentally unstable, African 
Americans (male and female) were seen as physically robust but intellectually 
inferior, their bodies suited for physical rather than mental labors. Well into the 
twentieth century and beyond, the very image of the scientist is of one possessing 
a superior mind that in some ways transcends the body — the mad scientist, solitary 
in his lab, absentminded and detached from social and familial relationships. It has 
been a long struggle for nonwhites and for women of any race to transcend the 
belief that they are simply too tied to the needs of their bodies (and their families) 
to engage in the focused, dedicated work of science. Women scientists themselves, 
however, have always questioned the professional culture of science, from the 
view of the scientist himself as a male figure of intellect and authority, to career 
paths and tenure clocks that ignore family life, to a professional and institutional 
culture that is organized around the assumptions of male employees. 

The goal of feminist science has been not only to expand the numbers of women 
in specific fields, but to reveal how science itself operates according to certain 
gendered assumptions. Londa Schiebinger describes the feminist task of the late 
twentieth and now twenty-first centuries as a shift away from pointing out the flaws 
and limitations of science, "toward the more positive task of asking what useful 
changes feminism has brought to science" (Schiebinger 1999, 1). There is no one 
single way of doing "feminist science," just as there is no single definition of 
feminism or feminist goals. Not all feminists are women (many male scientists are 
concerned with questions of gender, power, and knowledge as well), and not all 



Issues | 1 5 

women are feminists; therefore, not all women scientists bring a feminist perspective 
to their work. Feminists may work in all scientific fields and may be interested in 
different questions. They may (or may not) be particularly interested in how gender 
functions in the scientific pursuit of knowledge, but many bring questions of sex and 
gender to their specific fields or disciplines by including women as subjects of study 
(in medical trials or as interview subjects, for example), including more subjective or 
qualitative methods in their approach (in the social sciences or through interdiscipli- 
narity), or questioning the bias of gendered language to describe certain scientific 
processes (whether in animals, plants, or inanimate objects). 

Women scientists and engineers have revised the direction and methods of 
scientific inquiry, often exposing the biases or challenging the very foundations 
of scientific knowledge in fields from evolutionary biology to medicine, from 
anthropology to zoology. Some fields have expanded to include specifically wom- 
en's concerns, for example, research related to women's health and medical treat- 
ment. While president of the American Heart Association, Bernadine Healy 
emphasized that heart disease was a leading cause of death in women as well as 
men; when she was director of the National Institutes of Health, she brought about 
reforms in the clinical testing of drugs for women and children. Other researchers 
have focused on women's nutrition, maternal health, and breast cancer. Women 




Cardiologist Bernadine Healy has been head of the National Institutes of Health, the American 
Heart Association, and the American Red Cross. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



16 | American Women of Science since 1900 

anthropologists, such as Margaret Mead, focused for the first time on women's 
social and sexual roles, and others looked at the cross-cultural experiences of 
childbirth and mothering, pointing out that leaving women out of such research 
skewed our understanding of social and economic life. A similar revolution 
took place in the study of animals, such as in the work of primatologist Jeanne 
Altmann. The work of primatologists and of evolutionary biologists has pointed 
out the importance of looking at the intersection of biology and culture to under- 
stand gender and sex-specific roles and behaviors. 

Feminist theory makes the radical claim that science it not always objective, but is 
often influenced by social beliefs and goals. Feminist scientists have sought to create 
new knowledge that complicates our view of humanity and nature, and begins with a 
critique of traditional research methods and questions that create results that exclude, 
misrepresent, or disadvantage women. In the name of a pure "masculine" objectivity, 
feminists argue, science as a discipline has rejected "feminine" or subjective ways of 
knowing. This mode of inquiry represents women and the feminine as inferior, if not 
invisible, and obscures the gendered politics of knowledge. In other words, the 
science, the technology, and the results may all disadvantage women by reinforcing 
social power relations. Even the language of science, down to the cellular level, is 
often gendered in such a way that female biological processes are characterized as 
passive and male as active (Martin 2001; Angier 2000). In a different field, psychol- 
ogists long made assumptions that a lack of interest in mothering, or an interest in 
homosexual activity, to use another example, was "abnormal" for women. As early 
as 1968, feminist scholar Naomi Weisstein identified the language and bias of 
psychological diagnoses and urged psychologists to treat women as individuals 
rather than as a group expected to adhere to widespread social beliefs about gender 
(Weisstein 1968). These were among the early feminist interventions into the very 
questions, foundations, and language of scientific inquiry. Feminist scientists seek 
to advance knowledge for its own sake, but their work is grounded in the theoretical 
frameworks of feminist philosophy and the history of science, which acknowledge 
that science has historically been used, and may still be used today, to justify social 
and political beliefs and goals. 

Feminist critique has also brought new questions regarding scientific ethics into 
the debate. The core of the feminist approach is to point out that science is situated 
in, not separate from, a specific social-historical-political context. Therefore, 
science involves not only objective data but subjective interpretations, which in 
turn involve questions of morality or ethics. Early scientific pursuits saw nature 
(including the human body) as passive and something to be controlled by humans, 
a social value or belief that still guides some scientific research. How we define the 
essence of human nature or bodies is a value judgment, influenced by, for example, 
religious or political views; this is why politics and religion are so involved in a 



Issues | 1 7 

variety of scientific debates in modern America, such as cloning, abortion, stem 
cell research, or DNA testing. In the natural and physical sciences, such as the 
fields of ecology, environmental science, climate change, animal sciences, and 
evolution, politics and religion play a large part in influencing the interests, the 
questions, the funding, and the outcome of scientific research. 

Feminism has also had a voice in questions of medical ethics, both in research 
and in healthcare. Medical ethics involves questions of equal access, patient's 
rights, and the doctor's pledge to "do no harm." Although these principles apply 
to a broad range of healthcare issues that affect women, feminists have focused 
primarily on reproductive issues as healthcare and social policy issues. From con- 
traception, abortion, and sterilization, to infertility, pregnancy, surrogacy, and 
childbirth practices, to menopause and hormone treatments, feminism has brought 
women's health issues to the forefront and pointed out that science and medicine 
are not value-neutral in the development of new technologies and practices. For 
example, why has modern science not yet developed an oral contraceptive for 
men? Or, why are they so many Caesarean sections in the United States compared 
to other developed nations, and why do many health-insurance plans refuse to 
cover alternatives such as home births? The issues are numerous, and the debates 
and implications complex, but feminists emphasize how social and political views, 
biases, and beliefs influence both the research and practice of women's health. 

Feminists are among those who question whether the goal of science is knowl- 
edge for its own sake, or whether manipulation of nature, or specific religious or 
political goals, are factors as well. Feminists must also be aware, however, of their 
own political purposes in these debates. While feminists have been accused of 
bringing politics into science, feminist scientists and scholars point out that sexism 
is not an objective scientific method. Science is rarely value-neutral (for example, 
scientific research agendas are often set by financial, political, or military goals), 
and is never objective if gender or racial bias informs the very role of the scientist 
and the questions asked. As an alternative, more subjective, epistemology, femi- 
nism acknowledges that all individual scientists bring background assumptions, 
biases, and specific experiences, goals, and priorities to their work, even uncon- 
sciously. Far from politicizing science with a new set of assumptions and agendas 
(as some critics charge), feminism only demands that scientific research live up to 
its own claims of objectivity, free from bias and political influence, supported by 
evidence, and in the name of knowledge for its own sake. 

References and Further Readings 

Angier, Natalie. 2000. Woman: An Intimate Geography. New York: Houghton Mifflin. 

Creager, Lunbeck and Londa Schiebinger, eds. 2002. Feminism in Twentieth-Century 
Science, Technology, and Medicine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 



18 | American Women of Science since 1900 

Harding, Sandra. 1986. The Science Question in Feminism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University 
Press. 

Harding, Sandra. 1991. Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women's 
Lives. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 

Harding, Sandra and Jean O'Barr, eds. 1987. Sex and Scientific Inquiry. Chicago: Univer- 
sity of Chicago Press. 

Keller, Evelyn Fox and Helen Longino, eds. 1996. Feminism and Science. New York: 
Oxford University Press. 

Lacey, Hugh. 2005. Is Science Value Free? 2nd ed. New York: Routledge. 

Lederman, Muriel and Ingrid Bartsch, eds. 2001. The Gender and Science Reader. New 
York: Routledge. 

Martin, Emily. 2001. The Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction. 
Boston, MA: Beacon Press. 

Pinnick, Cassandra, Noretta Koertge, and Robert Almeder, eds. 2003. Scrutinizing Feminist 
Epistemology: An Examination of Gender in Science. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers 
University Press. 

Schiebinger, Londa. 1993. The Mind Has No Sex?: Women in the Origins of Modern 
Science. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 

Schiebinger, Londa. 1999. Has Feminism Changed Science? Cambridge, MA: Harvard 
University Press. 

Tuana, Nancy, ed. 1989. Feminism & Science. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 

Weisstein, Naomi. 1968. "Psychology Constructs the Female." Reprinted by Chicago 
Women's Liberation Union (CWLU) Herstory Website Archive, http://www.uic.edu/ 
orgs/cwluherstory/CWLU Archive/psych. html. 



Science and Technology Education for Girls 

One reason for the interest in the question of sex-based difference in science and 
math test scores is that, in nearly every other educational outcome, girls outperform 
boys. Girls do better on reading and writing assessments, get better classroom 
grades, and are more likely to graduate from high school, and, since the early 
1980s, women receive more undergraduate college degrees than men. Undoubtedly, 
some of this is the result of the feminist movement of the 1970s and 1980s taking up 
the educational inequality of girls as a social and political issue. Feminists began to 
look to the classroom (among other places) and found evidence of gender discrimi- 
nation, and the resulting low self-esteem and missed opportunities, against the 
youngest female members of society, finding not only that boys dominated class- 
room discussions and that teachers had lower expectations for girls' performance, 



Issues | 19 

but that even the materials taught — from the literature chosen to history textbooks — 
focused on males and their interests, or were often absent of females. The raising of 
that consciousness led to social programs and policy changes to address equality in 
the classroom and the career paths of young women. 

The whole idea of science education is a twentieth-century development. 
Attempts to standardize science curricula at the high school level began in the 
1890s, with recommendations for a breadth of knowledge to include physics, 
astronomy, chemistry, and natural history. Before the 1920s, however, science edu- 
cation for young children focused primarily on nature study, and was certainly not 
formal or systematic. Domestic science, or home economics, became a standard 
part of the curriculum for girls beginning in the first half of the twentieth century, 
as the goal of early education was to prepare girls for future roles as wives and 
mothers, whereas boys were tracked into vocational or technical courses (accord- 
ing to class expectations as well). But the modern science curriculum for elemen- 
tary and secondary students is a product of the Cold War, beginning in the 1950s, 
when the government investment in science and technology education meant that 
boys and girls would be offered the same science curriculum through the public 
schools. To fit with new national military and industrial commitments, the "hard" 
sciences of physics and chemistry replaced an earlier emphasis on nature study, 
even at the elementary level; the "science experiment" and "science fair" became 
ubiquitous features of modern American science education (Tolley 2003). 

Beginning in the 1970s, the U.S. Congress passed a series of acts to ensure edu- 
cational equity in everything from sports opportunities to vocational training to 
funding for science and math education. While girls' access to educational oppor- 
tunities expanded throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and social programs such as 
the Ms. Foundation's "Take Our Daughters to Work Day" (established in 1993) 
showed an effort to expose girls to a broader range of career possibilities, in 
1992 the American Association of University Women (AAUW) published its 
groundbreaking report, How Schools Shortchange Girls, exposing the sometimes 
blatant but often subtle ways in which schools and teachers disadvantage girls in 
the classroom and ultimately discourage them from "nontraditional" pursuits, 
including math and science (AAUW 1992; see also AAUW 2000 and AAUW 
2004). This attention resulted in a vast new literature on gender and education 
and, by the late 1990s, a pendulum swing to scholars, experts, and parents arguing 
that boys are now shortchanged when their needs and learning styles are ignored in 
the new girl-friendly school environment (Tyre 2008). These studies argue that 
neglecting the particular physical and emotional needs of boys in the classroom 
has led to a generation of boys diagnosed with (and prescribed medication for) 
attention deficit disorder, an epidemic of violence in the schools, and lower gradu- 
ation rates of and college attendance. 



20 | American Women of Science since 1900 

If girls have greater advantages in the elementary and high school classroom, 
and perform well in science and math courses in particular, the question is not only 
one of lower SAT scores, but of fewer girls continuing on in science career paths. 
What other factors explain their continued underrepresentation in math and 
science careers? There are two main questions to address. First, are teachers and 
parents still treating girls differently, especially in regard to science and math 
ability? Second, what do girls think about women and science? 

From elementary through high school, some fear that girls are getting a different 
education, both quantitatively and qualitatively, than boys. Much research has been 
conducted over the past 20 to 30 years on classroom dynamics, and on the way 
teachers (and parents) treat girls differently and track them according to gender 
stereotypes, from boys receiving more attention (positive and negative) in the class- 
room, to teachers expecting less from girls, to methodologies (tests, etc.) that favor 
the ways boys learn over the ways girls learn, to the lack of female role models in 
the classroom and in textbooks. Numerous studies have shown that deep-rooted 
ideas about gender continue to filter into teacher interactions with girls. One study 
conducted over the course of 25 years "found that girls were eight times less likely 
to call out comments, but when they did were reminded to raise their hands. In con- 
trast, teachers responded to the typically rowdier and more assertive behavior of 
boys. Thus highly intelligent young girls often give up their own assertiveness and 
risk-taking behavior fulfilling social virtues of selflessness and cooperation" 
(Etzkowitz, Kemelgor, and Uzzi 2000, 39). 

When it comes to the role of education and educational policy, the debate over 
sex-based differences in ability is less important than the belief that everyone 
deserves equal access and equal education, and the belief that any subject can be 
taught. Even if there are no significant biological or innate ability differences 
between how the sexes learn, are there "taste differences" that account for fewer 
women developing an interest in science in the first place? (This point was made 
by Harvard president Lawrence Summers in his controversial 2005 remarks explain- 
ing why there are fewer women in high-level science positions.) The observation has 
been made by some that women, in general, are more interested in people and in rela- 
tionships than in solitary lab work, for example. Regardless of whether this is due to 
biology or to social conditioning (or whether it is even true for all women), one must 
ask whether this is an accurate understanding of what scientists do. It may, in fact, 
explain the higher numbers of women in "helping" professions such as medicine 
(and certain subspecialties within medicine), veterinary medicine, or psychology, 
but it does not explain the variety of skills and activities that engage scientists across 
disciplines in relation both to people (the solitary lab scientist is something of a myth, 
as researchers must coordinate teams of students and colleagues) and to the subjects 



Issues | 21 

of their research (e.g., the cancer researcher engaged in lab work, or the computer 
scientist writing educational software, are still involved in a quest to "help" people). 

One thing is certain: The continued perception at least (if not evidence) that 
science, technology, engineering, and math are "male" fields or that boys have more 
natural aptitude in these areas has an influence on whether girls choose these 
subjects of study or move on to pursue careers, and on how women scientists 
are ultimately treated in the lab, the field, and in academia. In other words, the 
debate itself influences how girls and young women perceive themselves, as well 
as how others perceive them, regardless of their educations and achievements. 
Researchers at the University of British Columbia examined the issue of "stereotype 
threat," or the effect of perceived truths about members of a group, in relation to 
women's science and math achievement. Their studies found that "women who read 
of genetic causes of sex differences performed worse on math tests than those who 
read of experiential causes" (Dar-Nimrod and Heine 2006). 

Female students may also fear being labeled a "smart girl." This has become such 
a concern that the National Science Foundation launched a website/program called 
SmartGirl (http://www.smartgirl.org) for girls aged 11 to 17 that, while not specific 
to science education, provides a significant amount of information on career choices, 
including an extensive list of links related to STEM careers. Another program, 
NerdGirls (http://www.nerdgirls.org), was started by a professor at Tufts University 
for her female engineering students, and the organization's mission is "to encourage 
other girls to change their world through Science, Technology, Engineering and 
Math, while embracing their feminine power." They also seek "to dispel the myths 
and stereotypes about these fields and the women who choose to enter them." Girls, 
Inc. created a nationally implemented program called Operation SMART (Science, 
Math and Relevant Technology; http://www.girlsinc.org/about/programs/operation 
-smart.html), which advises parents and teachers to "Assume girls are interested in 
math, science and technology," and support and encourage them accordingly. 

One of the most famous ongoing experiments has been the study of stereotypes 
and images in the "Draw-A-Scientist Test" (DAST). Begun in the early 1980s, the 
test has been used in recent years internationally to look at children, college stu- 
dents, and teachers, at different school levels and with student populations of 
different ethnicities, as well as the two sexes (Steinke et al. 2007). An analysis 
of DAST shows, among other things, that the older the student (from elementary 
up through middle and then high school), the more likely he or she is to portray a 
scientist as male (and white). For example, a 1999 study showed that students in 
kindergarten through second grade drew male scientists 58% of the time, 
compared to up to 75% of the time among students in sixth through eight grade 
(Hall 2007, 25). Views about scientific ability and who can be a scientist may also 
present at home. New research shows that the attitudes of parents — especially 



22 | American Women of Science since 1900 

fathers — are important indicators for determining a girl's interest and success in 
math. Fathers must encourage their daughters, show interest in their math and 
science studies, and expect girls to be good at math, as paternal confidence and 
attitudes figure significantly into a girl's view of her own abilities and potential 
(Univ. of Michigan 2007). It is, of course, not surprising that the issues and 
messages of the culture at large are magnified in the home, and that the attitudes 
of parents are some of the most influential on young girls. 

Still, increasing numbers of girls are taking higher-level math and science in 
high school. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, in 
2005, some 42% of twelfth-grade girls had taken both biology and chemistry, 
and 29% had taken biology, chemistry, and physics, slight jumps from just a few 
years earlier (Hall 2007, 20). Still, their numbers are often not high enough in indi- 
vidual classes to counter the idea of math and science as male endeavors, and girls 
who do well are seen as exceptional and different, making it hard for girls to think 
beyond high school to consider science careers. In a perpetual negative cycle, then, 
the fewer the young women who enter into science careers, the less likely students 
will be to encounter the female role models and science teachers needed to inspire 
the next generation of girls. Girls who attend all-girl high schools choose science, 
math, and engineering majors in college in higher numbers (Hall 2007, 33). If girls 
in other contexts are discouraged from or avoid difficult science classes, they sim- 
ply will not be prepared to take college-level science courses, regardless of inter- 
est or ability, another factor against deciding on a science major. In other words, 
early intervention is necessary — thus the focus on science education and organiza- 
tions for girls in the middle and high school years. 

In response to these issues and concerns, numerous programs have been estab- 
lished to encourage girls in science and technology majors and careers. These pro- 
grams target students, parents, and teachers, and are sponsored by educational 
institutions, corporations, nonprofits, and government. Efforts range from education, 
to mentoring programs, to special projects and clubs, to financial assistance in the 
form of scholarships and grants for female science majors. Education requires not 
only increasing the numbers and preparedness of girls taking advanced math and 
science courses, but also educating girls as to the range of career possibilities in 
science and technology. A National Academy of Sciences website on girls and 
science (http://www.iwaswondering.org) provides guidelines to teachers, including 
awareness about social stereotypes, types of and reasons for praise of boys and girls 
in the classroom, and countering negative perceptions about science as a career 
path for women. A wealth of literature and programs exist offering advice to teach- 
ers on how to create a gender-neutral classroom. Some important strategies for 
teachers collected from various programs include encouraging creativity and inno- 
vation, creating opportunities for meaningful collaborative work among peers and 



Issues | 23 

with adults, making an effort to represent women in the sciences (through class- 
room materials, images, classroom visitors, or field trips), and praising students 
(male and female) for their efforts and process, not just for following the rules. 

Resources for Girls, Their Parents, and Teachers 

"Discover Engineering," National Engineers Week Foundation. http://www. discover 
engineering.org. 

"Earth Science," For Kids Only, NASA, http://kids.earth.nasa.gov. 

"Engineer Girl," National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences. 
http://www.engineergirl.org. 

"Expanding Your Horizons Network: Motivating Young Women in Science + Mathematics." 
http://www.expandingyourhorizons.org. 

"Science," KidSites.com. http://www.kidsites.com/sites-edu/science.htm. 

"Science News for Kids," Society for Science & the Public. http://www.sciencenews 
forkids.org. 

"Sci4Kids," USDA Agricultural Research Service, http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/kids. 

"Try Engineering." http://www.tryengineering.org. 

Books for Girls and Young Women 

Goetz, Susan Gibbs. 2007. Science for Girls: Successful Classroom Strategies. Lanham, 
MD: Scarecrow Press. 

Hoyt, Beth Caldwell and Erica Ritter. 2003. The Ultimate Girls' Guide to Science: From 
Backyard Experiments to Winning the Nobel Prize. Hillsboro, OR: Beyond Words 
Publishing. 

Karnes, Frances A. and Kristen R. Stephens. 2002. Young Women of Achievement: A 
Resource for Girls in Science, Math, and Technology. Amherst, NJ: Prometheus Books. 

Romanek, Trudee. 2001. The Technology Book for Girls and Other Advanced Beings. 
Illus. Pat Cupples. Toronto, ON: Kids Can Press. 

SciGirls Presents GEMS: A Case Study in Science Inquiry for Girls. 2008. DVD. Twin 
Cities Public Television, Inc. for WGBH/Boston. 

Skolnick, Joan, Carol Langbort, and Lucille Day. 1982. How to Encourage Girls in Math 
& Science: Strategies for Parents and Educators. Palo Alto, CA: Dale Seymour 
Publications. 

Thimmesh, Catherine. 2000. Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by 
Women. Illus. Melissa Sweet. New York: Houghton Mifflin. 

Thimmesh, Catherine. 2002. The Sky's the Limit: Stories of Discovery by Women and 
Girls. Illus. Melissa Sweet. New York: Houghton Mifflin. 

Wyatt, Valerie. 2000. The Math Book for Girls and Other Beings Who Count. Illus. Patricia 
Cupples. Toronto, ON: Kids Can Press. 



24 | American Women of Science since 1900 

Wyatt, Valerie. 1993. The Science Book for Girls and Other Intelligent Beings. Illus. 
Patricia Cupples. Toronto, ON: Kids Can Press. 

References and Further Readings 

AAUW. 1992. The AAUW Report: How Schools Shortchange Girls. Washington, D.C.: 
American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, http:// 
www.aauw.org/learn/research/upload/hssg.pdf. 

AAUW. 2000. Tech Savvy: Educating Girls in the New ComputerAge. Washington, D.C.: 
American Association of University Women Educational Foundation, http:// 
www.aauw.org/learn/research/upload/TechSavvy.pdf. 

AAUW. 2004. Under the Microscope: A Decade of Gender Equity Projects in the 
Sciences. Washington, D.C.: American Association of University Women Educational 
Foundation, http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/upload/underthemicroscope.pdf. 

Dar-Nimrod, Ilan and Steven J. Heine. 2006. "Exposure to Scientific Theories Affects 
Women's Math Performance." Science, Vol. 314, No. 5798 (20 October 2006), 435. 

Dingel, Molly J. 2006. "Gendered Experiences in the Science Classroom." In Removing 
Barriers: Women in Academic Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, 
edited by Jill M. Bystydzienski and Sharon R. Bird, 161 176. Bloomington: Indiana 
University Press. 

Etzkowitz, Henry, Carol Kemelgor, and Brian Uzzi. 2000. Athena Unbound: The Advance- 
ment of Women in Science and Technology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University 
Press. 

Hall, Linley Erin. 2007. Who's Afraid of Marie Curie? The Challenges Facing Women in 
Science and Technology. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press. 

James, Abigail Norfleet. 2009. Teaching the Female Brain: How Girls Learn Math and 
Science. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press/SAGE. 

Steinke, Jocelyn et al. 2007. "Assessing Media Influences on Middle School Aged 
Children's Perceptions of Women in Science Using the Draw-A-Scientist Test 
(DAST)." Science Communication. 29(1): 35 64. (September 2007). http:// 
homepages.wmich.edu/~steinke/projects/assessing media/index. html. 

"STEM Equity Pipeline: Expanding Options for Women and Girls in Science, Technology, 
Engineering and Math." http://stemequitypipeline.org. 

Summers, Lawrence. 2005. "Remarks at NBER Conference on Diversifying the Science & 
Engineering Workforce." Harvard University. Office of the President. (14 January 
2005). http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/summers 2005/nber.php. 

Tolley, Kimberly. 2003. The Science Education of American Girls: A Historical Perspec- 
tive. New York: Routledge Falmer Press. 

Tyre, Peg. 2008. The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their 
Problems at School, and What Parents & Educators Must Do. New York: Random 
House. 



Issues | 25 



University of Michigan. 2007. "How Dads Influence Their Daughters' Interest In Math." 
ScienceDaily. (25 June 2007). http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/ 
070624143002.htm. 



Women and Science in College and Graduate School 

The educational issues and challenges facing girls and women in the sciences con- 
tinue beyond high school. Women's formal science education at the college level 
dates to the nineteenth century and corresponds with women's access to higher 
education in general, whether through the women's colleges or through co- 
educational institutions. Co-educational colleges in the United States originated in 
the Midwest when Oberlin College in 1837 began admitting women and African 
Americans. The land-grant institutions, which were often co-educational, were 
established by the Morrill Act of 1 862 and focused on the agricultural sciences, with 
an emphasis on chemistry, nutrition and food sciences, animal sciences, and botany 
and horticulture. The women's colleges founded in the late nineteenth century also 
became centers of scientific education for women, both undergraduate and graduate. 
Among women who went on to earn doctorates in the sciences, the majority came 
from undergraduate programs at women's colleges; the top five colleges conferring 
bachelor's degrees in science to women before 1920 were all Eastern single-sex 
institutions (Mount Holyoke, Barnard, Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley) (Rossiter 
1982, 144). For doctorates, however, the University of Chicago and Columbia 
University in New York awarded the highest number of science Ph.D.s to women 
through the 1930s (Rossiter 1982, 170-171). 

Efforts to encourage more women to pursue careers in the sciences, including 
funding and mentorship programs, brought a steady increase in the number of 
women science majors after the 1970s. In 2006, women received slightly more 
than 50% of all bachelor's degrees in the sciences and engineering (NSF Table 
C-14). There is great variation by specific fields, with women earning the majority 
of degrees in psychology, social sciences, and the biological sciences, but smaller 
percentages of degrees in physical sciences and engineering. The "leaky pipeline," 
however, means that the number of women science candidates drops at critical 
junctures along the educational and career path, so that while women earn 50% 
of science bachelor's degrees only 38.4% of STEM doctorates go to women 
(NSF Table F-2). The "leak" in the pipeline between undergraduate and graduate 
school completion may be explained in part by decisions about family life made 
during a woman's late twenties and early thirties, coinciding with the years dedi- 
cated to a graduate program. A marriage, a spouse's employment options, and 
whether and when to have children all affect not only the timing of completion 



26 | American Women of Science since 1900 

of a program, but funding, grants, mentoring, and research opportunities. Consid- 
ering the significance of work/life issues to women during these years, one scholar 
has concluded that "The human price for the Ph.D. is higher for women than for 
men, and the rewards are often lower" (Etzkowitz, Kemelgor, and Uzzi 2000, 95). 

While taking into account that many capable or interested female students 
decide to apply their talents elsewhere than the sciences, and that not all under- 
graduate science majors plan to continue on for advanced degrees in science fields, 
a woman's undergraduate educational experience will also influence her decision 
whether to continue on in pursuit of a STEM doctorate and career. If women are 
discouraged in difficult courses, they may assume that they do not have enough 
ability to succeed in math and science, and may choose not to pursue science 
and math majors. A 2003 study of students in difficult pre-med chemistry and 
calculus courses at Columbia University found that whether a student has a view 
of success in STEM courses as a matter of innate ability (or a "gift") or has a belief 
that hard work and individual effort will result in success determines female uni- 
versity students' "vulnerability" to being discouraged away from science. Among 
students who believed that success in the course was determined by innate ability, 
male students earned higher grades; among students who considered intellectual 
skills to be acquired or developed, female students earned higher grades and were 
more likely to continue with the course than those who believed they possessed a 
gift (Dweck 2007, 49-50; see also Dar-Nimrod and Heine 2006). Success and 
good grades in courses like these (required courses for science and math majors) 
across the nation are a strong indicator of continued pursuit of a science major 
and continuing on to a scientific career. 

The status hierarchy of science fields thus begins in college, where fields 
deemed "easier" happen to be those with more women (biology or psychology), 
and the more "difficult" fields, which are also those presumed to require more 
math skills (such as physics, chemistry, and engineering), are dominated by men. 
Few female undergraduates will have many female faculty members for role 
models and, while some women say they do not expect to have many female fac- 
ulty when deciding to major in science, it may still have an effect on their future 
choices in the field. A 2005 study of colleges in the late 1990s found that "women 
who had a female instructor in their first course in geology or mathematics and sta- 
tistics were more likely to take additional courses in those subjects. In physics and 
biology, however, women were more likely to take additional courses if their first 
instructor was male" (Hall 2007, 118). Of course, the mere presence of female pro- 
fessors does not mean that they will be mentors or develop positive relationships 
with female students, but they are role models nonetheless. 

The classroom experiences of women in the sciences are also an important 
factor in deciding to pursue STEM majors and careers. College science classes 



Issues | 27 

are notorious as highly competitive "weeding-out" systems that, some argue, 
strike particularly hard at women. While attempting to discourage the less serious 
students may seem meritocratic (that is, with everyone having the same opportu- 
nity to succeed or fail), it may in fact serve a professional gatekeeping function 
by operating to cultivate a particular type or group of students preferred in the pro- 
fession (Etzkowitz, Kemelgor, and Uzzi 2000). Highly competitive classes reward 
individual achievement rather than collaboration; have an extremely rapid pace of 
coursework; have a pace and format of testing that rewards certain learning styles, 
assertiveness, and lack of mentoring on the part of faculty; have a lack of personal 
contact between faculty and student; and, in some cases, allow outright exclusion 
of women from study groups or other opportunities. When female students do ask 
for help or express doubts about their abilities, they may be seen by male faculty or 
fellow students as overly emotional or showing weakness, or even as sexually 
available — all of which makes it harder to get help and thus increases women's 
isolation. Feminist critics argue that these experiences in the weed-out process 
create a particularly male culture of individuals "winning" at all costs, and deny 
other modes of socialization and learning. For many female students, it is, if noth- 
ing else, contrary to the encouragement, mentoring, and collaboration they may 
have experienced in their high school science programs. 

But is this a universal experience for women in college? The women who do 
succeed in college science courses under these conditions report positive experi- 
ences that led them to further pursue science at the graduate level. Of course, 
there are variations in childhood socialization, individual interests, and personal- 
ity styles that account for the career choice and success of any particular individ- 
ual. The importance of female role models and of supportive and communicative 
mentors (whether male or female) is often cited as one of the most important 
factors in the success of women in science education, at both the undergraduate 
and graduate levels. The experience of women as science and engineering stu- 
dents in college varies, depending not only on the program and faculty, but on 
the college itself. For example, in assessing the difference between women's col- 
leges (which trained many of the early-twentieth-century female scientists) and 
technical colleges, some argue that women's colleges give female students a 
chance to do their personal and intellectual best without either explicit or subtle 
discrimination, and without feeling that they are in a minority in their field. Of 
course, this can be a protective environment that is not realistic in preparing 
women for graduate school or their later employment situations. While many 
young women may be deterred from pursuing science majors for various reasons, 
many others pursue what interests them most or, in some cases, are specifically 
challenged by the idea that they can be one of the few or exceptional women to 
enter into a field. 



28 | American Women of Science since 1900 

References and Further Readings 

Bird, Sharon R. and Jill M. Bystydzienski, eds. 2006. Removing Barriers: Women in 
Academic Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Bloomington: Indiana 
University Press. 

Dar-Nimrod, Ilan and Steven J. Heine. 2006. "Exposure to Scientific Theories Affects 
Women's Math Performance." Science, Vol. 314, No. 5798 (20 October 2006), 435. 

Dweck, Carol S. 2007. "Is Math a Gift? Beliefs That Put Females at Risk." In Why Aren 't More 
Women in Science?: Top Researchers Debate the Evidence, edited by Stephen J. Ceci and 
Wendy M. Williams, 47 55. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. 

Etzkowitz, Henry, Carol Kemelgor, and Brian Uzzi. 2000. Athena Unbound: The Advance- 
ment of Women in Science and Technology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University 
Press. 

Hall, Linley Erin. 2007. Who's Afraid of Marie Curie? The Challenges Facing Women in 
Science and Technology. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press. 

National Science Foundation. "Table C-14. Bachelor's degrees, by race/ethnicity, citizen- 
ship, sex, and field: 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science 
and Engineering. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statis- 
tics, special tabulations of U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educa- 
tion Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, Completions Survey, 
2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabc-14.pdf. 

National Science Foundation. "Table F-2. S&E doctoral degrees awarded to women, by 
field: 1999 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and 
Engineering. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, 
Survey of Earned Doctorates, 1999 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/ 
tabf-2.pdf. 

Rossiter, Margaret W. 1982. Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 
1940. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Seymour, Elaine and Nancy M. Hewitt. 1997. Talking About Leaving: Why Undergraduates 
Leave the Sciences. Boulder, CO: Westview Press/Perseus Books. 



Jobs for Women Scientists: Academia 

The academic career track in all disciplines is organized along an advancement 
"ladder" leading to and through the stages of tenure. In the sciences, once a 
Ph.D. is received, the postdoctoral fellowship or position (or "postdoc") is a criti- 
cal career step during which one gains laboratory or research experience with 
mentors in the discipline; a scientist may then be hired as an assistant professor 
(an untenured position), then, once tenure is received, advance to associate profes- 
sor, and then full professor (or simply "professor"), which is the highest academic 



Issues | 29 




teaching rank. Science faculty may also 
be appointed to high-level administra- 
tive positions as department chairs, pro- 
vosts, or deans of programs within a 
university, or campus- wide administra- 
tors, including university and college 
presidents. Instructors or adjunct faculty 
are often temporary, affiliated, or part- 
time appointments, with no promise of 
tenure. 

Although many women scientists 
work throughout government and pri- 
vate industry, much emphasis and analy- 
sis has focused on the research-intensive 
academic career track as the assumed 
path for women in the sciences. Perhaps 
because scientists in academia are more 
organized according to separate disci- 
plines — and because gender issues are 
more often discussed in a university 
setting — there have been numerous 

studies and statistical tracking of the status of women scientists in academia. By 
2006, however, only about 19% of women scientists and engineers were employed in 
universities or four-year colleges, and another 6% worked in other educational institu- 
tions, teaching in secondary schools or two-year colleges that do not emphasize (or 
allow time for) research and publication; this is compared to almost 50% of women 
scientists and engineers employed in business and industry (NSF Table H-19). 

Before 1940, the overwhelming majority (as many as three-quarters) of profes- 
sionally trained women scientists worked in colleges or universities, many in the 
women's colleges or in non-tenure-track lecturing and research or laboratory 
assistant positions (Rossiter 1982, 160). After World War II, access to higher 
education and professional employment opportunities became more restrictive 
for women, so that by 1958, women made up only 10% of scientists employed in 
educational institutions (Rossiter 1995, 107). It was not until after the 1970s that 
women's numbers in academia began to rise again, but by then, technological 
advances in computers, aerospace, medicine and pharmaceuticals, and other fields 
led to the expansion of opportunities in government and private industry, so that 
academic science was not the only option. 

In the nineteenth century, both men and women might begin teaching without 
acquiring or before completing their own advanced academic degrees; others 



Astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin 
discovered that stars, including the Sun, are 
composed mainly of hydrogen. (Bettmann/ 
Corbis) 



30 | American Women of Science since 1900 

found permanent positions as research or lab assistants. The first female college 
professors were employed at women's colleges, or at larger co-educational institu- 
tions teaching "women's" subjects, assigned to the home economics department 
rather than the biology or chemistry departments, for example. Heavy teaching 
loads and administrative responsibilities prevented many women from achieving 
the research and publication records necessary for tenure or wider professional 
recognition; others found that tenure-track promotions eluded them regardless of 
their teaching and research accomplishments. Chemist Ellen Swallow Richards 
was the first female faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
(MIT) in the 1870s and was internationally recognized for her work; still, she 
remained at the untenured level of "instructor" for her entire 30-year career. There 
were even cases of women's names being left off faculty rosters in order to avoid 
controversy with boards of trustees or alumni who might object to female faculty 
in certain subjects, although in the early 1900s most colleges and universities 
began to adopt more objective hiring and tenure guidelines that limited the influ- 
ence of donors or alumni. Astronomer Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin worked at the 
Harvard Observatory in the 1910s and 1920s, where she had no official title and 
her lectures were not listed in the catalogue. She later described how funding for 
her position at the observatory was identified as an "equipment" expense and 
how she was not accepted or even acknowledged in the Harvard community at 
large (Rossiter 1982, 211). 

In 1921, a special committee of the American Association of University Profes- 
sors conducted one of the earliest surveys on the status of women in academia. The 
committee included several prominent women scientists at the time, including 
Bryn Mawr geologist Florence Bascom, and found that of 100 co-educational 
schools surveyed, 27 had no women faculty at all, in any field (not just science) 
and at any level. Of those with women on the faculty, women made up 23.5% of 
instructors, but only 4% of full professors (Rossiter 1982, 163). Of the top six 
colleges employing women scientists, the largest number were, not surprisingly, 
concentrated at the women's colleges: Wellesley, Vassar, and Mount Holyoke 
had the highest numbers of female science faculty (Rossiter 1982, 182). In 1938, 
only three women were department chairs or deans of science schools or depart- 
ments, and all three of these were in departments of nutrition or home economics: 
Lydia Roberts at the University of Chicago, Flora Rose at Cornell University, 
and Abby Marlatt at the University of Wisconsin (Rossiter 1982, 182). 

After a post-World War II retrenchment in academic opportunities for profes- 
sional women, it was not until the civil rights legislation of the 1960s and 
then the women's movement of the 1970s that women regained access to higher 
education and employment, especially in "nontraditional" fields, including STEM 
fields. The first problem for women in academic employment is getting hired, 



Issues | 3 1 



Title IX and Women's Education 

The civil rights legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in the early 1960s is rec- 
ognized for ushering in a new era of racial equality, but the legislation also had 
an enormous impact on women's educational and employment opportunities. 
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was followed by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 
which "prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, 
or national origin," and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 
(EEOC) as a federal-level agency to address such issues. Title IX (part of the later 
1972 Education Amendments), recognizing the need to open pathways to 
employment, went further in forbidding discrimination in educational institutions. 
The main passage of the law reads, "No person in the United States shall, on 
the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or 
be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving 
Federal financial assistance." Although a simple statement, the effect of Title IX 
had a wider impact, not only on educational admissions and hiring but also on 
funding for women's athletics, ushering in a new era of training opportunities for 
professional female athletes. In 2002, Title IX was renamed the Patsy Mink Equal 
Opportunity in Education Act, after the late Congresswoman from Hawaii who 
authored the Act. 



especially in periods or cycles when there are fewer jobs than applicants. In 2003, 
for example, there were 1,200 new physics Ph.D.s, but only 679 new faculty posi- 
tions at all colleges combined, including part-time and community colleges, which 
are nonresearch positions (Hall 2007, 160). Of course, many of these new physics 
graduates would undoubtedly go into industry or government positions, but in 
other fields or disciplines, there may be even fewer opportunities outside of aca- 
demia. Significant advances have been made since the 1970s in eliminating (or 
minimizing) gender discrimination in hiring, and new studies show that new 
female Ph.D.s on the job market, although underrepresented in some fields, face 
a level playing field when applying for jobs ("Women Faring Well" 2009). 

While women are not necessarily disadvantaged in the tenure-track hiring pro- 
cess, there is still what is referred to as a "leaky pipeline," with fewer women 
present the higher up the advancement ladder one goes, and their numbers drasti- 
cally reduced in some fields on the way from graduate student to assistant profes- 
sor to tenure. Despite decades of women's advancement in individual disciplines, 
at the highest academic levels (full professors and department heads) there are still 
few women compared to the numbers of female Ph.D. recipients and junior faculty 
members. A 2000 report found that a woman chaired only 4.2% of the more than 
500 STEM departments surveyed (Hall 2007, 177). As tenure-track or full 



32 | American Women of Science since 1900 

professor status is required for consideration as chairs, deans, and provosts, not to 
mention university presidents, there are ultimately fewer women from which to 
choose for these positions. 

Again, the problem of the "leaky pipeline" is institutional rather than individual, 
as several women scientists have served as university presidents, and in the early 
twenty-first century, several of the most prestigious universities named scientists as 
their first female presidents: Chemical engineer Alice P. Gast (Lehigh), neurobiolo- 
gist Susan Hockfield (MIT), physicist Shirley Ann Jackson (Rensselaer Polytech- 
nic), molecular biologist Shirley Tilghman (Princeton University), and astronomer 
France Cordova (Purdue University) all currently head these universities. The 
achievements of these (and many other) high-profile women scientists, however, 
may obscure the larger problem of the low representation of women in STEM fields; 
ironically, some of the lowest representation among faculty overall is in the very 
disciplines in which these individual women were trained (physics and astronomy, 
for example). 

The academic tenure system also presents a unique work/life balance problem. 
It would seem that academia might be more flexible than other types of employ- 
ment, as many people assume that professors' primary role is teaching courses 
for only a few hours per week, with summers off. In the sciences, however, the 
demands of laboratory work and management can require seven-day work weeks, 
and the pressure and expectations of the tenure clock begin with the first postdoc- 
toral position. For women who want to have and raise children, the time required 
in the early years of one's career working toward tenure (which requires several 
years of postdoctoral research, building relationships with mentors, receiving 
accolades for teaching, and publishing) coincides with the female biological clock 
of the twenties and early thirties. For women who do marry or have children 
during this process, family considerations impact decisions not only about the ten- 
ure clock but about geographical mobility and partner hires. Academic couples 
must consider whether one partner will be able to accept a prestigious appointment 
if the other cannot easily relocate or find a comparable position. Academic depart- 
ments may consider male and female applicants on their individual merits, but 
questions of family obligations and spousal or partner hires may be difficult nego- 
tiations if both partners are academics or work in the same field. Family consider- 
ations may impact women's careers, so they advance more slowly, participate in 
fewer well-funded projects, take longer to tenure or accept less prestigious posi- 
tions, and ultimately earn less income over the long term. 

A final problem for women scientists in academia is discrimination on the job 
itself. One high-profile study of gender equity revealed that, as of 1996, there were 
only 22 female professors at MIT, compared to 252 male faculty. The study also 
revealed disparities between male and female faculty members in terms of salary, 



Issues | 33 

lab funding, support, and even research space (Rosser 2004). This was a study 
done by and within just one university, a major science and technology institution, 
and so it raised questions about the status of women faculty at other colleges and 
universities. Unlike in the humanities, much funding for scientific research comes 
from outside the university system, from government or private sources, but here, 
too, there has been shown a disadvantage for projects led by women. A 2005 study 
of grant applications and awards from the major federal sources of research 
funding — the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation 
(NSF), and the USDA — found that women overall were less likely to receive fund- 
ing for their projects and were less likely to reapply for the same grants; the report 
authors suggested that these were only preliminary findings and called for better 
tracking by the funding agencies themselves (Hosek et al. 2005). 

In 2005, Harvard University president Lawrence Summers proposed several 
possible reasons, both biological and social, to explain the lack of women in 
high-level academic science positions (Summers 2005). In response to the contro- 
versy created by Summers's remarks, Harvard established a Task Force on Women 
Faculty and Women in Science and Engineering with the goal of analyzing the 
"pipeline" problem in the academic career path, and making recommendations at 
the institutional level in regard to "recruitment, support, and advancement of 
outstanding women faculty in the University." Some scholars have questioned 
affirmative action for women, which is most often clearly practiced in academia, 
arguing that the underrepresentation of women does not mean that there should 
be specific efforts to increase their representation, potentially to the disadvantage 
of qualified male candidates (Kimura 2007, 44). Others questioned the attacks 
made on Summers directly (who suggested that there may be innate as well as 
social reasons explaining women's lack of interest in or preparation for STEM 
careers), arguing that his remarks should serve merely to begin a system-wide 
conversation regarding the goals of university science departments, but that more 
focus should be on early intervention and education, such as encouraging young 
women to enroll in more difficult science courses in high school and college. 

Finally, the academic work environment and women's individual career success 
in the sciences is impacted by the presence of female faculty as mentors and advi- 
sors to younger women in college and graduate school. Some faculty take on this 
special role with pride, but it also creates certain social pressures, as women 
faculty members may be expected to make extra time for mentoring students in a 
way that male professors are not or do not (Etzkowitz, Kemelgor, and Uzzi 
2000, 149). This creates a paradox, as many female faculty members report that 
they had critical support from their own mentors, and so they feel they owe some- 
thing to the next generation, especially in encouraging female students in science 
careers. But they must prioritize their own careers and productivity in order to 



34 | American Women of Science since 1900 

compete and move up the ladder. If they sacrifice their own advancement schedule, 
there will continue to be fewer women as role models at the highest levels. 
Female faculty members also need time to seek out support from other women in 
science, finding peers beyond their own departments and institutions, where they 
are likely to be in a minority within any given field. Professional scientific organiza- 
tions, and women's committees within those organizations, can be essential 
resources for career, legal, and discipline-specific assistance and guidance. 

While tenured academic positions provide the stability and institutional frame- 
work and resources necessary for conducting research (including laboratory space, 
graduate students, and postdocs), faced with contingent, part-time, or nonresearch 
positions, struggles with funding and promotion, or just general isolation, some 
women scientists plan to pursue academic jobs, but decide to leave and practice 
science elsewhere. Others discover early on that they are not particularly inter- 
ested in academia, finding more stability and (simultaneously) more flexibility, 
and often more lucrative positions, in nonacademic employment. As the twenty- 
first century begins, more women faculty are needed at every level to serve as role 
models for the next generation of female scientists. 

References and Further Reading 

AAUW. 2004. Tenure Denied: Cases of Sex Discrimination in Academia. Washington, 
D.C.: American Association of University Women Educational Foundation and AAUW 
Legal Advocacy Fund. http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/upload/TenureDenied.pdf. 

Bystydzienski, Jill M. and Sharon R. Bird, eds. 2006. Removing Barriers: Women in 
Academic Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Bloomington: Indiana 
University Press. 

Etzkowitz, Henry, Carol Kemelgor, and Brian Uzzi, eds. 2000. Athena Unbound: The 
Advancement of Women in Science and Technology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge 
University Press. 

Hall, Linley Erin. 2007. Who's Afraid of Marie Curie? The Challenges Facing Women in 
Science and Technology. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press. 

Hosek, Susan D. et al. 2005. "Gender Differences in Major Federal External Grant 
Programs." Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical 
reports/TR307/index.html. 

Kimura, Doreen. 2007. " 'Underrepresentation' or Misrepresentation?" In Why Aren't 
More Women in Science?: Top Researchers Debate the Evidence, edited by Stephen J. 
Ceci and Wendy M. Williams, 39 46. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological 
Association. 

National Science Foundation. "Table H-7. Employed scientists and engineers, by occupa- 
tion, highest degree level, race/ethnicity, and sex: 2006." Women, Minorities, and 
Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. National Science Foundation, 



Issues | 35 

Division of Science Resources Statistics, Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data 
System (SESTAT). http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabh-7.pdf. 

National Science Foundation. "Table H-19. Employed scientists and engineers, by sector 
of employment, broad occupation, sex, race/ethnicity, and disability status: 2006." 
Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. National 
Science Foundation, Division of Science Resource Statistics, Scientists and Engineers 
Statistical Data System (SESTAT). http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabh-19.pdf. 

Rosser, Sue V. 2004. The Science Glass Ceiling: Academic Women Scientists and the 
Struggle to Succeed. New York: Routledge. 

Rossiter, Margaret W. 1982. Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 
1940. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Rossiter, Margaret W. 1995. Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 
1940 1972. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Summers, Lawrence. 2005. "Remarks at NBER Conference on Diversifying the Science & 
Engineering Workforce." Harvard University. Office of the President. (14 January 
2005). http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/summers 2005/nber.php. 

"Women Faring Well in Hiring and Tenure Processes for Science and Engineering Jobs at 
Research Universities, but Still Underrepresented in Applicant Pools." National 
Research Council. Committee on Gender Differences in Careers of Science, Engineer- 
ing, and Mathematics Faculty. News from the National Academies. (2 June 2009). 
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID= 12062. 



Jobs for Women Scientists: Government 

According to a 2006 report from the National Science Foundation, 10.4% of all 
women employed in science- and engineering-related occupations worked in 
federal, state, or local government, only slightly less than the number employed 
in academia (NSF Table H-19). Although more attention is paid to job outlooks 
and conditions for women scientists, students, and faculty members in academia, 
the connection between government and science, especially beginning in the 
mid-twentieth century, has meant not only more funding for academic research, 
but more government-based research as well. A few notable women were employed 
by the U.S. government in the late nineteenth century, and these were clustered in 
a few agencies, in particular the USDA and USGS. In 1896, Florence Bascom 
was the first female scientist hired at the USGS; in 1910, Eloise Gerry began 
working at the U.S. Forest Service; and in 1916, Ida Bengtson was the first woman 
scientist to join the U.S. Public Health Service (later known as the National Insti- 
tutes of Health) (Rossiter 1982, 219). World War I and the era of Progressive 
reform saw the creation of numerous federal bureaucracies and agencies. 



36 | American Women of Science since 1900 

From the 1910s through the 1930s, many women with science and math back- 
grounds filled low-level, underpaid, "women's" jobs as clerks, stenographers, 
indexers, science writers, and laboratory assistants, but few were able to advance 
to managerial or project director positions. Progressive reform efforts also saw 
increases in the numbers of women employed in public health, child welfare, psy- 
chology, and other social work in state and local government offices and institu- 
tions, while wildlife biologists, botanists, and archaeologists worked for 
government field stations and publicly funded museums. 

The USDA (which encompassed numerous departments or bureaus related to issues 
of food and nutrition, agriculture, bacteriology, chemistry, and home economics, 
among others), in particular, has always been a significant employer of women, as sci- 
entists but also in clerical and nonscientific positions. A 1925 report by the new federal 
Women's Bureau found that a full two-thirds of women scientists employed by the 
federal government worked at the USDA, most as botanists or chemists (Rossiter 
1982, 227). Within the USDA, women were concentrated in food, nutrition, and plant 
sciences, or in home economics, and many women scientists achieved early positions 
of prominence. Flora Patterson supervised the herbarium in the Bureau of Plant 
Industry for nearly 30 years at the turn of the twentieth century. Chemist Mary Pen- 
nington spent a decade as chief of the food research laboratory after it was established 
in 1908. And chemist Louise Stanley was for many years the highest-paid and highest- 
ranking women scientist in the federal government as head of the USDA's Bureau of 
Home Economics, a position she held for more than 25 years, from 1923 to 1950. 
The USDA remains a significant employer of women, reporting in 2007 that women 
make up 44% of their total permanent workforce (USDA Newsroom, 2007). 

The immediate postwar period saw a retrenchment of positions for women, 
however, as returning male veterans filled available jobs, a pattern repeated in 
the World War II era. The labor shortage brought on by World War II, combined 
with wartime technical needs, meant more employment opportunities for female 
scientists in government and industry during the war as nuclear physicists, 
chemists, meteorologists, and engineers. While some earlier female-dominated 
agencies, such as agriculture and nutrition, were significantly decreased, new areas 
of growth brought large numbers of microbiologists, mathematicians, engineers, 
and toxicologists into government work; the Department of Defense became 
the largest government employer of women after World War II (Rossiter 1995, 
277-279). After the war, however, there was a precipitous drop in the numbers of 
women scientists and engineers in government agencies, numbers that would not 
be recovered again until the 1970s, when the government was forced to change 
due to its own antidiscrimination civil rights legislation. 

Throughout the twentieth century, government agencies, unlike academia or 
private industry, seem to have been less likely to discriminate in hiring and 



Issues | 37 

advancement based on gender and less likely to be concerned about a woman's 
marital status. Nor did the government follow anti-nepotism rules that kept many 
women scientists of the early twentieth century out of academic appointments if 
they were married to fellow scientists. High-profile scientist couples who built 
careers outside of academia in the mid-twentieth century included crystallogra- 
phers Jerome and Isabella Karle, who spent more than six decades at the Naval 
Research Laboratory, and physicists Maurice and Gertrude Goldhaber, who left 
academia to work at Brookhaven National Laboratory for more than 30 years, also 
consulting at Argonne and Los Alamos laboratories. 

The 1950s brought new national commitments and international competition in 
the space race and the nuclear arms race. These political and military concerns ush- 
ered in a "golden age" of government funding for science and technology innova- 
tion, and the greater numbers of Ph.D. s awarded after the 1960s meant that 
academia could not provide employment for all trained scientists, although supply 
and demand varied by field. New science and technology research programs within 
all four branches of the U.S. military grew exponentially in the post-World War II 
and Cold War eras. One of the newest and most noteworthy federal programs of the 
era was the new National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Created 
in 1958, it took 25 years, until 1983, for NASA to allow women into the astronaut 
program. Since the 1980s, women scientists and engineers at NASA have distin- 
guished themselves as astronauts (in 2009, NASA sent its fiftieth female astronaut, 
Karen Nyberg, into space), as well as on the ground as aerospace engineers, com- 
puter scientists, physicists, chemists, and medical and biological researchers. 

Along with the space program, the federal government (under the auspices of the 
military, or through agencies such as the USGS) has sponsored geological and 
oceanographic expeditions, sending the first women scientists to the Arctic, to Ant- 
arctica, under the sea, and to other points around the globe. The development of the 
computer in the second half of the twentieth century also ushered in a new era of 
opportunities for women scientists and engineers. Many women worked for 
government agencies responsible for the early stages of computer development, 
and the first programming languages, software programs, and Internet applications 
were developed for government and military use. 

Women scientists working within the government faced different opportunities 
and different paths, but some of the same issues as women in industry or academia. 
Gender bias and work/life balance issues affect professional women across 
disciplines and sectors of employment, but differences in flexibility, work sched- 
ules, and even pay have led many women scientists to see advantages in nonaca- 
demic positions. Industry and government salaries are potentially higher than 
those in academia, even without a doctorate, such as in computer sciences and 
engineering. Scientists working in government jobs do not have the same tenure 



38 | American Women of Science since 1900 

and publication pressures required for advancement in academia, and government 
agencies often have firmer, more objective promotion and pay policies that make 
subtle bias against women harder to justify. But the "glass ceiling," an invisible 
barrier to women's advancement to the highest levels, still exists. A 2005 Equal 
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) report on six national energy 
and weapons laboratories found that women are still disadvantaged when it comes 
to pay and rates of promotion within government positions. Among their specific 
findings related to gender were that women consistently earned 2% to 4% less than 
men (and minorities earned less than whites), and the report responded to concerns 
about the underrepresentation of women in certain jobs and opportunities for 
women to advance their government careers (U.S. GAO 2005). Likewise, a 2002 
study of Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago found that female Ph.D.s were 
more likely to start at a lower pay level, while men were hired in at higher levels, 
thus putting women on a slower promotion track (Hall 2007, 190). Combined with 
time off or part-time status to raise families, this may potentially put women years 
behind their male colleagues who entered the field at the same time. Finally, con- 
cerns about underrepresentation in certain fields or agencies means that if few 
women are employed in a particular lab or facility, it may be difficult to find men- 
tors or networks. 

Still, it is widely believed that corporations and government agencies are more 
likely to have family-friendly and flexible work policies, compared to academia, 
including more set work hours (a 40-hour week compared to the sometimes 
around-the-clock expectations of university labs). Scientists employed in 
government labs are also able to focus solely on research, without teaching and 
other student-related or administrative duties demanded in academia. The possible 
downside of government employment, compared to a university setting, is that 
someone else (besides the scientist) often sets the research agenda, either accord- 
ing to government policy directives or corporate interests based on profit. Scien- 
tists working in government (and industry) in collaboration, where a larger 
policy (or profit) motive determines the course of research, do not tend to receive 
the individual recognition that professors do, who must be concerned with the 
originality of their work for gains of tenure, awards, and prizes. 

Still, by the end of the twentieth century, many women had achieved "firsts" 
in the highest-level national government appointments. Aeronautics engineer 
Sheila Widnall served as Secretary of the U.S. Air Force (1993-1997), the first 
woman to lead a branch of the military; pediatrician Antonia Novello was the first 
female U.S. Surgeon General (1990-1993); cardiologist Bernadine Healy was the 
first woman to head the National Institutes of Health (1991-1993); and economist 
Alice Rivlin was the first director of the Congressional Budget Office (1993-1996). 
In 2009 alone, two women were named as heads of important federal scientific 



Issues | 39 



agencies: marine ecologist Jane Lub- 
chenco as head of the National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration 
(NOAA) and geophysicist Marcia 
McNutt as head of the USGS and 
science advisor to the Cabinet-level 
Secretary of the Interior. 

A 2003 study by the National Sci- 
ence Foundation found that half of all 
doctorate-holding life scientists and at 
least two-thirds of physical scientists 
were working outside of academia, in 
either government or industry. In 
specific fields, such as engineering or 
computer science, the majority of grad- 
uates expect nonacademic employ- 
ment. In the same 2003 NSF study, 
only 2% of computer scientists and 
engineers were employed as professors 
in colleges or universities (Hall 2007, 
186). The line between academia, 
government, and industry is not always 
clear in the United States, however. 
Many women scientists move across 

these various sectors of employment over the course of their careers, working in 
government but holding honorary affiliations at universities or teaching part-time 
at either the beginning or retirement phase of their careers, holding faculty appoint- 
ments but consulting on specific government projects, or working for private compa- 
nies that support government and military needs. 




Aeronautical engineer Sheila Widnall, 1993. 
Widnall was the first female Secretary of the 
U.S. Air Force. (Department of Defense) 



References and Further Reading 

Hall, Linley Erin. 2007. Who's Afraid of Marie Curie? The Challenges Facing Women in 
Science and Technology. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press. 

Jack, Jordynn. 2009. Science on the Home Front: American Women Scientists in World 
War II. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. 

National Science Foundation. "Table H-19. Employed scientists and engineers, by sector 
of employment, broad occupation, sex, race/ethnicity, and disability status: 2006." 
Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. National 
Science Foundation, Division of Science Resource Statistics, Scientists and Engineers 
Statistical Data System (SESTAT). http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabh-19.pdf. 



40 | American Women of Science since 1900 

Rossiter, Margaret W. 1982. Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 
1940. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Rossiter, Margaret W. 1995. Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 
1940 1972. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 

USDA Newsroom. 2007. "USDA Observes National Women's History Month and 
Acknowledges USDA Women Who Moved History Forward." http://www 
.ascr.usda.gov/news women.html. 

U.S. Government Accountability Office. 2005. "Equal Employment Opportunity: Infor- 
mation on Personnel Actions, Employee Concerns, and Oversight at Six DOE Labora- 
tories." (February 2005). http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05190.pdf. 

Williams, Kathleen Broome. 2001. Improbable Warriors: Women Scientists and the US 
Navy in World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. 



Jobs for Women Scientists: Industry, Business, 
and Nonprofit Research 

Throughout the twentieth century, there have been both advantages and disadvan- 
tages for women scientists working in industry, business, private research, non- 
profit organizations, or self-employment. In the nineteenth century, many women 
were engaged in "amateur" science as independent natural historians, botanists, 
wildlife preservationists, ornithologists, geologists, anthropologists, and archaeol- 
ogists. Even as the scientific disciplines were professionalized, and university 
training became a standard requirement, women with any level of scientific back- 
ground might find employment in a variety of settings. Still, women scientists 
employed in private industry have not always had the advantages of built-in 
organizational structures (including mentoring networks) that women in univer- 
sities or in government agencies have had, where scientists are often organized 
by field and, early on, university- or discipline-wide studies were commissioned 
and internal guidelines set. The federal Women's Bureau tracked the employment 
status, titles, and salaries of government workers, and women in academia were 
able to track and advocate for women's representation in specific disciplines. On 
the other hand, industry and business have sometimes had more flexible hiring 
and advancement criteria, and over the course of the twentieth century, many 
women were able to make careers for themselves that combined research and 
management. 

The demand for scientists, and therefore opportunities for women, has been 
especially great in industries related to major technological and scientific advances 
over the course of the last century, such as computers, engineering, aerospace, 



Issues | 41 



Mary Kies, First American Woman to Receive a Patent 

Mary Dixon Kies (1 752-1 837) was the first woman to be granted a patent from the 
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Her 1809 patent was for the development of a 
new technique for using thread to weave straw for women's bonnets and hats. 
A few years earlier, another woman, Betsy Metcalf, had invented a popular 
technique for braiding straw for hats, but Metcalf never sought a patent. Since 
early American women could not legally own their own property, few stepped 
forward to protect their inventions in their own names. The timing was right for 
Kies, however, as the U.S. government was limiting the importation of European 
goods and encouraging domestic manufacturing. The Patent Act of 1790 was 
passed to encourage American innovation, which was made possible by the 
new technologies of the industrial revolution. Many items previously produced by 
women in the home were shifting to factory production, and straw hat production, 
in particular, was central to the New England economy. All of this must have been 
apparent to Kies, convincing her to seek protection and validation for her idea. 
First Lady Dolley Madison reportedly singled out Kies and praised her for her 
work. Unfortunately, Kies's original patent paperwork was destroyed, along 
with records of numerous other early American inventions, in a Patent Office fire 
in 1836. 



pharmaceutical and medical research, materials sciences, and automotive, plastics, 
and other applied industrial fields. In 2006, among employed women with a 
science- or engineering-related degree (bachelor's or above), a majority, some 
58.5%, were employed in science-related occupations within business, industry, 
or nonprofit organizations. This is compared to only slightly above 13% of women 
with science degrees then employed at four-year universities or colleges and 
another 13% employed at secondary schools, two-year colleges, or other educa- 
tional institutions. Teaching or university research, therefore, is not the primary 
employment of American women scientists. Still others (4.6% of those in 
science-related fields in 2006) have chosen self-employment, the majority of these 
as psychologists or computer scientists (NSF Table H-19). 

The Industrial Revolution and then wartime labor and technological needs 
during World War I opened up new industries with needs for more chemists, phys- 
icists, engineers, and mathematicians. Although it was difficult for women to hold 
onto industry jobs after veterans returned from the war (a pattern repeated after 
World War II), and although jobs were cut during the Great Depression and 
employers preferred to give the few available jobs to men (with many companies 
practicing the idea of a "family wage," i.e., the belief that men needed jobs more 
than women because men had families to support), many women scientists found 



42 | American Women of Science since 1900 

success throughout these decades in the areas of food development and production 
(including agricultural sciences), nutrition, and household products technology 
(Rossiter 1982). Although the post-World War II era also saw the creation of 
new industries, particularly in consumer product development and military tech- 
nology, there was another backlash against women workers that included social 
pressure for women to leave paid employment after marriage. These policies, 
whether formal or informal, made it difficult for women to enter into the new tech- 
nological and engineering fields that were exploding in the 1950s and 1960s. A 
few notable women scientists emerge from this time period, but they were often 
the exceptions in heavily male-dominated fields of this era. 

Among fields in which women had a significant presence in private employment 
(business, industry, or self-employment) in the 1950s and 1960s were psychology 
(with women making up 10.25% of psychologists in the nongovernment and non- 
academic sectors by 1968), computer sciences (8.7%), and statistics (7%) (Rossiter 
1995, 259). Despite early advances in fields such as psychology, however, wom- 
en's numbers in psychology, earth sciences, and agricultural sciences remained rel- 
atively constant from the 1950s through the 1960s, while their numbers nearly 
doubled in the "hard" sciences of mathematics, chemistry, and physics, a sign of 
industry's labor needs due to rapid technological and scientific advances in the 
post- World War II era. Besides the large numbers of women employed directly 
by the U.S. government, throughout the 1950s and 1960s, government money 
flowed to private institutions, businesses, and nonprofit research centers, including 
medical research institutes, observatories, and corporations that directly supported 
government programs, such as engineering firms contracted by NASA. 

The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and then the women's movement 
of the 1970s brought legislative and social pressures on private business to conduct 
their hiring and advancement practices in a gender-neutral manner, and to expand 
the numbers of women on their payrolls and in high-level positions. Decades after 
these shifts, however, women still face problems related to recruitment, retention, 
and advancement across employment sectors. One problem for private industry is 
in preparing women scientists for nonacademic careers. Despite the fact that a 
large number of women with science educational backgrounds will go on to work 
in industry, business, and private research centers, the primary emphasis during 
graduate programs is undoubtedly on the academic job market rather than oppor- 
tunities in a variety of other research or business settings. Depending on the spe- 
cific field, professors are less likely to have connections outside of academia to 
connect students with mentors and opportunities. Even worse (and, again, depend- 
ing on the field or discipline), some professors may view corporate employment or 
business leadership positions as "selling out" on the purity of the research agenda. 
Last, the limitations of academic employment (long hours, low pay, slow 



Issues | 43 

advancement) may do more to lead women to nonacademic careers than a choice 
among equally desirable opportunities. For example, one survey of women scien- 
tists employed in industry found that nearly one-third of the respondents "chose 
the business sector not because they were recruited into it, but because they did 
not feel welcomed into academia" (Catalyst, 1999). 

The problem is not just with an insular academic culture, however, as once 
employees enter into nonacademic employment, it may be difficult to find other 
women as mentors or role models. The "glass ceiling" and the "old boys' net- 
works" form invisible barriers to women's advancement into high-level positions, 
and create an informal paternalistic corporate culture that keeps women out of the 
information loop, fosters stereotypes that prevent supervisors from giving women 
important or difficult assignments, or sometimes discourages women from seeking 
those positions, especially in science-related fields, which are still seen as male 
fields (Catalyst, 1999). Even with legal protection against discrimination, women 
in private employment may also be subject to subtle forms of discrimination due 
to a lack of formal industry-wide policies or grievance procedures. Just as in 
academia, women's professional organizations have sprung up by industry in an 
effort to bring women together and provide career advice, information about job 
openings, opportunities to present at conferences or participate in professional 
meetings, and mentoring relationships. 

Scientists in business and industry may also need experience in management or 
in profit-related activities related to marketing and sales, and therefore are not 
necessarily focused only on research. Pharmaceuticals, the automotive industry, 
and new "green" technologies, household products, and chemicals — these are all 
examples of science-intensive industries that are also heavily profit-driven. 
Advancement in corporate or private industry is often based, then, not solely on 
educational background, but on management skills and experience acquired on 
the job. The numbers of women managers are still low in part because many busi- 
ness schools (programs for the MBA, Master's of Business Administration) did not 
admit women until the second half of the twentieth century, and it has taken one or 
more generations for women to gain access to education and then employment, and 
then work their way to the highest levels. In 2006, women still made up only 21 .6% 
of managers in science- and engineering-related positions; the greatest percentage 
of managers were found in the medical and health services fields, probably taking 
into account the large number of female nurse managers, while the smallest 
percentage of female managers were found in engineering (NSF Table H-34). 

Individual women, of course, have excelled in industry, just as in other sectors, 
and private research has inspired a large number of female innovators and inventors. 
Chemist Stephanie Kwolek invented a fire-retardant fabric, Kevlar, while working 
for DuPont industries in the 1970s and 1980s; botanist Wanda Farr, the discoverer 



44 | American Women of Science since 1900 

of cellulose, worked for American Cyanamid Company and for Celanese Corpora- 
tion of America in the 1940s; physicist Katharine Blodgett developed nonreflect- 
ing glass while working for General Electric; engineer Edith Clarke designed 
large electric power systems at General Electric in the 1930s and 1940s; and physi- 
cist Joan Mitchell spent her entire career at IBM, where she helped develop the 
JPEG image compression format. By the 1980s, women were gaining entry into 
higher-level managerial and even executive positions. Physicist Betsy Ancker- 
Johnson and economist Marina Whitman were both vice presidents of General 
Motors Corporation for a time, and mechanical engineer Rodica Baranescu had a 
long career as a manager at International Truck and Engine Corporation. 

Women have also excelled as scientists at private, nonprofit research centers 
and institutions. Geneticist Barbara McClintock conducted her Nobel Prize- 
winning research on maize at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and more recently, 
women have served as heads or directors of such institutions, including marine 
geologist Marcia McNutt as CEO and president of the Monterey Bay Aquarium 




Edith Clarke, right, was one of the first female electrical engineers in the United States. 
(Bettmann/Corbis) 



Issues | 45 




Geneticist Barbara McClintock. (National Library of Medicine) 



Research Institute and atmospheric scientist Susan K. Avery as director of the 
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Self-employment has also been an option 
in many fields, and some women scientists founded their own companies. Com- 
puter scientists and engineers have been most successful in this category, as rapid 
technological advances and new applications opened up new business models and 
opportunities: Adele Goldberg, founder of Parc-Place Systems; Evelyn Berezin 
of Redactron; Sandra Kurtzig of ASK Computer Systems; and Roberta 
Williams, founder of Sierra On-Line, a computer games company. 

In the first half of the twentieth century, self-employment may have been the 
only choice for some women scientists, as opportunities in academia or business 
may not have been available, or may not have been desirable due to considerations 
of dual-career couples or geographical mobility. Botanist Cynthia Westcott 
entered private practice as a plant pathologist and popular garden writer in the 
1930s after she was unable to obtain professional employment. In the later twenti- 
eth century, some women trained in the sciences took advantage of new technolo- 
gies (television and the Internet) to launch careers in the popular media instead of 



46 | American Women of Science since 1900 

in research or teaching. Psychologists Joyce Brothers and Ruth Westheimer are 
two of the most recognizable names in popular culture, both of them pioneering 
the use of radio, television, and popular books for administering mental-health 
and relationship advice. Susan Love left an academic teaching position to create 
her own breast cancer foundation and advocacy group, a route followed by other 
health professionals, including physician and women's natural health advocate 
Christiane Northrup and epidemiologist Mary Harris, who created a foundation 
and a website for disseminating information on African American women's 
health. Others combined backgrounds and interests in science and journalism to 
become prolific and popular science writers, such as naturalists Marcia Bonta 
and Anne LaBastille, and science writers Natalie Angier and Jane Brody. 

Private employment has often been seen as more flexible for women workers, 
with more dependable working hours, and more opportunities for advancement 
based on experience and skills acquired on the job. As in other employment sectors, 
women scientists in industry and business are concerned about issues of work/life 
balance, including accommodations for dual-career couples and childcare arrange- 
ments. Some have found that the corporate world offers more stable and predictable 
working hours, unlike academia, which expects sometimes 24-hour commitments 
to the laboratory or project. Others find that, in order to attract quality workers, 
some corporations have made efforts to implement generous family leave and other 
policies, such as dependent healthcare, on-site childcare, or family leave; these 
corporations are widely advertised as "family-friendly" places to work and are not 
subject to the bureaucracy and reluctance to change that can sometimes characterize 
academic or government employers. 

References and Further Reading 

Catalyst. 1999. "Women Scientists in Industry: A Winning Formula for Companies." 
Catalyst, Inc. (June 1999). http://www.catalyst.org/publication/73/women-scientists 
-in-industry-a-winning-formula-for-companies. 

Mattis, Mary and Jennifer Allyn. 1999. "Women Scientists in Industry." In Women in 
Science and Engineering: Choices for Success, edited by Cecily Cannan Selby. The 
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 869: 143 155. (15 April 1999). 

National Science Foundation. "Table H-19. Employed scientists and engineers, by sector 
of employment, broad occupation, sex, race/ethnicity, and disability status: 2006." 
Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. National 
Science Foundation, Division of Science Resource Statistics, Scientists and Engineers 
Statistical Data System (SESTAT). http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabh-19.pdf. 

National Science Foundation. "Table H-34. Scientists and engineers employed in busi- 
ness and industry, by managerial occupation, sex, race/ethnicity, and disability status: 
2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. 



Issues | 47 

National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Scientists and 
Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT). http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/ 
tabh-34.pdf. 

Rossiter, Margaret W. 1982. Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 
1940. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Rossiter, Margaret W. 1995. Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 
1940 1972. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 



Work/Life Balance for Women Scientists 



As more women have become scientists and taken their places in academic 
research, industry, business, and government, has the profession of science become 
more family-friendly? Finding a desirable and manageable balance between work- 
ing life and family life is something with which all working women, but especially 
working mothers, struggle. The issue seems to be compounded for women in the 
sciences, not only because of the demanding work hours and conditions, but 
because of the sense that science is still a primarily male profession. Women scien- 
tists in a variety of employment settings are less likely to have female support or 
role models, and more likely to feel 
the need to prove themselves as 
capable of performing in male- 
dominated fields and capable of put- 
ting in the required time and energy 
to succeed. 

In his controversial 2005 address on 
women in the sciences, Harvard Uni- 
versity president Lawrence Summers 
acknowledged that scientific research 
and faculty positions offer little flexi- 
bility, often demanding that the lab 
come before family and social life. 
Summers presented, as one of the rea- 
sons that there are fewer female ten- 
ured faculty scientists, the idea that 
women may be less willing to devote 
the time, energy, and sacrifice neces- 
sary to reach the highest levels of this 
career path (Summers 2005). The industrial psychologist and engineer, Lillian 
problem, of course, is not specific or Gilbreth, 1944. (AP/Wide World Photos) 




48 | American Women of Science since 1900 

unique to academic science, nor is it necessarily specific to women, as male 
employees now frequently expect more flexibility and balance in order to enjoy 
and participate in family life as well. Still, the issue of flexibility and responsibility 
for the care of children seems to affect women disproportionately. Even Summers, 
as the president of perhaps the most prestigious institution of higher education in 
the nation, could only wonder at the fact that Harvard will pay tuition for college- 
aged children of faculty, but offers nothing in the way of childcare subsidies for 
families with young children. Unfortunately, Summers did not go on to explain 
how, as president, he might address or remedy this situation. His combined remarks 
about women's interest in, aptitude for, and commitment to careers in science led to 
Summers's resignation; as he was replaced in 2007 with Harvard's first female 
president in the university's 370-year history, it will be interesting to see if the 
priorities or focus on such issues will shift. 

The conflict between work and family life is, again, not particular to science or to 
academia, although there are some specific issues related to the university 
setting. It is also a larger social and political issue involving the historical role of 
women in the workplace, ideas about gender roles in marriage and parenting, and 
access to affordable and quality childcare. Except for anomalous periods such as 
the World War II era of unprecedented female workplace participation, the number 
of working mothers has steadily increased over the course of the twentieth century. 
In 1940 (before the outbreak of the war), only 10% of married mothers worked for 
wages. This number rose to 36% in 1975, and reached more than 50% by the late 
1980s (Coleman, Ganong, and Warzinik 2007, 147). By the end of the first decade 
of the twenty-first century, an astounding 70% of married mothers were in the labor 
force at least part of the year, and 57% of mothers with infants worked for wages 
(U.S. Census Bureau 2008a; U.S. Census Bureau 2008c). These numbers vary by 
race, as black women, for example, have historically had higher labor force participa- 
tion. In 1960, only 18% of married white mothers of preschool-aged children worked 
compared to 3 1 % of married black mothers (Coleman, Ganong, and Warzinik 2007, 
147). That gap is closing; as of 2005, some 70% of white mothers were in the work- 
force, compared to 76% of black mothers, and the lowest numbers were found among 
Latina mothers, 59% of whom worked (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2005). 

The burden of childcare (either providing it or securing it) and of household work 
also falls disproportionately upon women, whether married or single. While more 
than 70% of mothers are now in the paid labor force, the other 24% of married 
mothers of young children stay home full-time to care for children (U.S. Census 
Bureau 2008a). Despite much recent attention to the stay-at-home father as a new 
phenomena, and despite the very real numbers of actual men who take on that role, 
as a percentage of overall parenting arrangements, full-time fatherhood still accounts 
for only a tiny minority of family arrangements. In 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau 



Issues | 49 



Science and Surrogacy 

The controversial area of reproductive science and technologies exploded into the 
public consciousness in the early 1980s. Just as the birth-control pill of the 1960s 
had separated sex and reproduction, scientists now offered the possibility of preg- 
nancy without sexual intercourse at all (through in vitro fertilization, or IVF) and of 
pregnancy and mothering as two separate roles for women (through surrogacy). 
The first "test tube" baby was born in England in 1 978, the product of IVF. The first 
woman to receive money as a surrogate was in 1980, but in the United States, the 
case that brought surrogacy to public attention was that of Mary Beth Whitehead, 
who had been artificially inseminated with the sperm of a man whose wife was 
unable to have children. After giving birth in March 1986, Whitehead decided she 
wanted to keep the baby, who was not genetically related to her. The courts, how- 
ever, upheld the surrogacy contract and granted custody to the biological father, 
choosing genetics over a biological or emotional definition of motherhood through 
pregnancy. The issue raised debates that continue today, even among feminists, 
most of whom support a surrogate's right to use her body in such an arrangement, 
and applaud technological advances that give infertile women more choices, but 
with others criticizing the potential exploitation of "renting out" a woman's womb. 



reported 140,000 full-time stay-at-home fathers out of a total of 22.5 million mar- 
ried couples with children under the age of 18 (U.S. Census Bureau 2008a). While 
that is a significant jump from even a decade ago, that still amounts to roughly only 
0.06% of married households with young children and does not include single 
fathers, fathers working out of their homes (which would presumably make them 
more available in family life, regardless of their involvement in actual childcare), 
fathers working part-time, or fathers temporarily staying home with children (due 
to short-term unemployment, for example), so the actual numbers of men more 
involved in childcare and domestic life than even a generation or two ago is prob- 
ably much higher. Still, the 140,000 self-identified full-time stay-at-home fathers 
must be compared to the 5.3 million married mothers who identify as stay-at- 
home parents. The responsibilities of work and family life are compounded for sin- 
gle parents and, in 2008, nearly 84% of single-parent households were headed by 
women, with more than 70% of those women regularly employed (U.S. Census 
Bureau 2008b). 

Historically, many professional women of the early twentieth century felt 
compelled to choose between career and family. An astonishing number of early 
professional women scientists either never married or, if married, remained child- 
less. Obviously, there are a variety of reasons why a couple (then or now) does not 



50 | American Women of Science since 1900 

have children, but for at least the first half of the twentieth century (and longer in 
some fields), young women would find few role models for combining a high- 
level career with a fulfilling family life. One notable exception was Lillian 
Gilbreth, who not only had a long and productive career as an industrial manage- 
ment engineer, but was famous as the mother of twelve, a life story chronicled in 
the book (and later the film) Cheaper by the Dozen. Gilbreth's case was even more 
unique in that her family was her laboratory, an experiment in itself to support her 
research on efficiency. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was common practice for single 
women to be asked in employment interviews if they planned to marry, and wives 
were asked when they planned to start a family. Also in those years, women who 
became pregnant were expected to quit their jobs, and there were no formal 
maternal-leave policies. Most universities, especially, had nepotism rules, some- 
times unwritten, under which husbands and wives could not work in the same 
department, or sometimes even in the same institution. 

Whereas the social and institutional constraints on women's careers and family 
choices were more obvious or explicit in the early part of the century, subtle pres- 
sures still remain. Despite the women's movement and social and political advan- 
ces in women's status at home and in the workplace, women still not only bear and 
nurse children, but find themselves responsible for the care of young children and 
for the majority of the housework. These biological and family demands interfere 
with not only the educational demands of science careers and the tenure-track 
clock in academia (which disadvantages women across disciplines, not just in 
the sciences), but also with the often around-the-clock demands of laboratory 
research or the extended travel time of fieldwork. 

Whereas today's young woman might consider options such as being a stay-at- 
home parent, telecommuting, or part-time or flex-time work, it has been (and 
remains) difficult to work part-time in many scientific fields, especially research- 
intensive positions or tenured academic positions. Of course, many women have 
found ways to have both a career and a family, usually depending heavily on a 
supportive spouse (often also a colleague or work partner), other family members 
(grandparents), or paid childcare arrangements, whether in-home or outside the 
home. In their memoirs and interviews, women scientists throughout the century 
never fail to make note of the choices and domestic arrangements that made their 
work possible, something rarely found in the career narratives of professional 
men. A 2006 report by the National Science Foundation found that of women with 
science degrees who were not currently employed, the largest percentage (39.6%) 
identified "family responsibilities" as the reason for their unemployment; this was 
compared to only 5.4% of unemployed men who gave "family responsibilities" as 
a reason (the largest number of men, more than 70%, absent from the work- 
force gave their status or reason as "retired") (NSF Table H-12). Accounting for 



Issues | 5 1 

part-time work, a viable option in some but not all employment sectors, the majority 
of part-time scientists are also, not surprisingly, women. Women made up 69.2% 
of part-time scientists in 2006, and the majority of those (56%) again cited "family 
responsibilities" as the reason for their part-time status, compared to only 18% of 
men employed part-time listing "family responsibilities" as the reason (NSF 
Table H-ll). These numbers highlight the choices women must make at various 
life stages, and the fact that women are more likely to accommodate their careers 
around family responsibilities than men. 

When it comes to even getting a job in the first place (whether in academia or 
industry), some feminists fear (and many professional women sense) that 
"employers typically see a man's family as evidence of his stability and dedication 
to work . . . while a woman with a family is often viewed as less serious about her 
career" (Hall 2007, 59). Another interesting find, given the history of high-profile 
science couples in the twentieth century, is that female scientists who marry are 
overwhelmingly more likely to marry another scientist than are male scientists 
who marry. Separate surveys in the 1990s and early 2000s showed, for example, 
that 68% of married female physicists and 52% of married female chemists were 
married to other scientists, compared to only 17% of married male physicists 
and 37% of married male chemists (Hall 2007, 61). Whether this is a question of 
convenience, compatibility, understanding, or shared interests and drive, it may 
also be that high-level career women find nonscientist (or nonprofessional) men 
threatened by their education and ambition. Of course, personal relationships 
between similarly situated professionals present a new set of problems related to 
both partners finding appropriate jobs in the same field. In academia, this is known 
as the "two-body" problem, and often leads to one partner having to accept a lesser 
or temporary position. 

Getting pregnant or having a young child might also put women off the tenure 
track or the job search for a year or more, further placing her career second and 
jeopardizing her future prospects. Gail Simmons, a biologist and dean of science 
at the College of New Jersey, offered advice to women seeking to combine an aca- 
demic science career with family life by recalling her own process of interviewing 
for a position while mothering an infant. Simmons joked that she was surprised to 
find that even fellow biologists "prefer not to be confronted with the mammalian 
nature of a job candidate" (Simmons 2005). A generational shift has begun, 
however, and young women in the twenty-first century have created public conver- 
sations about these dilemmas and offer support and solutions to one another. 
Toxicologist Emily Monosson compiled a 2008 collection of personal essays 
entitled Motherhood, the Elephant in the Laboratory, with one reviewer enthusias- 
tic that "these brief life stories demonstrate that women professionals do not have 
to play by men's rules to have a career." The stories of these women and others 



52 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Women and HIV/AIDS 

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS (acquired immune 
deficiency syndrome) was first identified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control 
in the early 1980s. Because the earliest cases were found among homosexual 
men, the disease was referred to as "gay cancer" in the early months of the CDC's 
investigation. This identification of the disease with gay males meant that it took 
some time before the disease was acknowledged in women; even years later, 
when the virus was found in other at-risk groups (including hemophiliacs and 
intravenous-drug users), there was still a denial by many that women were at risk 
through heterosexual intercourse. By 2009, however, women accounted for 1 in 
4 AIDS diagnoses and deaths in the United States and more than half of people 
living with AIDS worldwide. Of those, more than 70% of women afflicted contracted 
the disease through heterosexual activity. HIV/AIDS is also an issue of concern to 
women globally because of the possibility of transmission to children through 
pregnancy and breastfeeding, and because of the high-risk activity of female sex 
workers. Although some new promising drug treatments may alleviate the symp- 
toms of the disease and prolong life expectancy, there is still no cure or vaccine, 
and public health efforts must focus primarily on education and prevention. 



highlight women's efforts at balancing a career at any stage with pregnancy, 
breastfeeding, and childrearing, and provide examples of a range of options prac- 
ticed by women scientists, including part-time work, full-time childcare, leaves of 
absence, job sharing, or independent research and self-employment. 

The women's movement and government equal-opportunity legislation changed 
not only the makeup of the college science classroom, but of academia and the 
professional workplace as well. Women faced fewer social or cultural barriers to 
achieving high-level goals and positions, but the institutional framework for sup- 
porting working mothers with family-friendly policies (including, but not limited 
to childcare) has not necessarily changed since the 1960s and 1970s. It is still usu- 
ally the woman's (mother's) role to "juggle" work and family, and to find a way to 
make it work on an individual basis. The reality, in most instances, is that the work- 
place and the men involved are not expected to accommodate women who choose 
to be there. These are precisely the kinds of sociological and policy issues that have 
been taken up by women social scientists, such as Sylvia Hewlett, who created the 
Center for Work-Life Policy (http://www.worklifepolicy.org) to examine such 
issues, publish research, and make policy recommendations related to women, 
families, and work throughout the life cycle. 



Issues | 53 

References and Further Readings 

Coleman, Marilyn, Lawrence H. Ganong, and Kelly Warzinik. 2007. Family Life in 
20th-century America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. 

Hall, Linley Erin. 2007. Who's Afraid of Marie Curie? The Challenges Facing Women in 
Science and Technology. Emeryville, CA: Seal Press. 

Monosson, Emily. 2008. Motherhood, the Elephant in the Laboratory: Women Scientists 
Speak Out. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, http://sciencemoms.wordpress.com/. 

National Science Foundation. "Table H-ll. Scientists and engineers employed part time, 
by preference for full-time employment and reason for working part time, sex, race/ 
ethnicity, and disability status: 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities 
in Science and Engineering. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Re- 
sources and Statistics, Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT). 
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabh- 1 1 .pdf . 

National Science Foundation. "Table H-12. Scientists and engineers who are unemployed 
or out of labor force, by reason for not working, sex, race/ethnicity, and disability 
status: 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engi- 
neering. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources and Statistics, 
Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT). http://www.nsf.gov/ 
statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabh- 12.pdf. 

Simmons, Gail M. 2005. "Reproductive Success for Working Scientists." The Chronicle 
of Higher Education. (26 April 2005). http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2005/04/ 
2005042601c.htm. 

Summers, Lawrence. 2005. "Remarks at NBER Conference on Diversifying the Science & 
Engineering Workforce." Harvard University. Office of the President. (14 January 
2005). http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/summers 2005/nber.php. 

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2005. "Chart 6 4. Black mothers have the highest 
labor force participation rates." (March 2005). http://www.bls.gov/cps/labor2005/ 
chart6-4.pdf. 

U.S. Census Bureau. 2008a. "Table FG8. Married Couple Family Groups with Children 
Under 15 by Stay-At-Home Status of Both Spouses: 2008." America's Families and 
Living Arrangements: 2008. http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/ 
hh-fam/cps2008.html. 

U.S. Census Bureau. 2008b. "Table FG5/1. One-Parent Unmarried Family Groups with Own 
Children Under 18, by Labor Force Status of the Reference Person: 2008." America's 
Families and Living Arrangements: 2008. http://www.census.gov/population/www/ 
socdemo/hh-fam/cps2008.html. 

U.S. Census Bureau. 2008c. "New Analysis Offers State-by-State Look at Fertility." Press 
release. (18 August 2008). http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/ 
archives/population/0 12510.html. 



54 | American Women of Science since 1900 

Minority Women in the Sciences 

Accounting for 38% of new science doctorates and only 31% of science and engi- 
neering faculty, women are the minority in science. Compounded by women's 
even more glaring minority status in specific low-representation fields (such as 
engineering, physics, mathematics, and computer science), women and girls from 
racial and ethnic minorities face additional obstacles when it comes to education, 
resources, opportunity, and employment. According to National Science Founda- 
tion statistics for 2006, less than 2% of doctoral-level engineers were black and 
barely 10% were women of any race. The actual numbers of black women in spe- 
cific fields are even more dismal. Although women consistently earn the majority 
of bachelor's degrees awarded overall to African Americans, in 2006 they held 
38.7% of science and engineering doctorates, a number consistent with women's 
overall presence in the sciences. Broken down by field, however, these were con- 
centrated in psychology, social sciences, and the biological or life sciences, with 
the numbers of black female engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians, or 
physical scientists so negligible as not to be recorded (NSF Table H-7). 

Of course, the numbers and status of minority women scientists vary by racial 
group as well, with different challenges as well as different cultural, educational, 
and familial expectations for different groups of women, whether African American, 
Asian American, or Mexican American. Despite the effects of sexism and racism, 
however, individual women of color have made significant inroads into specific areas 
of science education and employment, thanks to legislation and changing social atti- 
tudes in the second half of the twentieth century. While the percentages of women of 
color in science relative to men of their same racial or ethnic groups would indicate 
that race and sex are not always compounded as disadvantages, it is important to 
point out that the actual numbers of African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, 
and Native Americans (men and women) in the sciences is still quite low, and that 
racial minorities remain grossly underrepresented in science and engineering relative 
to their numbers in the overall U.S. population. 

African American women had some early successes in the sciences, bolstered 
by the opening of black colleges and universities, and the first racially integrated 
colleges, in the late nineteenth century. Many black women scientists of the early 
twentieth century were trained as undergraduates in these colleges, and broke 
through the barriers to graduate study to earn doctorates in many fields by the 
1930s and 1940s. Ruth Howard-Beckham earned her Ph.D. in psychology 
(1934); Marie Daly was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in 
chemistry (1948); and Phyllis Wallace earned a Ph.D. in economics (1948) and 
Evelyn Boyd Granville a Ph.D. in mathematics (1949), both from Yale. The 
1950s and 1960s saw many black women advance in the medical sciences. 



Issues | 55 

Phyllis Harrison-Ross was an M.D. and a pediatric psychologist; Jewel 
Plummer Cobb held a doctorate in cell biology; and Jean Harris was an M.D. 
and later the mayor of her town. 

Despite some individual successes in the first half of the twentieth century, and 
despite the legislative gains of the civil rights movement, African American women 
continued to face issues of fewer family resources, lower socioeconomic back- 
grounds, inferior educational opportunities, and lack of mentors. The author of the 
2008 book Swimming Against the Tide: African American Girls and Science Educa- 
tion cautions against generalizing about "women in science" without consideration 
of how the economic and racial status of minority women impacts their specific edu- 
cational and employment opportunities beyond the issues facing all women. In the 
case of African American women, there are some unique disadvantages but also some 
advantages or positive forces impacting their experiences of science. For example, 
within the black community, there is often an equal commitment to the education of 
boys and girls, propelled by the historical reality that black women will have to work 
to support their families, the desire for upward mobility within the black community, 
and the historical value placed on access to education. This would be borne out in the 
greater numbers of black women going on to earn college degrees than black men, 
who face their own specific challenges related to sex, race, and economic status or 
expectations. In other words, the particular economic and historical position of black 
families creates a different set of gender expectations than those found in the white 
community. While young white women may have greater access to teachers, books, 
and science equipment, there is not an overall cultural expectation of college atten- 
dance and future employment, the assumption more often being that white women 
will marry and will make a "choice" to pursue a career or a family (Hanson 2008). 

Women in the Asian American community face their own set of stereotypes, cul- 
tural assumptions, and expectations. While the stereotype of Asian women is submis- 
sive and quiet, many immigrant families also expect academic success for their 
children, and there seems to be less of a gender gap between the science education 
and achievement of Asian American male and female students. While their educa- 
tional goals, family expectations, and support may be the same as that offered to boys, 
Asian American girls and women are also subject to institutional discrimination 
along the science pipeline, just like women of other racial subgroups (Lee 2008). 

Despite the stereotype of Asian American overrepresentation in the sciences, 
Asian American students (male and female combined) made up only 10.8% of 
all enrolled engineering undergraduates in 2006, a small percentage of the total, 
but the largest of any nonwhite group (Hispanics made up 9% of all undergradu- 
ates in engineering, and African Americans just 5.7%). Of the Asian American 
students, however, only 20% of those were women (NSF Table B-10). Moving to 
the graduate level, Asian American women accounted for only 6.5% of all female 



56 | American Women of Science since 1900 

science and engineering graduate students in 2006 (NSF Table D-2). Finally, 
although the perception among some has been that the Civil Rights Act and politi- 
cal movements of the 1960s and 1970s did not represent Asians — a less vocal 
minority group in American society and history — the fact is that Asian Americans 
significantly outnumber African Americans or Hispanics as employed doctoral- 
level scientists and engineers (NSF Table H-9), and they outnumber blacks and 
Hispanics at all faculty levels within academia (NSF Table H-25). 

Asian American women have achieved at the highest levels of science in aca- 
demia and in business or industry. Chien-Shiung Wu was an early and renowned 
nuclear physicist, earning her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley 
in 1940. Of the next generation, Alice Huang (Ph.D., 1966) was a microbiologist 
who taught at major universities of the East and West Coasts and served as 
president of the American Society of Microbiology. Susan Wu is an aeronautics 
engineer who has consulted privately for NASA and other agencies, and Jennie 
Hwang is a materials engineer and international businesswoman who consults 
on green technologies and on motivating women and minorities in the sciences. 

Mexican Americans and other Hispanics face similar issues to those faced by 
African Americans as far as economic disadvantages and fewer educational 
resources and role models, but Latinas may have additional barriers of living in 
immigrant and migrant communities, and of language obstacles between school 
and home and between generations. They may also come up against cultural expec- 
tations that their primary adult role will be domestic, as mothers, rather than profes- 
sional. Still, in 2006, Hispanic women earned 56% of all science and engineering 
bachelor's degrees awarded to Hispanics; however, this only accounted for 8.5% 
of the degrees awarded to all women (NSF Table C-14). As recipients of STEM 
doctorates, Hispanic women earned more Ph.D.s than either black men or Hispanic 
men, but still earned only 5.6% of doctoral degrees granted to all women (NSF 
Table F-12). Hispanic women students are supported by prominent Hispanic lead- 
ers who provide role models and are committed to highly organized professional 
communities involved in educational outreach and mentorship programs. 

By the 1970s and 1980s, many women of color achieved important "firsts" in 
fields and positions that were slowly opened to American women. Mae Jemison 
became the first black female astronaut and Ellen Ochoa became the first His- 
panic astronaut. Antonia Novello was the first female (and first Hispanic) Surgeon 
General, serving under President George H. W. Bush; a few years later, President 
Clinton also selected a woman as Surgeon General, Joycelyn Elders, also the first 
African American in that position. Physicist France Anne-Dominic Cordova 
worked for NASA and in 2007 was named president of Purdue University, and cell 
biologist Lydia Villa-Komaroff had a career in academia before becoming Chief 
Scientific Officer of a biotechnology company. 



Issues | 57 




Many minority women scientists 
have taken as their topic of research 
and study racial minorities in health- 
care, life sciences and diseases, and 
social sciences. Native American 
women especially were often the first 
and among the few native peoples in 
their fields. Anthropologist Beatrice 
Medicine focused her attention on the 
needs and status of Native American 
women and families. Lora Shields 
received one of the earliest doctorates 
in botany (from the University of Iowa 
in 1947) received by a Native Ameri- 
can; her research focused on the effect 
of uranium mining and nuclear testing 
on vegetation on Navajo lands and res- 
ervations. Agnes Stroud was a biolo- 
gist who also looked at the effect of 
radiation on human health and was 
the first Native American woman sci- 
entist at a national research lab. 

Many Latina and African American 
women also aligned their research interests with issues facing their communities. 
Sociologist Maxine Baca Zinn focused her research on Latino families and 
Mexican American women in particular, and psychologist Jane Delgado has been 
at the forefront of the Hispanic health movement. Niara Sudarkasa and Faye 
Harrison are both anthropologists who study people of African descent throughout 
the world; Mary Harris, who holds a doctorate in genetics, runs a foundation and 
website devoted to African American health issues; Angela Ferguson (M.D., 1949) 
and Helen Ranney (M.D., 1947) both studied sickle-cell anemia, a disease that 
disproportionately affects African Americans. 

Gay and lesbian issues are a new area of minority concern among science and 
engineering professionals, with similar issues of education, policy, and profes- 
sional research interests. Some have identified a "lavender ceiling" preventing the 
advancement of lesbian women within the professions that is a combination of sex- 
ism and heterosexism. Laws against discrimination based on sexual orientation are 
fairly recent, and vary by state and industry. There are no figures on the numbers of 
lesbians in science but, as in the other professions, lesbian women are concerned 
about access to employment benefits, partner or spousal rights, healthcare, and 



Astronaut Mae Jemison on Spacelab-J, 1992. 
(NASA) 



58 | American Women of Science since 1900 

work/life balance. The gay and lesbian community has been organizing since the 
1960s, but the movement did not come into its own politically until the 1990s. 
The issues are ongoing and lesbians stand to gain from, but have not always been 
heard within, both the feminist and the larger gay-rights movements. 

In terms of scientific research itself, various medical and psychological explan- 
ations for homosexuality date back to at least the nineteenth century, but new 
inquiries into unique gay and lesbian health issues, mental health, and the scien- 
tific understandings of homosexuality itself (the nature-versus-nurture question) 
have gained momentum just since the 1990s. In the broadest sense, lesbian issues 
are women's issues and should concern the larger women's movement and inform 
larger debates about women in science and as subjects of scientific research. In 
1993, the American Medical Women's Association (AMWA) issued its statement 
on lesbian health, and in 1999 the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy 
of Science published a book-length report on "Lesbian Health: Current Assess- 
ment and Directions for the Future" (Solarz). The National Organization of Gay 
and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP) is an affiliate of 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The Gay and Lesbian 
Medical Association (GLMA) is also a major national group that serves as both a 
professional member organization and a research and advocacy group on issues 
related to healthcare specific to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) 
community. The GLMA also publishes its own journal. 

What is needed for the future of minority women in the sciences are the same 
issues that affect all women in the sciences: education, mentorship, funding, 
opportunity, and access to all levels of employment. Racial minority women often 
face double the hurdles, however, as they move through the science education and 
career pipelines. Many national professional organizations, either for women or 
for specific racial minority groups, serve as important clearinghouses for informa- 
tion on research opportunities, educational programs, internships, mentorships, 
prize competitions, and conferences. Some of these that are not specific to women 
include the American Indian Science & Engineering Society, Society for 
Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science, National Society of 
Black Engineers, Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists (MAES), 
and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. 

References and Further Reading 

Campbell, George, Ronni Denes, and Catherine Morrison, eds. 2000. Access Denied: 
Race, Ethnicity, and the Scientific Enterprise. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Fausto-Sterling, Anne. "Gender, Race, and Science." Brown University. http://bms 
. brown. edu/faculty/f/afs/afs fields gender.html. 



Issues | 59 

Hanson, Sandra L. 2006. "African American Women in Science: Experiences from High 
School through the Post-secondary Years and Beyond." In Removing Barriers: Women 
in Academic Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, edited by Jill M. 
Bystydzienski and Sharon R. Bird. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 

Hanson, Sandra L. 2008. Swimming Against the Tide: African American Girls and Science 
Education. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 

Harding, Sandra, ed. 1993. The "Racial" Economy of Science: Toward a Democratic 
Future. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 

Kenschaft, Patricia Clark. 2005. Change Is Possible: Stories of Women and Minorities in 
Mathematics. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society. 

Lee, Jaekyung. 2008. "Asian Americans and the Gender Gap in Science and Technology." 
In Women, Science, and Technology: A Reader in Feminist Science Studies, 2nd edition, 
edited by Mary Wyer et al. New York: Routledge. 

Murphy, Michelle et al. "History of Race in Science." History Department, University of 
Toronto, http://www.racesci.org/. 

National Science Foundation. "Table B-10. Undergraduate enrollment in engineering pro- 
grams, by sex, race/ethnicity, and citizenship: 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons 
with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. Engineering Workforce Commission, 
Engineering & Technology Enrollments: Fall 2006. (Washington, D.C. 2007). http:// 
www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabb-10.pdf. 

National Science Foundation. "Table C-14. Bachelor's degrees, by race/ethnicity, citizen- 
ship, sex, and field: 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science 
and Engineering. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statis- 
tics, special tabulations of U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educa- 
tion Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, Completions Survey, 
2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabc-14.pdf. 

National Science Foundation. "Table D-2. Female S&E graduate students, by field, citi- 
zenship, and race/ethnicity: 1999 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabil- 
ities in Science and Engineering. National Science Foundation, Division of Science 
Resources Statistics, Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and 
Engineering, 1999 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabd-2.pdf. 

National Science Foundation. "Table F-2. S&E doctoral degrees awarded to women, by field: 
1999 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineer- 
ing. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Survey of 
Earned Doctorates, 1999 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabf-2.pdf. 

National Science Foundation. "Table F-12. Doctorates awarded to U.S. citizens and 
permanent residents, by sex, field, and race/ethnicity: 2006." Women, Minorities, and 
Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. National Science Foundation, 
Division of Science Resource Statistics, Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2006. http:// 
www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabf-12.pdf. 



60 | American Women of Science since 1900 

National Science Foundation. "Table H-7. Employed scientists and engineers, by occupa- 
tion, highest degree level, race/ethnicity, and sex: 2006." Women, Minorities, and Per- 
sons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. National Science Foundation, 
Division of Science Resources Statistics, Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data 
System (SESTAT). http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabh-7.pdf. 

National Science Foundation. "Table H-9. Employed doctoral scientists and engineers, by 
race/ethnicity and occupation: 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities 
in Science and Engineering. National Science Foundation, Division of Science 
Resources Statistics, Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT). http:// 
www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/figh-9.htm. 

National Science Foundation. "Table H-25. S&E doctorate holders employed in univer- 
sities and 4-year colleges, by broad occupation, sex, race/ethnicity, and faculty rank: 
2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. 
National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Survey of 
Doctorate Recipients, 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabh-25.pdf. 

Solarz, Andrea L., ed. 1999. "Lesbian Health: Current Assessments and Directions for the 
Future." Committee on Lesbian Health Research Priorities, Neuroscience and Behav- 
ioral Health Program, Health Sciences Policy Program, Health Sciences Section, Insti- 
tute of Medicine. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. 

Warren, Wini. 1999. Black Women Scientists in the United States. Bloomington: Indiana 
University Press. 



Disciplines 



Aerospace and Astronautics 

Aerospace science encompasses the theory, engineering, and manufacturing of 
aircraft and spacecraft for flight both within and outside of the Earth's atmosphere. 
Astronautics refers specifically to the science and technology of space flight, includ- 
ing manned space flight, and is thus one of the newest scientific disciplines, emerging 
as a distinct field only in the mid-twentieth century. In the United States, the space 
flight program is run by a government agency, the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA), founded in 1958. Aerospace science, or aeronautics, and 
astronautics includes not only astronauts, but scientists and engineers working within 
a variety of research and technical support areas in both industry and government set- 
tings. Persons working within the aerospace and astronautics fields may have 
advanced degrees and experience in physics, electrical and mechanical engineering, 
mathematics, chemistry, environmental sciences, astronomy and astrophysics, 
biology, and even medicine. The first generation of American astronauts were usually 
trained military pilots, but the astronaut program eventually recruited doctoral- 
level scientists and engineers with specialized knowledge in a range of disciplines. 
Although early mathematicians, physicists, astronomers, and writers theorized the 
possibility of space travel (and of flight in general), aerodynamics and rocket science 
were technological triumphs of the twentieth century. The American aerospace sci- 
ence industry and astronaut training programs are the result of the Cold War-era 
"space race" between the United States and Russia. After Russia launched the 
Sputnik space satellite in 1957, the United States began its own space program in 
1958; 10 years later, American astronauts landed on the moon. The Russian Mir 
space station was launched in 1986 and, in the post-Cold War era, construction of 
the international space station began in 1998, with scheduled completion by 201 1. 
Over the past 50 years, then, the American space program has evolved from competi- 
tion to cooperation, and from individual unmanned rockets and satellites to a full- 
crew shuttle program, and American women have been involved in all phases. 



61 



62 | American Women of Science since 1900 



The first woman in space was 
Russian cosmonaut Valentina Teresh- 
kova in 1963. At that time, the United 
States did not yet allow women into 
the astronaut training program, and it 
would take another 20 years until the 
United States put its first woman in 
space, Sally Ride in 1983. It was not 
until 1978 that NASA opened the 
astronaut program to female candi- 
dates, but women had already played 
a significant role in the development 
of the space program to that date. It 
was a woman who helped write the 
legislation that led to the founding of 
the National Aerospace and Space 
Act two decades earlier. Congressional 
researcher Eilene Galloway had writ- 
ten a report on "Guided Missiles in 
Foreign Countries" and was involved 
in drafting treaties and legislation 
regarding rules for peaceful inter- 
national space exploration, leading to 
the creation of NASA in 1958. 
The following year, capitalizing on the space race combined with public 
interest in female pilots such as Amelia Earhart and the Women's Air Force 
Service Pilots (WASPs) during World War II, Dr. William Randolph Lovelace 
established a privately run Woman in Space program. Pilot Geraldyne "Jerrie" 
Cobb helped create physical-fitness tests for women and, in 1961, 13 female 
pilots, including Cobb, passed the training tests at Lovelace's New Mexico 
facility. But politics and social restrictions still interfered with women's entrance 
into the space program, and, without official support from NASA, the military 
put a stop to further testing and training of women pilots. Cobb and the others 
appealed to Congress in 1962, claiming sex discrimination, but NASA represen- 
tatives and male astronauts testified that the women lacked training as military 
pilots and lacked engineering degrees. Of course, at that time, women were 
routinely excluded from those very opportunities that would have opened this 
career path. Although Congress would not require NASA to establish a women's 
training program, Cobb and the other pilots were proud that they passed the 
same physical and psychological requirements as the male astronauts who 




Commercial pilot Jerrie Cobb helped develop 
astronaut training tests for women in the early 
1960s. (Bettmann/Corbis) 



Disciplines | 63 



Eilene Galloway 

Eilene Marie Slack Galloway (1906-2009) helped research and write the National 
Aeronautics and Space Act, which led to the creation of the National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958. Galloway, a Congressional 
researcher, began working as early as 1941 on guidelines and legislation regard- 
ing peaceful international space exploration, and in 1958 worked with Senator 
Lyndon B. Johnson on the Congressional hearings advocating the creation of a 
U.S. space agency. She later served on numerous advisory committees for NASA 
and was a founding member of the International Institute of Space Law. Galloway 
was not a scientist, but helped pave the way for American space exploration and 
technological innovation, ushering in the era of the space race and the moon land- 
ing. She was honored for her contribution to the space program with several 
NASA awards and was also named a fellow of the American Astronautical Society 
and, in 1987, the first recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in 
Aerospace. In 2006, she was the first woman to be named an Honorary Fellow 
of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Galloway died in 
2009, just a few days before her 103rd birthday. 



eventually flew missions for NASA, and considered themselves the "First Lady 
Astronaut Trainees" (or FLATs). 

Although the Navy and Air Force began training women as pilots in the mid- 
1970s, after the Apollo program ended, NASA eliminated the jet-pilot requirement 
for astronauts and began seeking candidates with science and engineering back- 
grounds, including women. In 1978, the first six women astronauts were chosen: 
Sally Ride, Kathryn Sullivan, Anna Fisher, Margaret Rhea Seddon, Judith 
Resnik, and Shannon Lucid. Ride was the first American woman to fly in space, 
Sullivan the first to walk in space; Fisher was the first mother in orbit, while 
Seddon's pregnancy barred her from the early flights; engineer Resnik died in 
the Challenger disaster of 1986; and Lucid spent 179 days aboard the space station 
Mir, a record for any astronaut, male or female. During the 1980s, these women 
received a great deal of media attention, but each year, more women joined the 
program. In 1995, Eileen Collins was the first woman to pilot a space shuttle, ful- 
filling the dream of the original pilot trainees of the 1960s, and in 2007, Peggy 
Whitson became the first female commander of the International Space Station. 
By 2008, America's fiftieth woman astronaut flew in space. 

Besides the astronauts, all of whom have been highly skilled scientific special- 
ists, many other women have been involved in NASA research and space missions. 
Women engineers and scientists compute orbits for missiles, rockets, and space 



64 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Karen Nyberg 

In May 2008, astronaut Karen LuJean Nyberg (b. 1969) became the fiftieth 
American woman in space when she flew aboard the space shuttle Discovery on 
a 13-day mission to the International Space Station. Nyberg served as ground 
crew support before entering the astronaut training program in 2000. She studied 
mechanical engineering at the University of North Dakota and conducted gradu- 
ate research at the University of Texas, Austin on thermoregulation control and 
human metabolic testing. She worked as an Environmental Control Systems 
Engineer for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) after 
receiving her doctorate in 1998. She received a patent for work at the Johnson 
Space Center on a Robot Friendly Probe and Socket Assembly. Before taking 
her first shuttle spaceflight, Nyberg completed deep-sea training through a 
program called NEEMO 10, an underwater exercise to simulate and prepare for 
sending astronauts to the moon and eventually to Mars. Nyberg has been 
honored with numerous NASA achievement and technical awards. 



vehicles, and develop new materials that can withstand the extremes of heat and 
cold in space and during reentry. Physiologists and psychologists analyze the 
physical and mental problems associated with weightlessness, motion sickness, 
and the gravity (G) forces experienced by pilots flying at high altitudes and reen- 
tering the Earth's atmosphere. Astronomers and astrophysicists provide data on 
the distance to the moon and planets, and the composition of those planets. Physi- 
cian Irene Long became one of the highest-ranking officials at NASA in her posi- 
tion as Chief Medical Officer. Christine Darden, an engineer at NASA's Langley 
Research Center, created the computer software program used to simulate a sonic 
boom in a wind tunnel. She was also involved in redesigning aircraft to minimize 
the sonic boom because military aircraft sometimes reach supersonic speeds as 
they fly across populated areas. 

Even more women have worked for companies and universities under NASA 
contracts as mathematicians, computer scientists, physicists, nutritionists, astrono- 
mers, metallurgists, meteorologists, materials and aviation engineers, psycholo- 
gists, and medical personnel. Margaret Hamilton was part of a team at the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that designed the computer systems 
for the Apollo command module and the lunar excursion vehicle. Heidi Hammel, 
also of MIT, and Margaret Burbidge, of the University of California, San Diego, 
are among the astronomers who were involved in the design of the Hubble space 
telescope and in correcting its flawed lens several years later. Marjorie Townsend 
designed and launched astronomical and meteorological satellites, and Patricia 



Disciplines | 65 

Cowings taught the astronauts how to use biofeedback to control motion sickness. 
Devrie Intriligator, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology, analyzed 
data from the Pioneer spacecraft in orbit around the sun, and Caroline Herzenberg, 
then at the ITT Research Institute, had a grant from NASA to test Apollo lunar 
samples. 

Women have now contributed to all aspects of the American aerospace and astro- 
nautics programs. Although the relatively small number of individual astronauts are 
highly celebrated by NASA and by the public, the efforts of an extensive and diverse 
group of scientists make space travel and exploration possible. The American 
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (http://www.aiaa.org) is the primary 
professional organization for those working in this field, and women professionals 
are supported by Women in Aerospace (http://womeninaerospace.org/). 

See also Astronomy and Astrophysics; Engineering; Physics 

References 

Ackmann, Martha. 2004. The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen American Women 
and the Dream of Space Flight. New York: Random House. 

International Women's Air and Space Museum, http://www.iwasm.org/. 

Kevles, Bettyann H. 2003. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. New York: 
Basic Books. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "First Lady Astronaut Trainees: 
Lovelace's Woman in Space Program." NASA History Division, http://history.nasa 
.gov/flats.html. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Women in Space." NASA History 
Division, http://history.nasa.gov/women.html. 

Nolen, Stephanie. 2002. Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the 
Space Race. New York: Avalon. 



Animal Sciences 

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) has a combined section for Animal, 
Nutritional, and Microbial Sciences. Although this categorization includes diverse 
fields of inquiry across several research interests, animal sciences as a separate field 
is usually defined by most college programs as encompassing research on livestock 
production, disease, and nutrition, which may require interdisciplinary training in 
agriculture, biology, chemistry, biochemistry, or zoology. Animal sciences may 
also include veterinary science, which itself is broken down by focus on small 
animal, large animal, or the subspecialty of equine or horse care. The broad field 



66 | American Women of Science since 1900 

of animal sciences is often the precursor, or undergraduate major, for entrance 
into veterinary school, for which women now make up the majority of students. 
By 2002, as many as 80% of new doctors of veterinary medicine were women. 
This is an almost complete reversal from 40 years ago, when only 5% of veteri- 
nary students were women. As in many scientific fields, however, the percent- 
ages reflect not only an increase in the actual numbers of women, but the 
lower numbers of men in the field, as the number of male veterinarians is down 
15% since 1991 (Zhao 2002). Nationwide, women were a slight majority in the 
broader field of agricultural sciences, earning 51.5% of all bachelor's degrees 
awarded in 2006 (NSF Table C-14). This makes animal and veterinary sciences 
unique among the sciences, as women are underrepresented in nearly every 
other field, significantly so in fields such as engineering, physics, or math. As 
all advanced or doctoral-level work requires several years of rigorous science 
education, regardless of the field of study, this unprecedented gender shift could 
be explained, at least in part, by the flexibility associated with private veterinary 
practice (as opposed to a faculty research position) and the association of animal 
care (and small-animal care, in particular) as a "helping" profession (like human 
medicine or psychology), which may disproportionately appeal to more women 
than men (Maines 2007). 

Of course, not all animal-science majors go on to veterinary or agricultural 
careers, as many scientists work on issues related to other nonlivestock or nondo- 
mesticated animals in diverse fields of biology, chemistry, entomology, environ- 
mental sciences, genetics, marine sciences, microbiology, nutrition, pathology, 
primatology, toxicology, or zoology, among others. Also, many students of agri- 
cultural sciences (an even broader field that might encompass animal sciences) 
are not working on issues related to animals at all, but on food crop production 
or irrigation, among other issues. 

In 1900, more than two-thirds of the U.S. population lived rurally, a situation 
reversed by 2000, when more than 80% of the population lived in urban areas 
(U.S. Census 2006). As the nation's population spread further and further westward, 
different areas of the country became focused on food production to feed the entire 
nation. New technological developments were needed not only for larger-scale, 
nonsubsistence agriculture in the Midwest and West, but for transportation and 
processing of livestock and related products. In the late nineteenth century, agricul- 
ture became not only highly commercialized, but regulated by the government as 
well. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) was founded in 1862, the same 
year the Morrill Act spurred the establishment of the land-grant colleges in these 
new regions to teach "agriculture and the mechanic arts." Women were admitted 
to these public colleges in ever- increasing numbers, especially after 1 890, and were 
educated for professional careers in the livestock, dairy, and poultry industries. 



Disciplines | 67 




In the early twentieth century, the 
USDA became one of the largest 
employers of women scientists, 
researchers, and assistants. 

Women have a long history of far- 
ming and animal care, and women's 
work in poultry and livestock produc- 
tion, care, and processing was essential 
to household income in the United 
States through the early twentieth 
century. This work led to numerous 
inventions and technological innova- 
tions by women related to farming 
and commercial agriculture. Some 
areas of animal sciences in which 
women have had particularly visible 
roles include creating new breeds and 
varieties of livestock. Melinda Boice, 
for example, was part of a University 
of Pennsylvania research team that 
produced the first calf by in vitro fer- 
tilization, a 198 1 breakthrough that was important for increasing production capabil- 
ities of farms (Stanley 1995, 44). Perhaps one of the most famous female animal 
scientists is Temple Grandin, whose work on animal behavior has had enormous 
implications not only for establishing humane treatment and slaughter standards for 
livestock, but for understanding human behavior as well. Another animal scientist 
whose work has implications for human health is microbiologist Linda Saif, whose 
work on animal viruses helped government and healthcare providers plan a vaccine 
response to the global SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in 
2002-2003. 

Professional organizations for animal scientists include the American Society of 
Animal Science (http://www.asas.org) and the Association for Women Veterinar- 
ians (http://www.womenveterinarians.org/), which began as the Women's Veteri- 
nary Association in 1947, when there were only about 100 professional female 
veterinarians in the United States. As women's numbers in the field have grown, 
the AWV has taken on a broader range of advocacy issues related to women in the 
profession, such as scholarships and mentoring for female students, pay inequity, 
and maternity leave and other work/life issues. 

See also Biochemistry; Environmental Sciences and Ecology; Genetics; 
Nutrition; Zoology 



Temple Grandin attends a screening of 
HBO's 'Temple Grandin' at the Time Warner 
screening room, 2010. (AP/Wide World 
Photos) 



68 | American Women of Science since 1900 

References 

Casey, T. M. and K. Plaut. 2003. "Women and Minorities in Animal Science: Do Issues 
Exist?" Journal of Dairy Science. 86:E35 E46. http://jds.fass.org/cgi/content/full/86/ 
13 suppl/E35. 

Drum, Sue and H. Ellen Whiteley. 1991. Women in Veterinary Medicine: Profiles of 
Success. Ames: Iowa State University Press. 

Gage, Loretta and Nancy Gage. 1994. If Wishes Were Horses: The Education of a Veteri- 
narian. New York: St. Martin's. 

Maines, Rachel. 2007. "Why Are Women Crowding into Schools of Veterinary Medicine 
but Are Not Lining Up to Become Engineers?" Cornell Perspectives. (12 June 2007). 
Cornell University. http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June07/women.vets.vs 
.eng.sl.html. 

National Science Foundation. 2006. "Table C-14. Bachelor's degrees, by race/ethnicity, 
citizenship, sex, and field: 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in 
Science and Engineering. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources 
Statistics, special tabulations of U.S. Department of Education, National Center for 
Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, Completions 
Survey, 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabc-14.pdf. 

Stanley, Autumn. 1995. Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History 
of Technology. 2nd edition. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 

U.S. Census. 2006. "U.S. Population: Urban and Rural Comparison, 1900 2006. Chang- 
ing America: U.S. Population Growth." The Boston Globe. (7 October 2006). http:// 
www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/10/08/us growth/. 

Zhao, Yilu. 2002. "Women Soon to Be Majority of Veterinarians." New York Times. 
(9 June 2002). http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/09/us/women-soon-to-be-majority 
-of-veterinarians.html?fta=y. 



Anthropology and Archaeology 

Anthropology is the study of human cultures, past and present, and combines 
the methods and questions of the natural sciences with the humanities and social 
sciences. Anthropologists study human behavior, customs, physical characteris- 
tics, and environments, and their work overlaps significantly with research in 
fields such as primatology, evolutionary biology, and psychology. Subfields or 
specialties include biological anthropology, physical anthropology, cultural 
anthropology, anthropological linguistics, and archaeology, the science of recover- 
ing the human material and physical past. The National Academy of Sciences 
(NAS) includes anthropology and archaeology under its Behavioral and Social 
Sciences section, but only a small number of anthropologists or archaeologists 



Disciplines | 69 




have been elected to the NAS. Through 
2008, there were only 66 NAS mem- 
bers in anthropology, 15 of whom were 
women. This is most likely a result of 
the lesser position of the social sci- 
ences in the NAS, however, and not a 
reflection of the number of profes- 
sionals working in these fields at large. 

As with natural history, botany, 
paleontology, or other field-study sci- 
ences, many women in the nineteenth 
and early twentieth centuries pursued 
anthropological and archaeological 
studies as amateurs Beginning in the 
nineteenth century, however, the U.S. 
government became involved in ethno- 
graphic studies of Native Americans, 
recording valuable knowledge and 
collecting artifacts from groups who 
faced cultural extinction due to the 
policy of expansion. The Bureau of 
Indian Affairs was established in 

1824, the Smithsonian Institution in 1855, and the American Museum of Natural 
History in 1869. At the turn of the twentieth century, many women writers and 
photographers went into the field as ethnographers to record (and often advocate 
for) Native American life. Alice Fletcher, who studied archaeology at Harvard and 
later lived among the Ohama Plains Indians, was among this generation. University 
departments soon replaced the amateur explorations and field studies of the earlier 
generation with professional museum development and management. 

Franz Boas, Columbia University professor and creator of the first Ph.D. pro- 
gram in anthropology, was trained in physics and established empirical methods 
for anthropology that replaced the earlier evolutionary perspective of human cul- 
tures along a hierarchical scale of "civilization." Some of the most prominent early 
professional women anthropologists worked with Boas, including Ruth Benedict, 
Margaret Mead, and Elsie Clews Parsons, who trained in sociology at Columbia 
but never held a university position. Parsons helped establish the Journal of 
American Folklore and was the first female president of the American Anthropo- 
logical Association in 1941. Mead was later the first female president of the 
Society for Applied Anthropology. Women anthropologists of this generation 
began to pay attention to women as research subjects and argued for a cultural, 



Anthropologist and folklorist, Ruth Fulton 
Benedict. (Bettmann/Corbis) 



70 | American Women of Science since 1900 

rather than biological, basis for human behavior. Mead, in particular, reached a 
nonacademic audience and expanded interest in the work of anthropologists with 
her controversial works on sexuality and sex roles. 

In the 1970s and 1980s, a new generation of feminist anthropologists intro- 
duced new theories and methods to the field. Feminist anthropologists, such as 
Eleanor Leacock, who earned her Ph.D. from Columbia in 1952, as well as a 
new generation of archaeologists and primatologists, questioned methods that 
assumed gendered hierarchies were natural. Anthropology was revolutionized by 
the new women's liberation movement of the early 1970s, which provided a theo- 
retical basis for questioning the "naturalness" of patriarchy around the world. 
Marxist feminists rejected the belief that women were unproductive or dependent 
members of society, showing that man-the-hunter had turned into modern man- 
the-wage-earner, but that women's reproductive work and household contributions 
had been ignored by anthropologists and historians. Since the 1980s, queer theory 
has raised questions about the nature of gender identity and sexual orientation, 
further challenging the idea of a unified definition or experience of "woman" 
(or "man") across cultures and time. 

Although the primary image of the anthropologist is one of the fieldworker, as 
social scientists, they may also work in a variety of university, government, and 
private institutions as qualitative analysts and policy consultants. Current anthro- 
pologists look at culturally specific beliefs surrounding women's roles and a 
range of issues such as menstruation, childbirth, motherhood, women's educa- 
tion and wage-earning, female circumcision, sexuality, women's experiences of 
poverty and development, and women's roles and family life within specific 
communities, such as in the work of Johnnetta Cole or Niara Sudarkasa 
among Africans and African Americans, or Beatrice Medicine's work among 
Native Americans. This work is supported professionally by subgroups within 
the American Association of Anthropology (AAA) such as the Association for 
Feminist Anthropology (http://www.aaanet.org/sections/afa/), Committee on the 
Status of Women in Anthropology (http://www.aaanet.org/cmtes/coswa/ 
index.cfm), and Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists (http://www.uvm 
.edu/~dlrh/solga/). 

Feminist archaeologists seek to recover women's material past for insight into 
women's roles and contributions. They recover artifacts, buildings, and even 
physical bodies (such as skeletons or hair for analyzing DNA) for clues about 
gender, class, and religious belief. Supporting the work of anthropologists and 
historians, archaeologists can provide the material evidence for understanding 
women's economic contributions and the gendered divisions of labor through 
analysis of tools and other household items. Feminist archaeologists have also 
been interested in recovering an alternate female past, challenging the history of 



Disciplines | 71 

patriarchy itself through analysis of material items related to matriarchal and 
goddess societies, such as religious and fertility figures. 

The late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century era of exploration, coloniza- 
tion, missionary work, and world travel opened up interest in exotic peoples and 
cultures, past and present, giving new methods and purpose to archaeological expe- 
ditions, which were now funded and organized by governments, universities, and 
museums. There were almost no professional women archaeologists before 1915. 
There were not only limitations of training and access to university positions 
(a problem for women in all fields of science), but women in this pioneer genera- 
tion of archaeologists also often had to deal with prejudices and obstacles from 
the communities and regions in which they studied; it was often seen as unsuitable 
for women to interact with local men, to dress in Western attire, or to take on lead- 
ership roles in organizing local male field workers, for example. 

Some women pursued the work as amateurs, self-funded, or were married to 
male archaeologists and accompanied them on research expeditions. Women also 
had to struggle against a particular view of the archaeologist as a fearless male 
adventurer, the "Indiana Jones" type. Women were seen as particularly unsuited 
to scientific pursuits that involved field work (not only archaeology, but also 
geography, geology, or zoology, for example), which required not only time 
spent in the field among male colleagues, but time spent away from the home 
and families, literally digging in the dirt. This view of archeological work as 
men's work was long-lasting; as late as 1981, Harvard University explained the 
lack of women in its archaeology department by declaring that "women as a 
group are not attracted to the discipline," even though women at that time were 
receiving one-third of all doctorates in anthropology and archaeology (Irwin- 
Williams 1990, 3). 

By the 1930s, archaeology was established as an academic discipline, but 
few women stood out in the field, especially in the United States. Some of most 
prominent American women were working as part of husband-wife teams during 
these years (Ann Morris or Elizabeth Campbell), while others worked alone 
(Florence Hawley Ellis or Frederica De Laguna, who served as president of 
the American Anthropological Association in 1967). Prominent women of the 
next generation included Marjorie Ferguson Lambert, Dorothy Hughes Popenoe, 
and Hannah Marie Wormington, who in 1968 was the first woman president of 
the Society of American Archaeology. Beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, feminist 
archaeologists, like anthropologists, made interventions into the nature-versus- 
nurture debate, and some have built careers amassing significant artifact collec- 
tions, such as Joyce Marcus's collection on Latin America at the University of 
Michigan Museum of Anthropology. The work of professional women archaeolo- 
gists is supported by groups such as the Society for American Archaeology 



72 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Lucy Changes History 

A 3.2 million year old woman made an important contribution to science in the 
twentieth century. "Lucy" (Australopithecus afarensis) is the name given to a par- 
tial skeleton found in Ethiopia in 1 974 and, at that time, the earliest bipedal (walk- 
ing on two legs) hominid specimen, a link between modern humans and the great 
apes. Lucy was discovered by a team that included American anthropologist and 
museum curator Donald Johanson. She is only three and a half feet tall and 
resembled a chimpanzee, but her leg and pelvic bones confirmed her ancestry 
to modern humans and her small skull confirmed the evolutionary fact that 
humans walked upright before their brains developed to a larger size. In 1994 an 
even older hominid skeleton was found, pushing the date of bipedalism back to 
4.4 million years ago. Lucy's skeleton is preserved at the National Museum of 
Ethiopa, although a reconstructed replica is available for display and research in 
the United States, at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. 



Women's Interest Group (http://www.saa.org/ForMembers/InterestGroups/ 
WomeninArchaeologyInterestGroup/tabid/158/Default.aspx). Some of the most 
significant work on feminist theory and feminist archaeology has been done, how- 
ever, by scholars and archaeologists from Britain, Canada, and Australia, as the 
research is often international in scope and not specific to one country. 
See also Paleontology; Primatology 

References 

Bernardin, Susan. 2003. Trading Gazes: Euro-American Women Photographers and 
Native North Americans, 1880 1940. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 

Claassen, Cheryl, ed. 1994. Women in Archaeology. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsyl- 
vania Press. 

Irwin- Williams, Cynthia. 1990. "Women in the Field: The Role of Women in Archaeology 
before 1960." In Women of Science: Righting the Record, edited by G. Kass-Simon and 
Patricia Fames, 1 40. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 

Cohen, Getzel M. and Martha Sharp Joukowsky, eds. 2004. Breaking Ground: Pioneering 
Women Archaeologists. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 

Lavender, Catherine J. 2006. Scientists and Storytellers: Feminist Anthropologists and the 
Construction of the American Southwest. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico 
Press. 

White, Nancy Marie, Lynne P. Sullivan, and Rochelle A. Marrinan, eds. 1999. Grit- 
Tempered: Early Women Archaeologists in the Southeastern United States. Gainesville: 
University Press of Florida. 



Disciplines | 73 



Astronomy and Astrophysics 



Astronomy is the study of the entire universe outside of the Earth's immediate 
atmosphere and may include astrometry (charting the positions and movements 
of stars or planets) and astrophysics. Astrophysics includes the study of the physi- 
cal properties of stars, planets, and galaxies (temperature, light, chemical makeup) 
as well as theoretical astrophysics, nuclear physics, quantum physics, and cosmol- 
ogy. Astrophysics may therefore be studied under astronomy or physics programs 
in colleges and universities. With the availability of modern telescope equipment, 
observational astronomy is also one of the few branches of science that still main- 
tains a thriving worldwide amateur community. Indeed, the International Astro- 
nomical Union (IAU) declared 2009 (the 400-year anniversary of Galileo's 
discoveries) the International Year of Astronomy to encourage citizens of all ages 
to explore the skies and the universe. 

Observational astronomy has a long history, as humans have always been 
curious about activities in the skies. The observation of other planets, stars, and 
the sun and moon have had important influences on human culture, from religious 
beliefs to agricultural calendars to scientific revolutions, all of which preceded 
modern scientific methods and understandings of the workings of the universe. 
There were significant early efforts at mapping the skies, and some important astro- 
nomical discoveries and tools developed in the pre-modern era, such as the cyclical 
nature of eclipses, the size and distance of the moon, and the discovery of galaxies. 
The early cataloging of stars, as well as accounts of eclipses and other astronomical 
events, have proved essential records for modern astronomers studying the history 
of the universe. Modern astronomy begins with the Renaissance-era work of 
Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei, who put forth a heliocentric theory of 
the solar system — that the sun, not the Earth, is the center of the solar system. After 
the invention of the telescope, there were no major technological advances for 
astronomy until the nineteenth century, when the invention of the spectroscope 
(for measuring light) and photography made it possible to record the size and posi- 
tions of the stars more accurately. The Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of 
America (precursor to the American Astronomical Society) was founded in 1899. 
Modern astronomy's and cosmology's greatest advances have been made in the 
twentieth century, with observations and theories related to the existence of other 
galaxies, black holes and other theoretical phenomenon, and the origins, expan- 
sion, and age of the universe, including the "Big Bang" theory. 

The fourth-century Greek philosopher and mathematician Hypatia is often 
named as the first female astronomer; she published an Astronomical Canon, 
which was most likely an updated chart of the planets. German-English astrono- 
mer Caroline Herschel discovered several comets and compiled a Catalogue of 



74 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Jocelyn Bell Burnell 

British astrophysicist Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell (b. 1943) made one of the most 
important discoveries in astrophysics when she identified the first radio pulsars, 
neutron stars that emit regular pulses of radiation or energy. Her work, conducted 
while she was still a graduate student at Cambridge, was published in collabora- 
tion with her thesis advisor, Anthony Hewish, who was awarded the Nobel Prize 
in Physics in 1 974 for their findings. Bell Bunnell's exclusion from the Nobel Prize 
(which Hewish shared with another colleague, Martin Ryle) has been widely seen 
as one of the greatest oversights in the award's history. She not only discovered 
the first pulsars in 1 967, but had built the radio telescope necessary for her obser- 
vations, opening up a new era in astronomical research; hundreds of pulsars 
would be discovered in subsequent years. She completed her doctorate at 
Cambridge in 1969 and went on to hold appointments at several universities in 
the United Kingdom and United States, and has been president of the Royal 
Astronomical Society and the Institute of Physics. Although she was excluded 
from the Nobel Prize early in her career, she went on to receive numerous presti- 
gious awards, including the Albert Michelson Medal of the Franklin Institute of 
Philadelphia (1973, jointly with Hewish), the Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize of the 
American Astronomical Society (1987), and the Herschel Medal of the Royal 
Astronomical Society (1989). 



Stars in 1798. Maria Mitchell was not only one of the earliest American astrono- 
mers, she is considered the first professional female scientist in the United States. 
Mitchell gained worldwide fame for her discovery of a comet using a telescope in 
1847. She became a professor of astronomy at Vassar College, training a new gen- 
eration of women as astronomers and science teachers, and continues to inspire the 
work of women astronomers today through the Maria Mitchell Association (http:// 
w w w.mmo . org/astronomy. html) . 

Beginning in the 1870s and continuing into the early decades of the twentieth 
century, the Harvard Observatory employed dozens of young women as "com- 
puters," counting and cataloging stars from photographic prints. Although com- 
puters were paid low wages for tedious work that was considered "unskilled," 
several women made important contributions at Harvard during this era and 
became prominent astronomers in their own right, including Annie Jump 
Cannon, Antonia Maury, and Henrietta Swan Leavitt. Before 1920, women 
astronomers and catalogers did not hold doctorates, but as having a Ph.D. increas- 
ingly became a requirement for professional advancement, fewer women made 
their marks in the field. In 1925, Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin was the first woman 
to receive a doctorate in astronomy from Radcliffe College (Harvard). 



Disciplines | 75 



Hypatia 

Hypatia of Alexandria (ca. 370-415) is considered one of the first women scien- 
tists in the Western world. An accomplished mathematician, astronomer, inventor, 
and philosopher, she was murdered by the Christians then coming to power and 
seeking to limit the influence of "heretics." Hypatia was the daughter of renowned 
mathematician and astronomer Theon, and received a formal education in Athens 
and Italy. She returned to Alexandria to lecture on Plato and Aristotle and 
published in several fields, including a 13-volume work on algebra, Arithmetica. 
Her inventions included a hydrometer for measuring the gravity of liquids and an 
astrolabe for measuring the positions of the sun and stars. Her most well-known 
work is The Astronomical Canon, an updated table or chart of the stars. 

Hypatia never married, and it was said that she had "self-possession and ease of 
manner" and "not unfrequently appeared in public in presence of the magistrates [or 
of] an assembly of men." The circumstances of her death, as much as her life and 
impressive work, sealed Hypatia's fate as a representative of the persecuted intel- 
lectual woman, and she became an important figure in nineteenth- and twentieth- 
century women's rights history and in literature. Her contribution to astronomy has 
been recognized with an asteroid belt and a lunar crater named in her honor. 



Observational astronomer Sarah Lippincott specialized in identifying the 
planetlike companions, or extrasolar planets, to nearby stars. Planetary geologist 
Lucy-Ann McFadden keeps an eye on asteroids and dead comets floating near 
the Earth, and astronomers Elizabeth Roemer and Carolyn Shoemaker have also 
contributed to counting and tracking comets. As the twentieth century progressed, 
women became more involved in theoretical astronomy and astrophysics. Neta 
Bahcall, Sandra Faber, Margaret Geller, and Vera Rubin are all known for their 
research on the formation of galaxies; Rubin and Bahcall in particular are known for 
the discovery and study of areas of dark matter in the universe, which are invisible to 
the naked eye. Other physical scientists study chemical and environmental activity 
in space. Margaret Burbidge collaborated in developing a theory of the origin of 
chemical elements in the universe; Nancy Roman designed satellite observatories 
for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to explore the uni- 
verse from a vantage point that is free from atmospheric interference; and solar 
physicist Elske v.P. Smith analyzed active areas, such as flares, on the sun. 

Considered one of the physical sciences along with physics and chemistry, 
astronomy is the smallest of these disciplines, and therefore involves a small 
number of women employed as professional astronomers and astrophysicists. 
Because astronomy is not always tracked separately from physics or other depart- 
ments, it is difficult to determine specific numbers and information on women 



76 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Maria Mitchell 

Maria Mitchell (1818-1889) is considered the first American woman astronomer 
and one of the first professional women scientists. She gained international recog- 
nition after discovering a comet in 1 847 and later became professor and director of 
the Vassar College observatory. Her interest in astronomy was influenced by her 
father, who was hired by Nantucket whalers to check the accuracy of their chro- 
nometers by means of stellar observation. Maria learned to operate the sextant 
at an early age and was encouraged to continue her studies of mathematical texts 
after formal schooling ended. She opened her own school in 1835 and served as 
librarian at the new Nantucket Atheneum. In 1849, she was hired to work on an 
annual compilation of astronomical tables for mariners, and began to work for the 
U.S. Coast Survey. 

Although discouraged by the inferior facilities and laboratories made available 
to women, at Vassar, she was committed to science education, training a genera- 
tion of young women in observational work and experimentation that became a 
model at other women's colleges. She was a founder of the Association for the 
Advancement of Women and was elected the first woman member of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1848 and of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science in 1850. Mitchell received several honorary degrees 
for her astronomical work, and a crater on the moon was named for her. 



working in the field. Although the East Coast women's colleges developed strong 
astronomy programs for undergraduates, there were few women holding Ph.D.s in 
astronomy through the first half of the twentieth century. One source reports that 
between 1923 and 1930, women earned 25% of doctorates in astronomy, but that 
amounted to only 15 individuals, as it was a small field overall. By the 1950s 
and 1960s, that number dropped to only 10% of doctorates awarded to women 
(Mack 1990). The American Astronomical Society Committee on the Status of 
Women in Astronomy conducted a 2003 survey of 40 major research universities 
and found only 41 women as full professors, compared to 424 male full professors 
at those same institutions. When all tenure-track ranks are included (assistants, 
associates, and full professors), there were only 80 female tenure-track faculty 
spread among 40 universities, compared to 585 male faculty. Several of these uni- 
versities, even those with large numbers of astronomy faculty overall, reported 
having only one or two women on the faculty, at any rank (AAS 2003). These 
numbers are particularly troublesome given that those institutions reported a total 
of 269 female graduate students enrolled in 2003-2004, and that, in 2003, women 
earned 46% of all undergraduate degrees in astronomy and 26% of all doctorates 
(AIP 2005). 



Disciplines | 77 



The scientists themselves have 
been active voices for addressing the 
problems facing women in astronomy 
and physics. The American Astro- 
nomical Society's Committee on the 
Status of Women in Astronomy pro- 
vides guidelines and recommenda- 
tions for institutions and publishes a 
newsletter, STATUS, on women in 
astronomy and the sciences. In 2005, 
the AAS endorsed the Pasadena 
Recommendations for Gender 
Equality in Astronomy, drafted by 
the Committee on the Status of 
Women in Astronomy. The Com- 
mittee makes recommendations on 
institutional policy related to tenure, 
career advancement, and other work- 
place issues. 

See also Physics 




Astronomer and geophysicist, Lucy-Ann 
McFadden. (Courtesy of Mike Morgan, Uni- 
versity Publications, University of Maryland) 



References 

American Astronomical Society (AAS). 2003. "2003 CSWA Survey Data." Committee on 
the Status of Women in Astronomy, http://www.grammai.org/astrowomen/stats/ 
2003data.htm. 

American Institute of Physics (AIP). 2005. "Women in Physics and Astronomy, 2005." 
http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/highlite/women05/women05.htm. 

Lankford, lohn and Ricky L. Slavings. 1997. American Astronomy: Community, Careers, 
and Power, 1859 1940. University of Chicago Press. 

Mack, Pamela A. 1990. "Straying from Their Orbits: Women in Astronomy in America." 
in Women of Science: Righting the Record, edited by G. Kass-Simon and Patricia 
Fames, 72 116. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 



Biochemistry 

Biochemistry is the study of chemical substances and processes such as metabo- 
lism, the functions of enzymes, proteins, carbohydrates, and other molecular and 
cellular activities in living organisms. It includes biomedical research specialties 



78 | American Women of Science since 1900 

such as pharmacology, endocrinology, immunology, genetics, oncology, physiol- 
ogy, cytology, and toxicology. Biochemistry also has applications in plant and 
agricultural sciences, food and nutrition, earth and space sciences, and crystallog- 
raphy or physics. Although early scientists explored biochemical processes of the 
body, and of plants and foods, their work would have been considered part of 
general biological studies, organic chemistry, or what was termed "physiological 
chemistry." The term "biochemistry" was not used until the turn of the twentieth 
century. The Journal of Biological Chemistry was founded in 1905 and an American 
Society of Biological Chemists (now the American Society for Biochemistry and 
Molecular Biology, or ASBMB, http://www.asbmb.org) established in 1906. By 
the mid-twentieth century, the discovery of DNA brought new research interest 
to the cell and to genetics, with rapid advances in microbiological and biochemical 
research in the hopes of finding cures for diseases such as cancer. Biochemistry is 
still often considered a subfield of chemistry or biology, and not all colleges and 
universities have a separate program in biochemistry. Thus, biochemists may 
receive their degrees and training within a variety of other fields and contexts, so 
that not all those involved in biochemical research may be identified primarily as 
biochemists. 

Because of the broad definition of the field, which overlaps with numerous 
pursuits in the biological and chemical sciences, women have had a strong pres- 
ence in the history of biochemistry. When the ASBMB was founded in 1906, it 
had one female member, a Canadian chemist and food scientist named Clara 
Benson. Biochemistry was not always tracked as a separate discipline until the 
mid-twentieth century, and many more women were trained or affiliated with 
university departments of chemistry (or physiological chemistry in the earlier 
decades) or general biology. By 1941, however, biochemistry was listed as the 
most popular subfield for women members of the American Chemical Society. 
According to one of the earliest breakdowns of biochemistry as a separate sub- 
discipline, women held close to 12% of Ph.D.s in biochemistry in 1938, and that 
number remained the same through 1960 (Rossiter 1982, 157; Rossiter 1995, 81). 
The greatest number of biochemistry Ph.D.s awarded to women before 1940 
were from programs at the University of Chicago and Columbia University in 
New York; several women graduated from the program in microbiology at Johns 
Hopkins University as well (Rossiter 1982, 184). 

The early twentieth-century generation of women biochemists were most likely 
to be employed in research laboratories or college departments related to food and 
nutrition, agriculture, and public health, and were involved in the development 
of key technologies and discoveries in these fields. Their male counterparts 
were more likely to be employed in medical schools and research universities, 
while women faculty were more likely to teach at liberal arts colleges (including 



Disciplines | 79 




the women's colleges) or to hold 
positions as lecturers (nontenured 
faculty) or laboratory research assist- 
ants. It was also not uncommon for 
even prominent female researchers 
to have to wait to be appointed to full 
professor only at the very end of their 
careers, just before retirement. This 
was true for some of the most impor- 
tant female biochemists of the early 
twentieth century, such as Florence 
Seibert, who developed the much- 
acclaimed skin test for tuberculosis 
during the 1930s, but was not 
appointed a full professor at the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania until 1955, just 
before her retirement, and to Gerty 
Cori, who did not attain the rank of 
full professor at Washington Univer- 
sity until after winning the Nobel Prize 
in 1947. While women were earning 
12% of doctorates in biochemistry, as 
late as 1960 they still made up less 

than 5% of biochemistry faculty at the top 20 universities; the percentage of female 
full professors was under 2% (Rossiter 1995, 129). After 1970, however, women 
made great strides in this field, and by 2003, women were earning 40% to 45% of 
higher degrees in biochemistry and molecular biology (Wolfson 2006). 

American scientist Mildred Cohn was elected the ASBMB's first female 
president in 1978. The three most recent presidents (between 2002 and 2008) have 
all been women, and overall the society has had nine female presidents in its now 
more than 100-year history (besides Cohn, these are: Mary Jane Osborn, Mary 
Ellen Jones, Elizabeth Neufeld, Susan Taylor, Judith Klinman, Betty Sue Siler 
Masters, Judith Bond, and Heidi Hamm). An unusual number of women scientists 
working in biochemistry-related research have been recipients of the Nobel Prize 
in Physiology or Medicine: Gerty Cori, who with Carl Cori elucidated how glyco- 
gen is metabolized in the body (1947); Gertrude Elion, who with George Hitchings 
developed the first nucleotide-derived anticancer, antiviral drugs (1988); and 
Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider, who shared the prize with Jack Szotack 
for their collective research on telosomeres, providing a new direction in cancer 
research (2009). The discovery of the gene and of DNA were important 



Biochemist Gerty Cori was co-recipient (with 
her husband, Carl F. Cori) of the Nobel Prize in 
Physiology or Medicine in 1947. (National 
Library of Medicine) 



80 | American Women of Science since 1900 

breakthroughs in the history of biochemistry and molecular biology. British scien- 
tist Rosalind Franklin was central to this research in the 1950s and collaborated 
with James Watson and Francis Crick, who went on to receive the Nobel Prize 
for that work. Maxine Singer had a central role in articulating standards for work 
with recombinant DNA. Nobel Prize winners biomedical physicist Rosalyn Yalow 
(1977) and geneticist Barbara McClintock (1983) also conducted work in fields 
that included biochemical studies. 

Other prominent women biochemists of the twentieth century have included 
Icie Macy-Hoobler, who established Recommended Dietary Allowances 
(RDA) for several vitamins and contributed to the understanding of dietary needs 
of pregnant women, infants, and children, and nutritionist Gladys Emerson, who 
also researched vitamins and helped isolate vitamin E while working at the 
University of California, Berkeley in the late 1930s. Other biochemists have 
worked in areas of protein research and disease treatment. Rachel Brown and 
Elizabeth Hazen developed the first antifungal drug, nystatin; Mary Petermann 
discovered animal ribosomes, a key to understanding protein synthesis in cells; 
Birgit Vennesland studied carbohydrate metabolism; Lydia Villa-Komaroff 
has researched the role of insulin and other growth factors in brain development; 
and Sarah Ratner also researched protein metabolism and amino acids, and 
developed a test for identifying the presence of argininosuccinic acid, an indica- 
tion of a metabolic imbalance that can cause neurological damage. Neurophysi- 
ologist Candace Pert co-discovered the brain's opiate receptors, which receive 
chemicals (natural or synthetic) to relieve pain, and co-founded a pharmaceuti- 
cals research company to develop a vaccine for the virus that causes HIV/AIDS. 
Biochemists also conduct research that informs agricultural and environmental 
science, such as Mary-Dell Chilton, a researcher in plant biotechnology and 
the genetic engineering of agricultural crops to make them resistant to pests 
and environmental distress, and Audrey Haschemeyer, whose research on fish 
in Antarctica helps us understand how temperature changes affect some of the 
biochemical processes in humans. 

See also Biology; Biomedical Sciences; Chemistry; Genetics 

References 

Kohler, Robert. 1982. From Medical Chemistry to Biochemistry: The Making of a Bio- 
medical Discipline. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 

Rossiter, Margaret. 1982. Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940. 
Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Rossiter, Margaret W. 1995. Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 
1940 1972. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University. 



Disciplines | 81 

Spanier, Bonnie. 1995. Im/partial Science: Gender Ideology in Molecular Biology. 
Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 

Wolfson, Adele J. 2006. "One Hundred Years of American Women in Biochemistry." 
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education. 34(2): 75 77. (3 November 2006). 
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/113449037/HTMLSTART. 



Biology 

Biology is the study of life and all living systems, human, animal (zoology), or plant 
(botany). As the science of the structure, function, development, and evolution of all 
living organisms, biology is the foundation for, and has applications across, many 
different scientific disciplines. High-profile subfields of biology include biochemis- 
try, cellular biology, genetics, and molecular biology, but biologists also work in a 
variety of specialized subfields: evolutionary biology, biophysics, bioengineering, 
pharmacology, toxicology, environmental biology and ecology, marine biology, 
and animal sciences (agricultural and veterinary). 

Unlike many other disciplines, biology has always had to confront and consider 
the importance of sex and gender, in the context of the human body as well as in 
animal and plant life. In the early days of biology as a field of study, scientific 
knowledge reinforced stereotypical views of male and female social roles. 
Anatomy, the scientific study of the internal and external structure of the body, 
was a foundational part of biological and medical sciences, but was subject to 
social interpretation and therefore "biological determinism" — that is, the attribu- 
tion of certain human behaviors to biological or "natural" factors. Biological deter- 
minism means that biology has provided a scientific basis for eugenics, racial 
hierarchies, the sexual division of labor, limiting women's education, and the 
inferior legal and employment status of women and racial minorities. While we 
no longer accept earlier theories about women's bodies making them incapable of 
working in scientific or other professions, in the twenty-first century, biology is still 
a foundational science that informs social policy and attitudes; for example, 
assumptions about women's bodies still influence medical research and therefore 
have implications for women's health and healthcare. 

By the 1970s and 1980s, feminists began to critique science and scientific lan- 
guage, revealing the gender bias inherent in supposedly objective scientific knowl- 
edge. The very foundations of early biology and botany, for example, depended 
upon classifications made by Carl Linnaeus, who classified "male parts" as classes 
and "female parts" as orders, thus establishing a gendered hierarchy into his very 
classification system, for no specific or legitimate scientific reason. Interestingly, it 
was also Linnaeus who introduced the term "Mammalia" into biological studies to 



82 | American Women of Science since 1900 




define a class of humans and other 
animals, emphasizing the role of 
breast-milk and lactation over a num- 
ber of alternative characteristics, such 
as the presence of hair or live births, 
rather than a characteristic which 
applies only to the females of the 
class. Historian of science Londa 
Schiebinger has pointed out that 
Linnaeus made this choice about 
zoological terminology in the midst 
of an eighteenth-century social con- 
troversy over breast-feeding and wet- 
nursing, and thus his science was 
influenced by his own conservative 
views of women's true "nature" being 
found in motherhood (Schiebinger 
1999, 153-154). 

Cultural anthropologist Emily 
Martin has also analyzed the lan- 
guage of science in earlier cell biol- 
ogy textbooks, which spoke of "the 
active sperm" and "the passive egg," 
with reproduction presented as a reenactment of human dating rituals rather than 
an accurate description of the biological process (Martin 1991). Although Martin's 
critique received quite a bit of publicity, and some scientists responded with new 
assessments of the "partnership" between sperm and egg, or the more "active" role 
of the egg, other analysts pointed out the flawed language in considering eggs to be 
"female" and sperm to be "male" in the first place. The fields of genetics and bot- 
any have also had to confront and reconsider the language and metaphors of 
human gender, sexuality, or marriage as terms and processes used to describe the 
parts and functions of plants, bacteria, or even DNA (Dudle 2006). Embryologist 
Anne Fausto-Sterling has critiqued scientific discussions of the sex chromosomes 
(XX for female or XY for male) that refer to the female sex as "lacking" a Y 
chromosome (or the female embryo as having an "absence" of testosterone), rather 
than of male chromosomal pairs as "lacking" a second X chromosome (Fausto- 
Sterling 1992, 77-85). It would be equally problematic to see the female embryo 
as the standard, or default, and the male as an aberration, but the point is to high- 
light the social and cultural assumptions that influence scientific perspective and 
inquiry, and thus scientific results. 



Embryologist, Anne Fausto-Sterling. 
(Courtesy of Brown University) 



Disciplines | 83 



Elizabeth Agassiz 

Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz (1822-1907) was a naturalist who served as the 
first president of Radcliffe College between 1 894 and 1 903. Although she had little 
formal education, she developed an interest in natural history and assisted in 
recording the scientific research of her husband, famed Harvard zoologist and 
geologist Louis Agassiz. In 1865, she accompanied her husband on the Thayer 
expedition to Brazil to study the fauna, and in 1871, she went on a deep-sea 
dredging venture, the Hassler Expedition, along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts 
of the Americas. Her notes on Louis Agassiz's lectures, along with her own notes 
and observations, were published as A Journey in Brazil (1868). She assisted her 
husband in the planning and management of the co-educational Anderson School 
of Natural History, which was both a summer school for teacher education and a 
marine laboratory. 

Elizabeth Agassiz also published Actae, A First Lesson in Natural History 
(1859) and, in collaboration with her stepson Alexander, Seaside Studies in 
Natural History (1 866). After her husband died in 1 873, she compiled a biography, 
Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence (1886). She ran a school for girls in 
her home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for many years and in 1 879 helped found 
a Harvard annex for women which became Radcliffe College in 1 893, with Elizabeth 
Agassiz as its first president. 



Throughout the nineteenth century, biology was more often referred to or 
encompassed within "natural history," which included human as well as animal 
biology or zoology. Significant numbers of American women have thus been rep- 
resented in the field since the mid-nineteenth century, and in the twentieth century, 
biology has become second only to psychology in the numbers of bachelor's 
degrees awarded to women; biological or life sciences is the single most popular 
choice for female students in the natural sciences. One explanation given for 
why so many women scientists choose biology is that women are drawn in greater 
numbers to the "helping" professions, which includes many specialties within 
medicine or biomedical research. Within the broad category of biology, however, 
women and men receive an almost equal number of doctorates; according to the 
National Science Foundation, in 2006, there were 3,262 Ph.D.s in biological sci- 
ences awarded to women, compared to 3,359 awarded to men (NSF Table F-l; 
NSF Table F-2). 

Perhaps because biology is such a broad category, and researchers are more 
likely to identify according to subfield or specialty, the work of individual women 
biologists is difficult to extract from the history. Biological research can best be 
organized around different research objectives. Cellular and molecular biologists 



84 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Christiane Nusslein-Volhard 

Christiane Nusslein-Volhard (b. 1942) is a German developmental biologist who 
received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995 for her work in genet- 
ics of the Drosophila, or common fruit fly; she shared the prize with American col- 
leagues Eric Wieschaus and Edward B. Lewis. Originally interested in attending 
medical school, a brief stint as a hospital nurse convinced Nusslein-Volhard to 
pursue biological research instead. She received her doctorate in genetics from 
the University of Tubingen in 1973 and began work on fruit flies, discovering that 
many aspects of their genetics were similar to, and had implications for research 
on, other species, including humans. Her research on cellular and embryonic 
development has been extended to the study of vertebrates, such as the zebra- 
fish. She has been the Director at the Max Planck Institute of Developmental 
Biology since 1 985. Before being recognized for the Nobel Prize in 1 995, she 
was the recipient of numerous other prestigious awards and honors, including 
the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award, and foreign membership in both the 
British Royal Society and the U.S. National Academy of Science. Taking her role 
as a mentor seriously, in 2004, she founded the CNV Foundation to support 
German women scientists combining work and family. 



have contributed to cancer and disease research. Beatrice Mintz received her doc- 
torate in zoology in 1946 and was one of the earliest researchers on mammalian 
genetics and skin cancer; and molecular biologists Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol 
Greider received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009 for their 
discovery in the 1980s of the enzyme telomerase and its effect on chromosomes, 
establishing a new direction in cancer research. Bacteriologists and biochemists have 
contributed to our understanding of other diseases and to the development of phar- 
maceuticals and nutrition guidelines. Lydia Villa-Komaroff ' s research led to the 
development of a specific type of insulin used by diabetics; Mary Bunting was a 
microbiologist trained in agricultural bacteriology, as was Alice Evans, one of 
the earliest women microbiologists (receiving her master's degree in 1910), whose 
research for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on bacteria in cow's milk 
led to a campaign for pasteurization of all milk; and Rachel Brown and Elizabeth 
Hazen were renowned for their discovery of an antifungal antibiotic. 

Other biologists have worked as biophysicists and bioengineers, supporting 
technological advances in aeronautics, robotics, and neuroscience. Thelma 
Estrin pioneered the use of computers in biomedical and neurophysiological 
research; Alice Stoll received her Ph.D. in 1948 and worked with the U.S. Navy 
studying the physical effects of extreme heat and other forces on the body. Some 



Disciplines | 85 

women astronauts have been trained in biophysics and medicine as well, such as 
Irene Long, who studied the effect of space flight and weightlessness on blood 
oxygen and on various health conditions. Biologists working in the fields of genet- 
ics and toxicology have studied plants and animals for important discoveries and 
insights into human health. Juanita Scott examined how water pollutants and tox- 
ins impact cell growth and development; Agnes Stroud studied chromosomes, 
birth defects, and radiation therapy; Evelyn Witkin was trained as a zoologist 
and studied the genetics of bacteria such as E. coli.; Linda Saif's work on animal 
viruses helped the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) create a response to a human 
outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). In all cases, biology is 
the general foundation of this work in a variety of research fields and inquiries. 

See also Biochemistry; Biomedical Sciences; Botany; Genetics; Medicine; 
Neuroscience; Zoology 

References 

Baker, Katharine K. 2000. "Biology for Feminists." Chicago-Kent Law Review. 75: 
805 835. http://works.bepress.com/katharine baker/9/. 

Dudle, Dana A. and Meryl Altman. 2006. "Across the Language Barrier: Gender in Plant 
Biology and Feminist Theory." In Removing Barriers: Women in Academic Science, 
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, edited by Jill M. Bystydzienski and Sharon 
R. Bird, 215 233. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 

Fausto-Sterling, Anne. 1992. Myths of Gender: Biological Theories about Men and 
Women. 2nd edition. New York: Basic Books. 

Kass-Simon, G. 1990. "Biology Is Destiny." In Women of Science: Righting the Record, 
edited by G. Kass-Simon and Patricia Fames, 215 267. Bloomington: Indiana Univer- 
sity Press. 

Keller, Evelyn Fox. 1995. Refiguring Life: Metaphors of 20th-century Biology. New York: 
Columbia University. 

Martin, Emily. 1991. "The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance 
Based on Stereotypical Male Female RolesrSigns. 16(3): 485 501. (Spring 1991). 

National Science Foundation. "Table F-l. S&E doctoral degrees awarded, by field: 
1999 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engi- 
neering. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Survey 
of Earned Doctorates, 1999 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabf-l.pdf. 

National Science Foundation. "Table F-2. S&E doctoral degrees awarded to women, by field: 
1999 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineer- 
ing. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Survey of 
Earned Doctorates, 1999 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabf-2.pdf. 

Schiebinger, Londa. 1999. Has Feminism Changed Science? Cambridge, MA: Harvard 
University Press. 



86 | American Women of Science since 1900 

Spanier, Bonnie. 1995. Im/partial Science: Gender Ideology in Molecular Biology. 
Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 



Biomedical Sciences 

Biomedical sciences is a broad category that includes research in a variety of 
disciplines directed to human medical conditions and the underlying biological func- 
tions and sources of disease, rather than the clinical treatment of patients by practic- 
ing physicians and surgeons. The Biomedical Sciences section of the National 
Academy of Sciences includes researchers in medical genetics, hematology, oncol- 
ogy, medical physiology and metabolism, immunology, and microbial biology. 

Women's roles as caregivers and healthcare providers have put them on the front- 
lines of early medical and biomedical innovations. In addition to a long 
history of women's knowledge about herbal medicines and other treatments, women 
have been central to the development of modern vaccines for a variety of diseases 
and conditions. Early Taoist nuns (from the tenth and eleventh centuries) may have 
practiced variolation for smallpox, the act of exposing healthy people to a weakened 
form of the virus in order to build immunity. In 1717, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 
of England reported traveling to Turkey and watching "old women" hold smallpox 
"parties" and "ingrafting" the virus into the skin of healthy people; Montagu intro- 
duced the method in England a few years later (Stanley 1995, 155). In the United 
States, bacteriologists, toxicologists, and pharmacological researchers made great 
strides in modern vaccine research and development beginning in the 1920s and 
1930s. Gladys Dick and her husband greatly reduced the incidence and mortality 
rate of scarlet fever, another longtime killer, with their 1 923 discovery of the specific 
strain of streptococcus that causes the disease. Women researchers developed a skin 
test for tuberculosis (Florence Seibert), antifungal antibiotics (Elizabeth Hazen 
and Rachel Brown), and sulfa drugs (Eleanor Bliss), and developed transdermal 
drug patches for motion sickness and other applications (Jane Shaw). Marian 
Koshland researched the cholera vaccine, and Marjorie Horning researched the 
effect and transfer of drugs between pregnant women and fetuses. In 1955 Dolores 
Shockley was the first African American woman to receive a doctorate in pharma- 
cology (from Purdue University). 

Physiology is the study of the human body and is key to medical research as the 
foundation of human health and disease. Most physiological researchers work in 
subfields or specialties based on specific diseases or body systems, such as hema- 
tology (blood), endocrinology (hormones), or the respiratory system, to name a 
few examples. Many researchers have focused on the genetic causes and treat- 
ment of specific diseases. Judith Pool researched blood coagulation and isolated 



Disciplines | 87 




a method for treating hemophilia; 
Helen Ranney also focused on genet- 
ics and blood diseases, in particular 
sickle-cell anemia; Ruth Sager stud- 
ied mammalian genetics and tumor 
suppression in genes; and Cynthia 
Kenyon has focused her work on the 
aging of cells for insight into age- 
related diseases. 

Some women combine clinical 
treatment of patients with biomedical 
research, while others retired from 
practices as physicians and surgeons 
to focus on or promote research 
in a specific area. Mary Harris put 
her background as a physician and 
researcher of sickle-cell anemia to 
work as an activist promoting the health 
and wellness of African Americans; 
Maria New established a research 
foundation for pediatric endocrinol- 
ogy; and Christiane Northrup has 
been a leading practitioner and voice 
for women's health and wellness 

using traditional and alternative medicines. Many biomedical research findings 
and advances have been related to or informed cancer research, which is an entire 
subfield of biomedical research on its own, with geneticists, biochemists, cellular 
biologists, and molecular biologists leading the way. Maud Slye was one of the 
earliest cancer researchers; Susan Love is a former surgeon who created a founda- 
tion for breast cancer research and has written numerous books empowering 
women as patients; and Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider shared the 
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009 for their contribution to cancer 
research, which has also provided insight into the process of aging. 

Several other American women have received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or 
Medicine for work that has implications for biomedical research. Biochemist 
Gerty Cori (who won the Nobel Prize in 1947) discovered glycogen and its 
effects on carbohydrate metabolism, providing new insights into diabetes and 
other diseases; medical physicist Rosalyn Yalow (1977) pioneered in the field 
neuroendocrinology, studying the effect of hormones on health and disease; plant 
geneticist Barbara McClintock (1983) discovered how genes move from one 



Physician and women's health advocate, 
Christiane Northrup, 2007. (AP/Wide World 
Photos) 



88 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Birth-Control Pill (Oral Contraceptives) 

Although male scientists were responsible for the development of oral contracep- 
tives (or "the pill"), two women deserve credit for this medical advance that 
changed women's lives in the twentieth century and beyond. Nurse Margaret 
Sanger and philanthropist Katharine Dexter McCormick saw the need for reliable 
contraception and provided the funding for early research. Sanger, founder of the 
American Birth Control League, watched numerous women (including her own 
mother) die from the effects of uncontrolled fertility. McCormick was a suffragist 
who once smuggled diaphragms from Europe into the United States. After learning 
of preliminary research on plant-based hormones in the 1 930s, McCormick helped 
fund the work of reproductive scientists in the United States in the 1 950s. Although 
scientists in other countries were also taking up this research, at the time, there 
was still little interest in pursuing contraceptive research by either the U.S. 
government or the pharmaceutical industry. These women's rights reformers, 
however, saw the potential and the need. 

A combined hormone drug was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug 
Administration (FDA) for menstrual disorders in 1957 and for contraceptive use 
in 1961. Controversy over the social implications of easy access to birth control 
began almost immediately. Indeed, the pill played a role in the emerging women's 
liberation movement and the rise in women's labor force participation over the 
following decades. Both Sanger and McCormick lived into the mid-1 960s and thus 
were able to see birth-control pills become available to a new generation. 



chromosome to another, providing a new direction for researchers of human 
microbiology; neurobiologist Rita Levi Montalcini (1986) discovered how rapid 
cell growth can lead to cancer and other conditions; biochemist Gertrude Elion 
(1988) made advances in research on chemotherapy for treating cancer; and biolo- 
gist Linda Buck (2004) conducts research on the sense of smell. 

Another issue within biomedical research besides women's representation and 
achievements as professional scientists is women as patients and as subjects of 
research. Women have been underrepresented in research on heart disease, certain 
types of cancer, and other conditions, and in research on drug and other treatment 
options. The widespread exclusion of female patients from medical studies up until 
at least the 1 990s has been due to a variety of factors, including lack of outreach and 
information provided to doctors and to women patients, assumptions on the part of 
researchers that some diseases (such as heart disease) impact women less often 
than men, concern about protecting women of childbearing age, the assumption 
that women's hormones will skew a general study, or simply the assumption that 
women's bodies are merely a variation on the male standard. Female doctors and 



Disciplines | 89 



Margaret Sanger 

Margaret Higgins Sanger Slee (1879-1966) was the founder of the American 
birth-control movement in the early twentieth century. She began her career as a 
public health nurse in New York City's Lower East Side, witnessing the effects of 
multiple pregnancies, self-induced abortions, and motherhood on the city's poor 
and working-class women. Sanger's own mother experienced 18 pregnancies and 
died by age 50. Sanger saw the right to limit fertility as a fundamental right, and 
she coined the term "birth control" in the pages of her newspaper, The Woman 
Rebel, founded in 1914. She sought to educate women about their own bodies 
and wrote pamphlets on "Family Limitation," menstruation, and sexuality. She 
introduced the diaphragm to American women by illegally smuggling the devices 
from Europe into the United States. Both she and her husband, William Sanger, 
were arrested for violating the Comstock Law of 1873, which made it illegal to 
distribute "obscene" materials through the mail. In 1916, Sanger opened the first 
U.S. birth-control clinic in Brooklyn. Police raided the clinic, and she spent 30 days 
in jail, forcing the issue to the courts, where a judge ruled to make it legal for 
doctors to provide family-planning information to women. 

Sanger founded the American Birth Control League in 1921 and began an 
international campaign, working with activists in Japan, Europe, and Africa. In 
1952, she became the first president of Planned Parenthood, and she and col- 
league Katharine McCormick helped fund research for an oral contraceptive pill, 
which was introduced in 1961. 



women's health advocacy groups began bringing this issue to light in the late 1970s 
and 1980s, and by the early 1990s, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) called 
for greater representation of women in national clinical trials. Still, a 2009 study 
published by the American Cancer Society analyzed more than 600 clinical studies 
on non-sex-specific cancers and found that, although the numbers of women in 
individual studies varied, on average women made up only 38.8% of the more than 
1 million enrolled patients (Jagsi et al. 2009). 

Women's very lives are at stake in this research, as women may have different 
responses to drug therapies than men have. If women are excluded from drug studies 
that inform doctors' treatment protocols, female patients may be at risk of under- 
or overdosing, adverse reactions, or missed diagnoses. For example, although heart 
disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, 
for both biological and social reasons, women are less likely to be screened, 
diagnosed, or taken to the emergency room for heart issues. Doctors and 
patients may be more likely to see heart disease as a predominantly male problem 
and so are slower to diagnose a heart attack in process in a woman. The American 



90 | American Women of Science since 1900 

Heart Association launched its "Go Red for Women" campaign to raise 
public awareness and generate funding for this important issue (http://www 
.goredforwomen.org). 

Feminist groups and women's health advocacy organizations such as the Soci- 
ety for Women's Health Research (http://www.womenshealthresearch.org) have 
been created not only to influence government and pharmaceutical research prior- 
ities, but also to reach out to women and encourage their participation in studies. 
By the early 1990s, the NIH required female subjects in all government-funded 
research proposals, and the U.S. government created an Office of Research on 
Women's Health (http://orwh.od.nih.gov/). Under the direction of Bernadine 
Healy, the first woman to head the NIH (and later president of the American Heart 
Association), the federal government also launched a multi-million-dollar Women's 
Health Initiative to research women's health issues. These efforts, along with the 
work of women biomedical researchers themselves, have expanded the notion of 
women's health beyond reproductive issues and beyond the childbearing years. 
New areas of focus include women's health internationally, especially around 
issues related to family planning, childbirth, osteoporosis, AIDS, and breast and 
other cancers that affect women (indeed, despite the important media focus on 
breast cancer, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women). 

See also Biochemistry; Biology; Genetics; Medicine; Neuroscience 

References 

Clarke, Adele E. and Virginia Olesen, eds. 1998. Revisioning Women, Health and Healing: 
Feminist, Cultural and Technoscience Perspectives. New York: Routledge. 

Jagsi, Reshma et al. 2009. "Under-representation of Women in High- Impact Published Clini- 
cal Cancer Research." Cancer. 115(14): 3293 3301. (15 July 2009). Abstract: http:// 
www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122442004/abstract?CRETRY=l&SRETRY=0. 

Moss, Kary L., ed. 1996. Man-Made Medicine: Women's Health, Public Policy, and 
Reform. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 

Stanley, Autumn. 1995. Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History 
of Technology. 2nd edition. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 

van den Wijngaard, Marianne. 1997. Reinventing the Sexes: The Biomedical Construction 
of Femininity and Masculinity. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 



Botany 

Botany (sometimes called plant sciences or plant biology) is the scientific study 
of plants. Plant science includes research on a variety of living organisms, from 
the simplest bacteria, to algae, fungi, and mosses, to flowers and trees. Botany is 



Disciplines | 91 



Jane Colden 

Jane Colden (1 724-1 766) is considered the first American woman botanist and is 
credited with the discovery and naming of a species of gardenia. She was trained 
by her father, physician and naturalist Cadwallader Colden, who corresponded 
with the leading scientists of his day, including Carl Linnaeus. Although she never 
learned Latin, Jane Colden learned to take botanical impressions and to prepare 
descriptions in English. By 1757, she had prepared a catalog of over 300 local 
species of flora and had exchanged specimens and seeds with several American 
and European botanists. As her father's interests turned to other subjects, he 
planned that she would take over his botanical activities and correspondence. 
Jane Colden mastered the Linnaean classification system and published a paper 
in Essays and Observations, Physical and Literary of the Edinburgh Philosophical 
Society in 1770. Her manuscript on New York flora was later deposited in the 
British Museum, and a portion of it was published in 1963. A review of her work 
was published in the Journal of Botany in 1895. While her drawings are now con- 
sidered amateur, her descriptions are thought to be thorough and accurate. After 
she married in 1759, there is no indication that she continued her work in botany. 



divided into subfields or specialties not only according to species or kingdom, but 
by research focus or goals. Plant genetics and cytology informs the human life 
sciences with a focus on the plants at the cellular level; agronomy is the study of 
plant crops in agriculture and is concerned with crop development, plant breeding, 
staple crops, and feed for livestock; biochemical studies on plants support work in 
human nutrition and pharmaceutical development; ecological botanists study the 
interactions among plants, animals, humans, and the environment, and inform 
studies on climate change and habitat destruction; forestry involves the study and 
management of a variety of plants in the forest ecosystem; marine botany focuses 
on plant life in the oceans; paleobotany is the study of the plant fossil record; 
phytopathology is a focus on plant diseases; and horticulturists and gardeners 
appreciate the aesthetic role of cultivated plants in our lives. The study of plants, 
then, impacts human life in a variety of ways, as we rely upon plants for oxygen, 
food, medicine, clothing, materials for other products (such as rubber and wood), 
fuel, and environmental stability. 

Historians of women's contributions to technological development point out that 
horticulture, agriculture, cloth production, and medicine were seen as women's 
work throughout early human history, all of which required extensive knowledge 
of plant life. Women were responsible for gardening, breeding, selecting and 
experimenting with plants, cooking, and processing cotton, hemp, and other 



92 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Almira Phelps 

Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps (1793-1884) was a botanist whose popular textbooks 
influenced science education in the nineteenth century. Her Familiar Lectures on 
Botany (1 829) went through numerous editions and sold more than 300,000 
copies in the United States and Europe. She was committed to science education 
and to the education of women, as was her sister, Emma Willard, who founded the 
Troy Female Seminary in New York. Almira taught in various public schools and 
academies, including at Troy. She developed her own science curriculum and 
was the author of popular texts on chemistry, geology, botany, and natural phi- 
losophy. Her other works included Lectures to Young Ladies (1833), Chemistry 
for Beginners (1 834), Familiar Lectures on Natural Philosophy (1837), and Botany 
for Beginners (1849). Despite two marriages and a growing family, Phelps taught 
at schools in several states, including as principal of Patapsco Female Institute in 
Maryland, a school modeled on the Troy Female Seminary. She was the first 
female member of the Maryland Academy of Sciences and in 1859 was only the 
second woman elected to the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science; the first was astronomer Maria Mitchell. 



materials for textiles, leading to specialized knowledge of plants and herbs for 
food, medicinal, and practical purposes. The first botanists, then, were women, 
and women were responsible for many early innovations in plant sciences, such 
as seed separation, chemical fertilizers, and the creation of new hybrid plant spe- 
cies and varieties. In 1796, Priscilla Bell Wakefield published her Introduction to 
Botany in a Series of Familiar Letters, which was in reprinted in England and 
America for the next 50 years. In the United States, Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps 
published her Familiar Lectures on Botany in 1829, an enormously popular book 
that went through numerous editions. 

Even after the late-nineteenth-century professionalization of scientific fields 
into distinct disciplines, botany was long viewed as an amateur — and therefore 
female — pursuit. An 1887 article even went so far as to pose the question, "Is 
Botany a Suitable Study for Young Men?" (Rossiter 1982, 338 n.25). By the turn 
of the century, many women were able to pursue master's degrees and doctorates 
in the sciences, and this generation produced some highly visible and successful 
female botanists. Elizabeth Knight Britton was a graduate of Hunter College 
and helped found the New York Botanical Society in 1891 and the Sullivant Moss 
Society in 1898 (later the American Bryological and Lichenological Society, 
https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/jpbennet/web/abls/) (bryology is the study of 
mosses). In the nineteenth century, Kate Brandegee was the first paid botanical 



Disciplines | 93 

curator of the California Academy of Sciences; she was succeeded by another 
woman, Alice Eastwood, who did not hold an advanced degree, but who built 
and oversaw the botanical collection at the California Academy of Sciences for 
more than 50 years. Lucy Braun, who received her Ph.D. from the University of 
Cincinnati in 1914, was an important botanist, ecologist, and plant cataloger. Jesse 
Jarue Mark was the first African American to earn a doctorate in botany, which she 
received from Iowa State University in 1935. 

By 1921, the greatest number of female scientists employed in academia were 
in the field of botany, and the greatest number of these were employed at women's 
colleges, such as Wellesley, Hunter College, and Smith (Rossiter 1982, 170-173). 
As in other fields in the natural sciences, such as astronomy or zoology, female 
botanists created top-notch programs at the women's colleges and had an impor- 
tant role in training the next generation of women scientists. While women were 
concentrated as students and teachers in a small number of programs in the early 
part of the twentieth century, their numbers in the field of botany overall were 
relatively small in the next generation. Between 1946 and 1960, women earned 
just 11% of Ph.D.s in botany, plant pathology, or plant physiology (Rossiter 
1995, 80). Well into the twentieth century, women also predominated as nature 
illustrators, natural historians, conservationists, and horticulturists working out- 
side of academia. Josephine D. Brownell of Rhode Island patented more than three 
dozen types of roses between the 1930s and 1950s; Esther G. Fisher patented eight 
new roses in the 1950s; Cynthia Westcott studied rose diseases and wrote several 
consumer books on garden pests and plant diseases. 

Many early women botanists worked in state or local field stations. Josephine 
Tilden traveled the world to study and collect Pacific Rim algae and set up a 
Canadian research station for the University of Minnesota. Others worked for agri- 
cultural corporations and food producers, or for the federal government through the 
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a significant employer of early-twentieth- 
century women scientists, including many botanists. Effie Southworth, a mycolo- 
gist who focused on fungi, was the first woman plant pathologist employed at the 
USDA; Flora Patterson worked in the USDA's Division of Vegetable Pathology. 
Wanda Kirkbride Farr was an early plant researcher (M.A., 1918) who discov- 
ered cellulose and had a career at the USDA, in industry, and in academia. 

Because of their early presence in the discipline, women have been especially 
active in professional plant sciences organizations throughout the twentieth cen- 
tury. In 1929, Margaret Ferguson was the first woman president of the Botanical 
Society of America (BSA, http://www.botany.org); Katherine Esau studied plant 
viruses and was president of the BSA in 1951. The BSA has had several more 
women presidents, including Mildred Mathias in 1984; 20 years earlier, in 
1964, Mathias was the first female president of the American Society of Plant 



94 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Clara Cummings 

Clara Eaton Cummings (1855-1906) was an American botanist who specialized 
in cryptogamic (sporeproducing) flora. She was recognized for her work on the 
lichens and mosses of Alaska and Labrador, contributing important additions to 
those classifications and editing publications on North American lichens, liver- 
worts, and mosses. Cummings was educated at Wellesley and at the University 
of Zurich, although she never obtained a formal degree. She traveled throughout 
Europe, visiting public gardens and collecting seeds and specimens to send back 
to Wellesley; she initiated a system of exchanging dried specimens of plants 
among collectors. She remained associated with the Wellesley botany depart- 
ment throughout her career, first as curator of the botanical museum and then as 
instructor. In 1903, she was named Hunnewell Professor of Cryptogamic Botany 
in recognition of the specialized work in which she had reached distinction. She 
was associate editor of the journal Plant World, and she served as vice president 
in 1904 of the Society for Plant Morphology and Physiology. 




Botanist Mildred Mathias. (Used with 
permission by University of California, Los 
Angeles) 



Taxonomists. Between 1987 and 
2007, there were 10 other female 
presidents of the BSA. Helen Hart 
studied rust-resistant wheat and other 
crops, and was the first woman 
president of the American Phyto- 
pathological Society (http:// 
www.apsnet.org) in 1955. The Ameri- 
can Society of Plant Biologists has a 
section devoted to women in plant 
biology (http://www.aspb.org/commit- 
tees/women/index.cfm). 

Modern botanists have worked in 
a variety of subfields. Eloise Gerry 
analyzed living trees and forest prod- 
ucts; Estella Leopold was trained in 
botany and became a specialist in 
paleoecology, or the study of prehis- 
toric plant spores and pollen and 
their environments; Elisabeth Gantt 
researches plant physiology and 



Disciplines | 95 

process such as photosynthesis; Jane Rissler researches the ecological impact of 
genetically modified food plants; and Ruth Patrick studies algae in freshwater 
ecosystems. Perhaps the most well-known female botanist of the twentieth century 
is plant geneticist Barbara McClintock, who received the Nobel Prize in Physiol- 
ogy or Medicine in 1983 for her work on maize, or corn. The exact numbers of 
women in plant sciences today is difficult to track precisely because botanists 
may be trained or employed in programs related to botany, plant sciences, ocean 
sciences, agriculture, ecology, and general biology. 

See also Biology; Environmental Sciences and Ecology; Genetics 

References 

Bonta, Marcia Myers. 1991. Women in the Field: America's Pioneering Women Naturalists. 
College Station: Texas A&M University Press. 

Bonta, Marcia Myers. 1995. American Women Afield: Writings by Pioneering Women 
Naturalists. College Station: Texas A&M University Press. 

Botanical Society of America. "Celebrating Women in the Plant Sciences." http://www 
.botany.org/women in science/. 

Dudle, Dana A. and Meryl Altman. 2006. "Across the Language Barrier: Gender in Plant 
Biology and Feminist Theory." In Removing Barriers: Women in Academic Science, 
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, edited by Jill M. Bystydzienski and Sharon 
R. Bird, 215 233. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 

Mcintosh, Maria S. and Steve R. Simmons. 2008. "A Century of Women in Agronomy: 
Lessons from Diverse Life Stories." Agronomy Journal. 100(S-53 S-69). http://agron 
. scij ournals.org/cgi/content/full/ 1 00/S upplement 3/S -5 3 . 

Rossiter, Margaret. 1982. Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940. 
Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Rossiter, Margaret W. 1995. Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 
1940 1972. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University. 



Chemistry 

Chemistry is the study of the properties, structure, changes, and reactions of 
physical matter, but overlaps with and has application to life sciences as well. 
Chemistry is the foundation of a number of other scientific disciplines, including 
biochemistry, physiology and pharmacology, geology, metallurgy, physics, and 
nuclear sciences. It is applicable to a variety of areas that impact our daily lives, 
including food and nutrition, health and beauty products, medicines, textiles and 
fabrics, and computers and plastics. 



96 | American Women of Science since 1900 

Chemistry has a long history; in some sense, women may be considered the first 
chemists. Women historically and cross-culturally have been responsible for bak- 
ing and cooking, the preparation of herbs and other medicines, and even the crea- 
tion of perfumes, all of which require the use of chemical and biochemical 
processes and reactions. Women were recorded as early alchemists as well 
(alchemy combined chemistry and philosophy or magic in efforts to transform 
common materials into valuable ones, such as gold or anti-aging cures) among 
the ancient Chinese and Egyptians, and — in even greater numbers — during the 
European medieval and Renaissance eras. During the "chemical revolution" of 
the eighteenth century (which saw the discovery of the properties of gases and of 
oxygen, among other milestones), several women worked as assistants or were 
spouses of prominent scientists. Unlike the greater number of women who worked 
as amateur astronomers, naturalists, geologists, or social scientists, chemistry 
required access to laboratories and equipment, and some wealthy or well-connected 
women were able to fund private research. A few European women emerged as 
voices in early chemistry: Englishwoman Jane Marcet published her Conversa- 
tions on Chemistry in 1769 (read by physicist and electricity experimenter 

Michael Faraday), and Scottish 
chemist Elizabeth Fulhame published 
An Essay on Combustion in 1794. 
Through the eighteenth and nine- 
teenth centuries, chemistry was not 
necessarily a separate discipline, but 
overlapped with work in (and was 
often overshadowed by) physics and 
mathematics. 

By the end of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, the scientific disciplines were 
professionalized, and status as a sci- 
entist depended on higher education 
and access to university laboratories, 
both of which were slow to admit 
women. In the United States, Helen 
Abbott Michael briefly attended 
Women's Medical College in Phila- 
delphia but became interested in plant 
chemistry and was the first woman 
invited to lecture at the Philadelphia 
College of Pharmacology. She later 
Chemist Emma Perry Carr. (Bettmann/Corbis) worked in the laboratory of her 




Disciplines | 97 



Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin 

British chemist Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994) advanced the field of crys- 
tallography and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964 for her discovery of the 
molecular structure of penicillin and vitamin B 12 . She later determined the structure 
of insulin as well. Hodgkin was born in Egypt and educated at Somerville College, 
a women's college at the University of Oxford, England, and at Cambridge. Even 
after receiving her Ph.D. in 1 937, she was prevented from attending regular faculty 
meetings at Oxford or from using the equipment in male faculty's laboratories. She 
raised her own money and received several prestigious grants to purchase X-ray 
equipment with which to take photographs of proteins, cholesterol, antibiotics, vita- 
mins, and other biological molecules. She was not named a full professor until 
1 958, after 20 years of research at Oxford. By that time, she was one of the found- 
ing members of the International Union of Crystallography and had been named a 
fellow of the Royal Society, the highest scientific honor in Britain, for her work on 
the structure of penicillin. When, in 1964, she became the third woman to receive 
the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the newspapers reported that a "housewife" and 
"grandmother" had won the prize. 



husband, a chemistry professor at Tufts University. The periodic table of elements 
was created in the nineteenth century, with new elements and synthetic elements 
later discovered, and the American Chemical Society (ACS) was founded in 
1876, with Rachel Bodley admitted as the first female member. Bodley sub- 
sequently resigned her affiliation with the ACS over antiwoman commentary and 
activities at the annual meeting. Rachel Lloyd, a chemistry professor at the 
University of Nebraska who received her doctorate in Switzerland, was the next 
woman to join the ACS, in 1891. Food chemist Ellen Swallow Richards was the 
first female student and the first woman instructor at the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology (MIT), where she taught industrial chemistry and other courses 
(without pay) beginning in 1879. Emma Perry Carr was one of the earliest 
American women to receive a Ph.D. in chemistry (University of Chicago, 1910), 
and in 1937 was the first woman to receive the Garvan Medal of the American 
Chemical Society, a prize to acknowledge women's contributions to the field. 
She taught chemistry for four decades at Mount Holyoke. 

Inspired by the discovery of X-rays in 1895, scientists began searching for other 
sources of radiation and analyzing the radioactivity of various elements. The struc- 
ture and theory of atoms and molecules was explained in the 1920s and 1930s, and 
some of the most important discoveries of the twentieth century relied upon this 
overlap between chemistry and physics. The work of one of the most distinguished 



98 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Irene Joliot-Curie 

The Curie family was one of incredible achievements: French chemist and 
nuclear physicist Irene Joliot-Curie (1897-1956), daughter of Nobel Prize win- 
ners Pierre and Marie Curie, also received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935, 
jointly received with her husband, Frederic Joliot, for their work on radioactivity. 
Irene Curie worked with her famous mother on administering radiography and 
radium treatment to soldiers during World War I. She went on to earn a doctor- 
ate in 1925 with a thesis on polonium, an element discovered by her parents. 
Joliot-Curie's research on radium led to the Nobel Prize and paved the way for 
the discovery of nuclear fission by other scientists. She was a Commissioner 
for Atomic Energy in France and in 1946 became director of the Radium Insti- 
tute founded 30 years earlier by her parents. Like her mother before her, 
Joliot-Curie's long-term work with radioactive elements, including an accidental 
exposure to polonium, led to the development of leukemia and an early death. 
The family scientific legacy continues, as both of Joliot-Curie's children are 
physical scientists in France: daughter Helene Langevin-Joliot is a nuclear 
physicist and son Pierre Joliot is a biochemist. 



women in chemistry reveals this overlap. French scientist Marie Curie discovered 
that thorium was radioactive and was awarded the Nobel Prize in two different 
fields — she shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and won the prize in Chem- 
istry in 1911. Her daughter, Irene Joliot-Curie, amazingly, also won a joint Nobel 
Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for her work on radioactive elements. Both women 
died of leukemia, undoubtedly from radiation exposure in the course of their sci- 
entific work. Two other women have won Nobel Prizes in Chemistry for their work 
using X-ray crystallography: British scientist Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin won in 
1964 for studying the structures of biochemical substances, and Israeli scientist 
Ada Yonath shared the prize in 2009 for her research on the role of ribosomes 
in DNA. 

Chemistry as a research field and method overlaps with numerous other scien- 
tific disciplines, and so the true numbers of women engaged in chemical research 
is extensive and unknowable. Early-twentieth-century women chemists worked in 
agricultural and food sciences, nutrition, biochemistry, industrial chemistry, and 
pharmaceuticals development. Anna Sommer was an early plant or soil chemist 
who received her doctorate from Berkeley in 1924 and identified minerals in soil 
and their benefits for agriculture. Biochemistry was another "new" science of the 
early twentieth century and involved understanding the chemical processes of cells, 
enzymes, proteins, and the effect of organic and synthetic substances on the body, 



Disciplines | 99 

and American women have made substantial contributions in this field. Marie 
Daly was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry (from 
Columbia University in 1948) and was one of the early biochemists who discov- 
ered the link between cholesterol and heart attacks. Elizabeth Weisburger is a 
toxicologist researching the carcinogenic (or cancer-causing) effects of chemicals 
in environmental toxins and even in medicines. In the late twentieth and into the 
twenty-first centuries, some of the most important work in chemistry is still being 
done in pharmaceuticals and biochemistry research, with the addition of the fields 
of nuclear science and physics, plastics and material sciences, and, of course, com- 
puters (semiconductors, silicon chips). Chemists have received an extraordinary 
large number of patents due to the nature of the field as one of innovation and dis- 
covery. Stephanie Kwolek, a chemist for DuPont, invented Kevlar, a high-strength 
material used in a variety of products, including bulletproof vests for law- 
enforcement officers and for soldiers. Textile chemist Ruth Benerito received 
more than 50 patents for processes related to treating fabrics and permanent- 
press materials. Women chemists are proud of their long history of achievement 
and contributions, and maintain records of that history through organizations such 
as the Chemical Heritage Foundation's Women in Chemistry project (http:// 
chemheritage.org/women chemistry/). 

The numbers of women as chemistry students in colleges and universities 
peaked (as it did in the sciences overall) in the 1920s. In 1929, women received 
10% of all U.S. chemistry doctorates; that number decreased to just 5% of doctor- 
ates in 1933, and reached an all-time low of 2% throughout most of the 1940s 
(Rayner-Canham and Rayner-Canham 1998, 199). But while women were not 
earning doctorates at a high rate throughout the 1940s, more women than ever 
were employed, including as new faculty members. Chemistry was one of the 
fields that saw a tremendous increase in the numbers of women due to technologi- 
cal development and needs during World War II. During just the four-year period 
between 1942 and 1946, the numbers of women chemistry faculty members in 
universities more than tripled (Rossiter 1995, 11). The numbers of women going 
to graduate school and earning doctorates, however, would not rise again until 
the 1970s, at which time women reached 10% of chemistry Ph.D.s again, and have 
risen steadily ever since. In 1985, women earned 20% of chemistry Ph.D.s, but 
made up only 4.9% of tenure-track faculty. Significant progress in women's access 
to higher education resulted in women earning 30% of chemistry doctorates by 
2003, but they still make up only 12% of tenure-track faculty, revealing a "leaky 
pipeline" in academia seen throughout the sciences (Wilson 2006). Many chem- 
ists, however, work outside of academia in industrial or government research or 
pharmaceutical companies. 

See also Biochemistry; Crystallography; Nutrition 



100 I American Women of Science since 1900 

References 

Miller, Jane A. 1990. "Women in Chemistry." In Women of Science: Righting the Record, 
edited by G. Kass-Simon and Patricia Fames, 300 334. Bloomington: Indiana University 
Press. 

Rayner-Canham, Marelene F. and Geoffrey Rayner-Canham. 1998. Women in Chemistry: 
Their Changing Roles from Alchemical Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century. Philadelphia, 
PA: Chemical Heritage Foundation. 

Rossiter, Margaret W. 1995. Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 
1940 1972. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University. 

Wilson, Robin. 2006. "The Chemistry between Women and Science." Chronicle of Higher 
Education (26 May 2006). 

Climatology 

See Meteorology 

Computer Sciences and Information Technology 

Computer science encompasses both the theory and application of automation and 
information processing, from creating mathematical algorithms and programming 
languages to the design and implementation of user-friendly software and hard- 
ware. It may also include a broad range of activities related to information technol- 
ogy (IT), which deals with the storage, retrieval, and transmission of information 
through databases and networks. Computer sciences is one area in which technical 
experience and knowledge are essential; therefore, gainful employment, even at 
the highest levels, may be attained without a doctorate, although the Ph.D. is usu- 
ally required for university teaching and research positions. Many computer scien- 
tists and software engineers are employed in industry or business, and many others 
are self-employed in the technology sector. This explains, in part, the discrepancy 
between the relatively low number of women receiving doctorates in computer sci- 
ences and the high number of women actually employed as computer and informa- 
tion scientists. The doctorate in computer science is itself a fairly recent 
development. In 1968, Barbara Liskov became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. 
in a computer science program. Nearly 40 years later, in 2006, only 310 computer 
science Ph.D.s were granted to women, or 2.7% of all science and engineering 
doctorates earned by women (NSF Table F-2), and yet women accounted for 39% 
of computer and information scientists, the single largest occupational category 
for women scientists and engineers in 2006 (NSF Table H-19). 



Disciplines | 101 



Ada Lovelace 

Augusta Ada Byron King, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1 852), is recognized as one 
of the pioneers of computer programming for her detailed notes on the invention of a 
nineteenth-century calculating machine. Born in London, she was the daughter of 
Romantic poet Lord Byron. She never knew her famous father, however, who sep- 
arated from her mother, Anne Isabella Milbank (Lady Byron), and left England just a 
few months after Ada's birth. In 1835, Ada married William King, Earl of Lovelace. 
Although there were no scientific or professional opportunities for a woman at that 
time, as a member of the elite, she received a solid education and was able to pur- 
sue an intellectual life. She befriended Cambridge mathematics professor Charles 
Babbage, who invented several calculators and had Ada compile and translate 
notes on his plans for an "analytical engine." He never built the machine, but Ada's 
notes reveal the earliest algorithm for machine calculations, the precursor to the 
modern computer. She has been the subject of several biographies, credited for 
her role in early mathematics and computing. In the 1970s, the U.S. Department 
of Defense's computer programming language, Ada, was named for her. 



The history of computing, however, is much longer and overlaps with innovation 
in mathematics and technology. Women made early contributions to computing, 
beginning with Ada Lovelace (born Augusta Ada Byron), who co-invented a proto- 
computer adding machine or calculator in the nineteenth century. Her role was later 
acknowledged with an early programming language for the military that was named 
"Ada." Before the invention of electronic computers, "computer" was a job descrip- 
tion, not a machine. Both men and women were employed as computers in the early 
twentieth century, but women were more prominent in the field due to the wartime 
shortage of male workers. In 1942, just after the United States entered World 
War II, hundreds of women, many with degrees in mathematics, were employed in 
government research centers and universities as computers, using mechanical desk 
calculators to solve long equations. The results of these calculations were compiled 
into tables and published for use on the battlefield. The tables allowed soldiers in 
the field to aim artillery or other weapons, taking into account variable conditions 
such as temperature and air density. Today, such calculations are done instantly with 
microcomputers. The computer itself (as we know it) was developed after World 
War II, also for government and military applications. ENIAC was one of the first 
electronic digital computers, and Adele Goldstine, a former math teacher, trained 
the first group of women programmers. At that time, programming involved man- 
ually assembling the circuits and cables, and Goldstine wrote the technical operator's 
manual for ENIAC (Stanley 1995, 442^43). 



102 | American Women of Science since 1900 

During the Cold War and the years of the space program, smaller, faster 
machines were developed that outperformed the large government mainframes, 
and software applications were developed that could be marketed to the general 
public. Computers were soon used for everything from engineering and design 
work, to games and animation used by the entertainment industry, to everyday 
office use. Women were important to the development of early computer 
hardware systems, including Margaret Butler, who helped develop one of the 
first digital computers for science as a staff mathematician at Argonne National 
Laboratory in the early 1950s. Grace Hopper (also a mathematician) was part 
of the group that developed COBOL, the most widespread programming 
language through the 1960s and 1970s. Evelyn Berezin is often called the 
"mother of word processing," and she founded her own company in 1969 to 
manufacture and sell a machine that would replace the editing typewriter. By 
the 1980s, word processors were basic equipment in every office, and word- 
processing software soon became a standard feature of every personal computer. 
Lynn Conway is known for designing and fabricating integrated computer cir- 
cuit chips, and Elsa Reichmanis helped develop new materials that are used 
in integrated circuits. 




Computer scientist and organic chemist, Elsa Reichmanis, 2002. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Disciplines | 103 

Other women have been involved in the development of computer software. 
Adele Goldberg helped develop a programming language for a personal computer 
while working for Xerox Corporation. Her "object-oriented" program included 
icons, windows, and a mouse, all user-friendly features that became the foundations 
of the Microsoft and Apple consumer software programs ubiquitous today. 
Martine Kempf and Sandra Hutchins worked on voice-recognition software; 
Sandra Kurtzig founded her own software company, ASK Computer Systems, 
which became one of the largest public companies founded by a woman. Ruth 
Davis helped establish international standards for data encryption of computers, 
and Thelma Estrin and Evangelia Micheli-Tzanakou researched computer 
applications in brain research. Mary Pickett was involved in programming 
industrial robots for use in manufacturing at General Motors Corporation in 
1984, making it possible to automate an entire production line. Jean Sammet 
was in charge of programming languages at International Business Machines 
Corporation (IBM) for many years and taught some of the first college computer 
programming languages in the United States in the 1950s. Sammet was also the 
first woman president of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), and 
Adele Goldberg and Gwen Bell have been presidents as well. Mary Shaw helped 
establish software engineering as a profession, and Roberta Williams was one of 
the pioneers of the computer gaming industry, one of the biggest growth areas in 
software for the twenty-first century. In 2006, Frances Allen became the first 
woman to receive the Turing Award, considered the Nobel Prize of the computer 
industry, for her innovations in high-speed computing. 

Other scientists have been concerned with the social impact of computers. 
Psychologist Sherry Turkle is an authority on the psychological and sociological 
effects of computers, and has researched how individuals interact with computers 
and how computers shape our identities. Some feminists have been interested in 
the role of gender in computer experiences, finding the profession as well as con- 
sumer access to be male-dominated enterprises. The Internet era has created a 
"global village," not only connecting the world, but changing the home-versus- 
work dichotomy and therefore impacting women's lives. Computers have had a 
revolutionary impact on women's roles as workers and as consumers, creating 
new possibilities for wage-earning and for work/life balance through telecommut- 
ing, online sales, microbusiness, and distance education and skills acquisition. All 
of these innovations have potential for increasing women's economic indepen- 
dence, but also raise questions about how, even as we are connected to the larger 
world, the Internet confines women's work more securely within the home, as 
there is no longer a need to leave home to pursue education and employment. 

While access to the Internet has created a global "information revolution," 
some scholars argue that there is still a "digital divide" when it comes to gendered 



104 | American Women of Science since 1900 

and economic access to computers and the Internet. Issues of education, house- 
hold resources, job skills, and even access to electricity affect different regions 
of the world unequally, and may also be gendered in ways that impact women's 
ability and rate of online access. Another issue for feminists concerned about 
women's access to technology and technology-related careers is the computer lit- 
eracy and education of girls. Early education is key in creating interest and skills 
for later success, as early computer literacy has been linked to higher math test 
scores and later interest in science and technology fields. Early computer educa- 
tion may not be gender-neutral, however, as some studies have found that boys 
are more likely to receive computer education at home from their parents, are 
more likely to have computers in their own rooms, and spend more time playing 
handheld and computer gaming systems, all activities that increase early com- 
puter literacy and may disadvantage girls (Margolis and Fisher 2003). While the 
technology itself may be gender-neutral, the change brought by technology has 
the potential for either challenging or upholding existing social beliefs and roles. 
See also Engineering; Mathematics 

References 

American Association of University Women. 2000. Tech-Savvy: Educating Girls in the 
New Computer Age. Commission on Technology, Gender, and Teacher Education. 
Washington, D.C.: American Association of University Women Education Foundation. 
http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/upload/TechSavvy.pdf. 

Kirk, Mary. 2009. Gender and Information Technology: Moving Beyond Access to 
Co-Create Global Partnership. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. 

Kramarae, Cheris. 2001. The Third Shift: Women Learning Online. Washington, D.C.: 
American Association of University Women Education Foundation, http:// 
www.aauw.org/learn/research/upload/thirdshift.pdf. 

Margolis, Jane and Allan Fisher. 2003. Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing. 
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 

National Science Foundation. "Table F-2. S&E doctoral degrees awarded to women, by field: 
1999 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineer- 
ing. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Survey of 
Earned Doctorates, 1999 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabf-2.pdf. 

National Science Foundation. 2006. "Table H-19. Employed scientists and engineers, by sec- 
tor of employment, broad occupation, sex, race/ethnicity, and disability status: 2006." 
Women, Minorities and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. National 
Science Foundation, Division of Science Resource Statistics, Scientists and Engineers 
Statistical Data System (SESTAT). http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabh- 19.pdf. 

Stanley, Autumn. 1995. Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History 
of Technology. 2nd edition. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 



Disciplines | 105 

Tam, Mo- Yin S. and Gilbert W. Bassett, Jr. 2006. "The Gender Gap in Information Tech- 
nology." In Removing Barriers: Women in Academic Science, Technology, Engineering, 
and Mathematics, edited by Jill M. Bystydzienski and Sharon R. Bird, 108 122. 
Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 



Crystallography 

Crystallography is the science of determining the physical structure of atoms or 
molecules in crystals or other solid matter, such as minerals, metals, vitamins, coal, 
salts, proteins, viruses, cells, and DNA. It is a subfield of physics or chemistry and 
has applications for research in other areas as well, notably biology, biochemistry, 
and geology or earth sciences, and also requires the use of mathematical models 
and analyses. Understanding the structure of crystals informs our understanding 
of the properties of a variety of materials, and therefore has implications for 
research not only into organic matter, but related to the development of synthetic 
chemicals, plastics, metals, and other materials as well. A career in crystallography 
can be approached from several different disciplines, including chemistry, physics, 
biology, geology, mathematics, and materials science. The best preparation is a 
broad background in several scientific areas, as well as experience using and pro- 
gramming computers. A bachelor's degree in biology, for example, should include 
more physics, mathematics, and chemistry than normally required. 

Crystallography is a new science of the twentieth century. There were early 
efforts to determine and record the structure of crystals using microscopes, but in 
the early 1900s, it was discovered that X-ray waves could be used to diffract or 
reflect the image of a crystal, revealing the internal patterns and structures. The 
technological advances of tools of X-ray crystallography, including the spectrom- 
eter and spectrophotography, made it possible to record and analyze an unlimited 
number of molecules from a variety of materials. After the first efforts of X-ray 
crystallographers to examine the structure of minerals and elements, there was 
an explosion of interest in the following decades in determining the structure of 
other molecules from organic materials. There was suddenly an unlimited amount 
of work to be done, and so many women entered the field that, for a time in the 
early to mid-twentieth century at least, crystallography was seen by many scien- 
tists to be a predominantly female field. This was probably due, in part, to the fact 
that, as a new field of study undergoing rapid technological and knowledge advan- 
ces, crystallography did not have an established hierarchy. It was an ideal entry 
point for younger scientists, many of them women among the first generation earn- 
ing advanced degrees in science, to break into scientific research and have an 
opportunity to excel. 



106 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Ada Yonath 

Israeli scientist Ada Yonath (b. 1939) was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in 
Chemistry for her work on the structure of bacterial ribosomes. She uses crystallog- 
raphy, or X-ray techniques, to understand the effect of antibiotics on bacteria, aiding 
research on antibiotic resistance and the development of new drugs. She is profes- 
sor of structural biology and current director of the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman 
Center for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly at the Weizmann Institute of 
Science in Rehovot, Israel. Although her Jewish parents were not wealthy, she 
was able to attend the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she studied chemistry 
and biochemistry, and went on to earn a doctorate in crystallography from the 
Weizmann Institute. She has conducted research and held prestigious appointments 
at universities in the United States, Germany, and Israel. In 2003, she was named as 
a foreign associate to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. She shared the 2009 
Nobel Prize with British researcher Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and American 
Thomas A. Steitz, and is the first Israeli woman to receive a Nobel Prize. 



Crystallography was also an international effort, and British women 
subsequently made some of the most important and high-profile discoveries in 
the field. Rosalind Franklin created and analyzed X-ray images of DNA, the 
tobacco mosaic virus, and the polio virus. Her work led to the discovery of the 
double-helix structure of DNA, for which her contemporaries, Francis Crick and 
James Watson, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962. 
In one of the more tragic stories in the history of women in science, Franklin died 
at the age of only 37 after developing ovarian cancer (which many believe was 
due to her exposure to X-ray radiation in her work) and, as the award is not granted 
posthumously, was left out of the Nobel Prize recognition. Another British scientist, 
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, won the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her use of 
X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of vitamin B 12 . Hodgkin also con- 
firmed the structure of penicillin and insulin, and therefore her work had implica- 
tions for biochemistry and pharmaceutical development. Another woman, Israeli 
scientist Ada Yonath, shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009 for her use of 
X-ray crystallography in research on the role of ribosomes in DNA. 

While British women were overwhelmingly represented in crystallography in 
the first half of the twentieth century (Rayner-Canham and Rayner-Canham 
1998), the first woman to earn a Ph.D. specifically in crystallography was Gabrielle 
Donnay at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1949, who worked in 
the field of geology and mineralogy. American Isabella Karle and her husband, 
Jerome Karle (also a Nobel Prize recipient), had an amazing 60-year career as 



Disciplines | 107 



Rosalind Franklin 

British geneticist and crystallographer Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) was part of 
the team that discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, one of the greatest 
scientific discoveries of the twentieth century. For many years, however, Franklin's 
contribution to this work was unacknowledged by either her colleagues or the larger 
scientific community. Franklin graduated from Newnham College, the women's col- 
lege of Cambridge University, and her early work in chemistry and crystallography 
focused on determining the structure of coal and carbon. After receiving her doctor- 
ate from Cambridge, she began using X-ray diffraction to take numerous pictures of 
DNA in order to create a model of its structure. American James Watson was also 
researching DNA models, and Franklin's photos provided the evidence for his 
theory of the double-helix structure of the DNA molecule. In April 1 953, Watson 
and Francis Crick published their famous results in the British science journal 
Nature, which also contained a supplemental article by Franklin and a student, 
Raymond Gosling, providing evidence from their own research. Franklin went on 
to study the structure of other biological substances, including the polio virus. 
Unfortunately, she died of ovarian cancer in 1 958 at the age of only 37, and Watson, 
Crick, and Maurice Wilkins earned credit for the DNA discovery with a Nobel Prize 
in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 (the prize is awarded only to living scientists). 



renowned crystallographers with the Naval Research Laboratory. The Karles made 
technological advances in the field with their invention of a new method for photo- 
graphing crystals, and Isabella Karle's work provided the foundation for develop- 
ment of synthetic materials, including pharmaceuticals. Elizabeth Armstrong 
Wood used crystallography in her work in geology, studying minerals and rocks, 
and later in the development of lasers and other work for Bell Telephone Laborato- 
ries. Both Elizabeth Wood and Isabella Karle served as presidents of the American 
Crystallographic Association, in 1957 and 1976, respectively. 

Other women working in biomedical sciences or physics have studied or used 
crystallography, including Jane Richardson and Dorothy Maud Wrinch, 
biochemists who map proteins, and Jenny Glusker (who studied with Dorothy 
Hodgkin in Oxford, England), who has contributed to cancer research with her work 
using crystallography to determine the structure of cancer-causing chemicals, or car- 
cinogens. Physicist and metallurgist Julia Weertman studies the structure and tem- 
perature resistance of different metals, and nuclear physicist Chien-Shiung Wu 
separated uranium isotopes and helped develop radiation detectors as part of the 
atomic bomb project in the 1950s. 

It is difficult to determine the exact number of working crystallographers 
because of the interdisciplinary nature of the field and because crystallography is 



108 | American Women of Science since 1900 



not only a subfield but more of 
a focus or tool used within these 
other disciplines. The American 
Crystallographic Association (http:// 
aca.hwi.buffalo.edu/) and the Inte- 
rnational Union of Crystallography 
(http://www.iucr.org/) bring together 
and represent scientists working in 
various fields. 

See also Biomedical Sciences; 
Chemistry; Geology; Physics 

References 

Julian, Maureen M. 1990. "Women in 
Crystallography." In Women of Sci- 
ence: Righting the Record, edited by 
G. Kass-Simon and Patrician Fames, 
335 383. Bloomington: Indiana Uni- 
versity Press. 

McLachlan, Dan, Jr., and Jenny P. 
Glusker, eds. 1983. Crystallography in 
North America. New York: American 
Crystallographic Association. 

Rayner-Canham, Marelene F. and Geoffrey Rayner-Canham. 1998. Women in Chemistry: 
Their Changing Roles from Alchemical Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century. Philadelphia, 
PA: Chemical Heritage Foundation. 




Crystallographer and cancer researcher, 
Jenny Glusker. (Courtesy of the Fox Chase 
Cancer Center.) 



Earth Sciences 

See Environmental Sciences and Ecology; Geography; Geology; Meteorology; 
Ocean Sciences 



Economics 



Economics is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as the "social science 
concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, 
and consumption of goods and service." The analysis of property, wealth, and 
markets has a long history, and has impacted the development of ethics, law, trade, 
and politics as well. Economists work in a variety of subfields and study not only 



Disciplines | 109 

financial information and trends but human behavior as well in seeking to under- 
stand our relationships to and decision-making processes about work, money, 
and consumer goods. Laissez-faire economics focuses on individual rational 
economic choices as driving the supply and demand of markets, while more 
radical theories (influenced by Karl Marx in the nineteenth century) argue that 
individuals have little choice within capitalism, which depends upon a permanent 
wage-earning class. Beginning in the 1970s, feminists pointed out the connection 
between patriarchy and capitalism, both of which rely upon women's unpaid house- 
hold labor to uphold the economy. Finally, an institutional model of economics 
takes a broader view of how multiple economic, political, and cultural systems (such 
as religion) work together to impact the economy of a specific region or society. 

Much of Western thinking about economics has been influenced by Adam 
Smith's theory of the free market in The Wealth of Nations, first published in 
1776. Priscilla Bell Wakefield made the earliest female response to Smith's text, 
arguing in her 1798 essay, "Reflections on the Present Condition of the Female 
Sex, with Suggestions for Its Improvement," that the economic contribution of 
women in the home, and the exchange of services and not just goods, is also essen- 
tial to the economy. Throughout the nineteenth century, feminists linked women's 
economic dependence on men, and their underlying lack of access to education 
and the professions, to female legal and political subordination. One hundred 
years after Wakefield first challenged Smith's economic model, American writer 
Charlotte Perkins Gilman published Women and Economics: A Study of the 
Economic Relation between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution, a 
radical call for women's economic independence and a challenge to the depen- 
dence forced upon women through marriage and motherhood. 

The field of economics itself has been understood by many feminists to 
be male-dominated in both employment patterns and subject matter. Only a 
handful of female economists have been elected to the National Academy of 
Sciences, including Anne Krueger (1995), Nancy Stokey (2004), and Elinor 
Ostrom (2001). The American Economic Association (AEA) Committee on 
the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (http://www.cswep.org) tracks 
the numbers and employment status of female economists at research univer- 
sities. In 2007, women received nearly 35% of new doctorates in economics 
and subsequently made up 28.8% of entry-level tenure-track professors; this is 
compared to 1972, when women earned 12% of economics doctorates and made 
up only 6% of full-time faculty of any rank. However, at the highest levels of 
academia, in 2007, women made up only 8.7% of full professors. Even more 
discouraging, some 40% of Ph.D. -granting research institutions had no female 
full professors on the faculty in 2007. 



I 10 I American Women of Science since 1900 




As in computer sciences and engi- 
neering, however, there are many 
high-level career opportunities out- 
side of academia, and economists 
are employed in diverse research, 
government, policymaking, national, 
and international business settings. 
In 2008, a full one-quarter of 
employed female economists in the 
United States worked in the private 
sector, and another 10% were 
employed in the government or 
public sector. Another 20% were 
employed internationally, either in 
foreign universities or in business 
(Fraumeni 2008). Juanita Kreps 
and Alice Rivlin have held prominent 
positions within the U.S. government. 
Kreps served as the first female (and 
first professional economist) Secre- 
tary of Commerce, serving under 
President Carter, and Rivlin has held 
several government positions, includ- 
ing as first head of the Congressional Banking Office when it was established in 
1975 and later as vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board. Other economists have 
worked in both academia and government; Laura Tyson has held a long-time 
faculty position, has been dean of two prestigious business schools, and has also 
served as economic advisor to two presidents on global markets, trade, high-tech 
industries, and healthcare reform. Economics was added as a category for the Nobel 
Prize in 1969, and 40 years later, in 2009, American Elinor Ostrom became the 
first woman to receive that prize. 

Some universities now offer specialization or certification in gender and eco- 
nomics. Feminist economic theory begins with a critique of theories that focus 
solely on the public spheres of markets and production (wage work), ignoring 
the economic contribution of women's unpaid work of household labor, reproduc- 
tive labor, and their role in consumption. The rise of the new home economics in 
the 1980s sought to make women's work visible and quantifiable, while acknowl- 
edging that household labor and childcare also limit women's choices regarding 
participation in wage work. This, in turn, justifies paying women less because they 
are seen as temporary, part-time, or uncommitted workers. The feminist critique of 



Economist Anne Krueger served as a vice 
president and consultant for the World Bank 
and director of the International Monetary 
Fund from 2001 to 2006. (AP/Wide World 
Photos) 



Disciplines | I I I 

rational individual economic behavior, then, questions how much economic 
"choice" women can truly exercise when considering the options of either working 
for low wages in "women's" jobs or working without pay in the household. 

Other workplace issues affecting women's economic status include equal pay, 
educational and employment access, hiring and advancement discrimination, and 
welfare issues. Phyllis Ann Wallace was the first black woman to receive a doc- 
torate in economics from Yale University (1948), and was a pioneer in research 
on the economics of racial and sexual discrimination in the workplace. A signifi- 
cant amount of recent attention has also been focused on the relationship between 
work and parenting, whether on the work mothers perform in the home, the 
challenges for working mothers in the wage labor force (including access to 
affordable, quality childcare), or women's "second shift" of work and childcare 
at home. Sylvia Hewlett founded the Center for Work-Life Policy (http:// 
www.worklifepolicy.org) to research precisely these and other dilemmas facing 
women in the workforce throughout the lifecycle, as the sexual division of labor 
disadvantages women not only during childbearing and childrearing years, but in 
old age as well. 

Finally, it is not only workplace issues, or questions of education and access, but 
also gender inequality in the family itself that limits women's economic activities 
and potential. Feminists question the ability of women to make free individual 
economic "choices" given the limits and pressures of family, culture, religion, 
and governments (particularly development programs) on women's lives. In this 
sense, economic relations and contexts may be more important than a focus solely 
on individual choices and needs. For example, self-interest (survival) is often seen 
as driving economic choices, but self-interest may look different for women com- 
pared to men. Women may not always operate from a perspective of self-interest 
or competition, or from a perspective of maximizing wage-earning as their primary 
economic role. Women, in general, some economists have shown, are more likely 
to make economic decisions based in a larger family context of caregiving and 
providing for the education and future security of children. 

See also Nutrition and Home Economics 

References 

Ferber, Marianne A. and Julie A. Nelson, eds. 2003. Feminist Economics Today: Beyond 
Economic Man. University of Chicago Press. 

Fraumeni, Barbara. 2008. "Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in the 
Economics Profession 2008." CSWEP. http://www.cswep.org/annual reports/ 
2008 CSWEP Annual Report.pdf. 

International Museum of Women (IMOW). "Economica: Women and the Global 
Economy." Online exhibit, http://www.imow.org/economica/index. 



I 12 I American Women of Science since 1900 

Olson, Paulette I. and Zohren Emami, eds. 2002. Engendering Economics: Conversations 
with Women Economists in the United States. New York: Routledge. 



Engineering 

Engineering can be defined as the practical application of mathematical and 
scientific principles to challenges in design, manufacturing, and operation. Engi- 
neers may design materials, structures, machines, computer programs, concepts, 
or processes. There are many different types of engineers, such as civil, electrical, 
mechanical, chemical, safety, materials, industrial, computer, aeronautical, aero- 
space, and biomedical. Broadly considered, then, engineering is the foundation 
of technological development and innovation across many scientific fields or disci- 
plines and therefore overlaps with the history of science in general. Humans have 
always sought to understand and improve their lives through the invention of tools, 
machines, buildings, cities, aqueducts, military equipment, household appliances, 
bridges, electricity, different modes of transportation and communication, foods, 
pharmaceuticals, chemicals, plastics, and computers. Different branches of engi- 
neering, or specialties, formed around specific industries and needs, but as all 
engineers seek to understand how things work, they must therefore have a strong 
foundation in the physical and theoretical sciences and in mathematics. 

Women have a long history of engineering contributions, although those contribu- 
tions have not always been acknowledged or recorded. The first American woman to 
receive a patent was probably Mary Dixon Kies of Connecticut, who in 1809 
patented a process for weaving straw with silk or thread (Stanley 1995, 304). Engi- 
neering has not always been considered a separate field, and many early engineers 
(as we would identify them today) were trained and worked within physics, chemis- 
try, math, or other fields, even business, psychology, or home economics (as with Lil- 
lian Gilbreth, an industrial time-management engineer who was the first female 
member of the Society of Mechanical Engineers). There have been an overwhelming 
number of women's inventions, tools, machines, and electrical or mechanical pro- 
cesses, some patented, some developed without acknowledgement or recompense 
to the original inventor. The first American doctorate in engineering was awarded 
at Yale University in 1 863 , and by the early 1 900s, only a few women had earned for- 
mal engineering degrees. Olive Dennis received a degree in civil engineering from 
Cornell University in 1920 and worked for many years as a "draftsman" designing 
railroad terminals. Commenting on the small but visible presence of women in engi- 
neering programs, a 1937 school newspaper reported, "Three Coeds Invade Engi- 
neering Courses and Compete with Men at Cornell University: Stand Well in Their 
Studies" (Bix 2006, 47). The headline acknowledged the women's accomplishments, 



Disciplines | 113 

but the use of words such as "invade" and "compete" reflected the view that the wom- 
en's presence was still a hostile act. 

Still, Cornell was among the few schools admitting women as engineering 
students before World War II. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 
admitted a few women, including Edith Clarke, the first woman to receive an 
electrical engineering degree from MIT in 1919. Clarke went on to have a produc- 
tive career in both industry, working for ATT and General Electric, and later in 
academia. But some of the most prestigious engineering programs and technical 
schools did not admit any women until well into the 1950s and 1960s. As in many 
other scientific fields, it was the shortage of male workers during World War II, 
and the new technological demands of war, that opened doors for women, espe- 
cially in new industries and nontraditional work for women. Companies recruited 
women and trained them on the job in mathematics, basic scientific concepts and 
terminology, drawing and design, mechanics, materials, welding, and machining 
for work in wartime production, aircraft and ship building, and weapons factories. 
Such programs, and women's employment in general, were seen as fulfilling a 
temporary need, and once the war over and the men returned, the expectation 
was that women would put their educations aside and leave the workforce. Some 
college campuses even returned to prewar policies of denying admission to female 
students. Women were not so quick to give up their newly acquired skills and edu- 
cation, however, and some began campaigns for access to technical education and 
engineering jobs. The Society of Women Engineers (http://www.swe.org) was 
founded in 1946 by a group of female engineering students at Iowa State. The 
SWE soon spread to other campuses and cities, and incorporated as a national 
organization in 1952, with Beatrice Hicks as the first president. 

The SWE also focused on dispelling myths about female engineers and on out- 
reach and encouraging girls (and their parents) to pursue engineering education 
and careers, recognizing that there was a social stigma that accounted for women's 
low representation in the field, and not just institutional barriers. As Irene Peden 
of the SWE acknowledged in 1965, "A girl is not likely to choose a career field 
disapproved by her parents, teachers, classmates, and friends." Peden also wanted 
to assure young women (and men) that "[m]any women engineers are very attrac- 
tive; most represent a perfectly normal cross section of femininity" (Bix 2006, 50). 

Even though engineers were needed to further the war effort and for the 
postwar modern military-industrial needs, it was not until the 1960s that the U.S. 
government's Cold War commitment to scientific research and technological 
advancement had an impact on women's access to engineering education and 
employment. Education required subsequent access to jobs, however, and 
corporate-industrial culture had to change as well. Recruiters inevitably saw engi- 
neers as men, and well into the 1960s bemoaned a shortage of engineers while 



I 14 I American Women of Science since 1900 

rejecting qualified female applicants. The SWE reported on a survey of company 
managers in 1961, which found that "81 percent wouldn't hire female engineers" 
(Bix 2006, 54). This attitude began to change, legally and socially, with the passage 
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and with the momentum of the new feminist move- 
ment, so that, by the 1970s, many companies proudly proclaimed their records (or at 
least intentions) on hiring women. For the most part, however, women's presence in 
professional engineering is concentrated in more recent decades. 

Although a doctorate was not always required for employment, between 1947 
and 1961, women received only 24 of the more than 8,000 engineering doctorates 
awarded (Rossiter 1995, 82). Women still made up less than 3% of practicing 
engineers by the early 1980s (Trescott 1990). By 2006, that number had risen to 
11.5% of employed engineers, still a marginal representation. As with computer 
sciences, many engineering jobs are in industry or business rather than academia 
and do not always require a higher degree. Of those women employed as engineers 
in 2006, 72% were in business or industry, and another 16.5% worked for federal, 
state, or local governments. Only 7.5% of women engineers are employed in 
colleges and universities (NSF Table H-19). In many engineering specialties, tech- 
nical experience is just as important as (if not more important than) formal educa- 
tion. This has both benefited and, ironically, hindered women's entrance into the 
engineering professions. In the nineteenth century, engineers were trained on the 
job in the dirty, physically demanding, and even dangerous factories, railroad 
yards, or survey expeditions, jobs from which women were excluded. Through 
the twentieth century and beyond, young boys are still more likely to be encour- 
aged to help their fathers build things and to play with building sets (Legos, 
Lincoln Logs, erector sets), model car and railroad sets, electronic hobby sets, 
and, now, computers and video games. Girls are not specifically excluded from 
such activities, but these toys are marketed to boys, and girls still receive social 
messages about appropriate interests. 

Modern engineers work in a variety of industries and applications, and women's 
contributions are now widespread across disciplines, with a focus on technological 
or mechanical innovation. Mildred Dresselhaus, a physicist and electrical engi- 
neer, was an expert on semimetals and semiconductors. Thelma Estrin, a former 
vice president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), was 
one of the earliest practitioners of clinical engineering, and pioneered the use of 
computers in brain research. Martine Kempf is a self-trained electronics engineer 
and computer scientist who invented a voice-recognition system for disabled 
persons to operate vehicles. Christine Darden is an aeronautical engineer who 
has worked on issues related to aircraft design and the environmental impact of 
supersonic flights during her long career at the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA). Bonnie Dunbar, also at NASA, was an early female 



Disciplines | 115 




astronaut and a biomedical engineer 
who studied the effect of space flight 
on the body. Rodica Baranescu is a 
mechanical engineer and in 2000 
was the first female president of the 
Society of Automotive Engineers 
International. 

Because of the continued low rep- 
resentation of women in engineering, 
however, combined with the impor- 
tance of engineering to nearly every 
aspect of modern technological life, 
engineering seems to be one of the 
most organized fields in terms of 
commitment to recruiting more girls 
and women. Female engineers organ- 
ize conferences, educational pro- 
grams, and professional support and 

mentoring networks, through organizations such as the SWE and the IEEE 
Women in Engineering network (http://www.ieee.org/web/membership/women/ 
index.html). Numerous programs exist for girls, students, parents, and educators, 
such as the Women in Engineering Proactive Network (http://wepan.org/), which 
is funded by the National Science Foundation and also produces a K-12 engineer- 
ing curriculum entitled "Making the Connection." A program called "Engineer 
Your Life" (http://www.engineeryourlife.org/) is targeted to high school girls, 
and "Engineer Girl" (http://www.engineergirl.org/) is a program of the National 
Academy of Sciences. 

See also Computer Sciences and Information Technology 



Computer scientist and biomedical engineer, 
Thelma Estrin. (Courtesy of UCLA Media 
Relations) 



References 

Bix, Amy Sue. 2006. "From 'Engineeresses' to 'Girl Engineers' to 'Good Engineers': A 
History of Women's U.S. Engineering Education." In Removing Barriers: Women in 
Academic Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, edited by Jill M. 
Bystydzienski and Sharon R. Bird, 46 65. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 

Hatch, Sybil E. 2006. Changing Our World: True Stories of Women Engineers. Reston,VA: 
American Society of Civil Engineers. 

National Science Foundation. 2006. "Table H-19. Employed scientists and engineers, by 
sector of employment, broad occupation, sex, race/ethnicity, and disability status: 
2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. 
National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resource Statistics, Scientists and 



116 | American Women of Science since 1900 

Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT). http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/ 
tabh-19.pdf. 

Rossiter, Margaret W. 1995. Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 
1940 1972. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University. 

Stanley, Autumn. 1995. Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History 
of Technology. 2nd edition. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 

Trescott, Martha Moore. 1990. "Women in the Intellectual Development of Engineering: 
A Study in Persistence and Systems Thought." In Women of Science: Righting the 
Record, edited by G. Kass-Simon and Patricia Fames, 147 187. Bloomington: Indiana 
University Press. 



Environmental Sciences and Ecology 

Environmental sciences is a broad category of study related to understanding 
the natural and human environments and the interaction between the two. It 
encompasses a range of disciplines and research interests that overlap among the 
natural, physical, and social sciences. Scientists working on environmental and 
ecological or ecosystem studies come from a variety of fields, including animal 
sciences, botany or plant biology, human biology, evolutionary biology, chemistry, 
geography (human and physical), geology, engineering, meteorology, oceanogra- 
phy, physics, toxicology, and social sciences such as anthropology, economics, 
politics, and public health awareness and reform. 

Environmental science also informs business, government, and activist concerns. 
Interdisciplinary environmental studies and analyses are used in policymaking 
related to development, agriculture, and industrial waste management, and "green" 
business and lifestyles have become a major political issue and social mandate in 
recent years. These issues depend upon science to explain the reason or urgency 
for certain actions needed to offset or change the effect of humans on the environ- 
ment. Current issues involving environmental scientists include climate change 
(global warming), protecting endangered plant and animal species, agricultural 
practices and food supplies (global and local), conservation of nature, air and water 
pollution, deforestation, and industrial and chemical health hazards and standards. 

Ecology, or the study of ecosystems, is a subfield of environmental studies and 
refers specifically to the biological interactions and interdependency among living 
organisms or species (humans, animals, plants) and the natural or physical envi- 
ronment. Lynn Margulis is an evolutionary biologist who has put forth the "Gaia 
hypothesis," or the idea that the Earth itself is a living organism. Although more 
specifically a theoretical or even spiritual issue than a scientific pursuit, ecofemin- 
ism argues that the destruction of the Earth and the social subordination of women 



Disciplines | 117 



Women and Climate Change 

Global climate change (or global warming) is one of the biggest issues for scien- 
tists, politicians, and industry of the twenty-first century. Since the mid-twentieth 
century women scientists have been involved in efforts to track and slow climate 
change, including geologists, meteorologists, oceanographers and other environ- 
mental and physical scientists, and materials and chemical engineers involved in 
creating new "green" technologies. The environmental effects of global climate 
change may have a negative social and economic impact on women, in particular. 
Feminist economists and other social scientists have pointed out that, especially 
in developing areas of the world, drought, flooding, erosion, and deforestation, 
as well as natural disasters caused by climate change, can have a devastating 
impact on local agriculture, water availability, and women's health and economic 
survival. The gendered aspects of climate change have been addressed by the 
United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and by global development, 
population and sustainability conferences since the 1990s, resulting in specific 
policy recommendation. 



are connected. Indeed, ecofeminism has sometimes been seen in opposition to 
science based on the idea that science is a "male" discipline with the goal of con- 
trolling or dominating nature for human use, whereas feminism promotes a "care- 
taker" role for humans in relation to the environment. 

Although we tend to think of environmentalism as a relatively new concept, and 
environmentalists as a highly politicized group, the United States has a long and 
solid history of environmental studies and science, and of efforts to protect nature 
and animals. In the nineteenth-century United States, industrial revolution, urbani- 
zation, and widespread immigration and migration all raised concerns about pollu- 
tion, destruction of the natural habitat, and the effect of human populations on the 
environment. Henry David Thoreau, in his 1854 book Walden and other writings, 
was one of the earliest American naturalists to lament humanity's disregard for 
nature's essential role in our physical as well as spiritual well-being. In the next 
generation, John Muir founded the Sierra Club and the twentieth-century conser- 
vation movement. By the early 1900s, politicians and reformers were taking notice 
and promoting conservation and protection of lands by setting aside state and 
national parks, such as Yosemite and Yellowstone. 

By the turn of the twentieth century, women with advanced degrees were focus- 
ing on environmental issues and hazards within a variety of different disciplines, 
many of them as botanists, biologists, and zoologists. Beginning in the late 
1800s, chemist Ellen Swallow Richards did some of the earliest research on 



I 18 I American Women of Science since 1900 



industrial pollution in the United States and, at the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology (MIT), taught some of the first college courses in environmental sci- 
ence. Emmeline Moore (who received her Ph.D. in 1914) was an early aquatic 
wildlife biologist who studied the effect of water pollution on freshwater fish; 
Moore later served as president of the American Fisheries Society. Plant patholo- 
gist Josephine Tilden held a master's degree (1897), and her research on algae 
led her to see the connections among algae, the larger ocean ecosystem, and 
human health. The plant catalogs created by botanist and ecologist Lucy Braun 
(who earned a Ph.D. in 1914 and was later the first woman president of the Eco- 
logical Society of America) were used in later conservation efforts to show the 
effect of mining on local plant life. 

In the 1920s and 1930s, the U.S. government began regulating business and 
industry to protect the environment as well as the health of workers and consum- 
ers. Toxicologist Alice Hamilton was one of the pioneers of occupational and 
environmental health studies, warning of the health hazards of unleaded gasoline 
and exposing safety issues for workers handling toxic chemicals and exposed to 
radiation. The spread of industrial factories and car culture by the 1950s gave rise 
to new levels of concern about the health hazards of smog and atmospheric and 

water pollution. Rachel Carson 
warned of the impact of humans on 
nature in her now-classic book, Silent 
Spring, first published in 1962. Paul 
and Anne Ehrlich published their 
highly controversial work, The Popula- 
tion Bomb, in 1968, warning that over- 
population would lead to a strain on 
Earth's natural resources and more 
human deaths. 

The government established the 
Environmental Protection Agency in 
1970, but several major industrial 
and nuclear accidents of the 1970s 
and 1980s, including Love Canal 
and Three Mile Island in the United 
States, and others internationally, 
had tragic effects on human health 
and resulted in increased activism 
and public environmental conscious- 
Doctor and reformer Alice Hamilton. (Library ness. Geraldine Cox received a 
of Congress) Ph.D. in environmental studies in 




Disciplines | 119 

1970 and has been involved in creating chemical industry policy guidelines for 
disaster management. Physician Helen Caldicott (Physicians for Social Respon- 
sibility) has warned of the short- and long-term effects of radiation and has led 
the way in her campaign against the development and use of nuclear energy. 
The burning oil fields in Kuwait during first Gulf War in the early 1990s, the 
Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, and the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon oil 
spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, brought new concerns about the devastating 
environmental and human costs of oil acquisition and production (through drilling 
or through war). By the end of the twentieth century a new "green" mentality had 
inspired not only a public imperative for individuals to reduce their "carbon foot- 
print," but for more scientific research and funding for alternative energies and 
technologies. The melting through of the polar ice cap, the designation of new 
endangered animal species due to habitat destruction, and the recognition that 
many "natural" disasters (hurricanes, mudslides, flooding) may be linked to human 
actions, have all influenced the U.S. government's scientific priorities. 

Women scientists work on environmental issues from a range of disciplinary 
perspectives, including chemistry and engineering. In the 1970s, Maxine Savitz, 
a chemist working in the U.S. Department of Energy, developed energy standards 
for heating and lighting buildings, new batteries, and fuel-efficient cars; Betsy 
Ancker- Johnson worked for many years on environmental policy at General 
Motors (GM), warning as early as the 1980s about the automotive industry's role 
in global climate change; Kathleen Taylor also worked at GM as a chemical 
expert on the development of catalytic converters to reduce emissions. Roberta 
Nichols, an engineer for Ford Motor Company, led the industry in developing 
alternate fuels for vehicles as well as designing vehicles that are more energy- 
efficient, and Elizabeth Gross is a biochemist who has researched photovoltaic 
cells, or "living batteries," to convert sunlight directly into electricity to preserve 
fossil fuels and reduce pollution. Chemist Joan Berkowitz is an internationally 
known expert on environmental hazards, and Susan Solomon confirmed that the 
chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) in air conditioners, aerosol sprays, and refrigerators 
were contributing to the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica, leading to a 
global effort to regulate and reduce use of those products. 

Other environmental scientists are biologists, zoologists, botanists, and natural- 
ists focused on animals and plants and their habitats. Mollie Beattie, as director 
of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was responsible for enforcing the Endan- 
gered Species Act in the United States. Cynthia Moss and Joyce Poole are 
zoologists who were active in having the African elephant declared endangered 
when the illegal trade in elephant tusks was decimating the herds. Continuing the 
environmental-naturalist connection of the nineteenth century, Anne LaBastille 
is a naturalist who has worked to preserve the wildlife habitat of many bird species, 



120 | American Women of Science since 1900 

and Marcia Bonta is a nature writer who has written extensively on the environ- 
ment and on the history of women's roles as naturalists. Inspired in environmental 
science by her famous conservationist father, Aldo Leopold, Estella Leopold 
became a specialist in paleoecology, or the study of prehistoric organisms and their 
environments. 

Geologists and geographers also add a unique perspective to the study of the 
Earth's environments and ecosystems. Pamela Matson earned a degree in forest 
ecology and researches the role of land-use changes on global warming. Ruth 
DeFries is an environmental geographer who uses global satellite images to 
understand the impact of human activities, such as agriculture and development, 
on the physical environment. Jane Lubchenco is a marine ecologist and geologist 
who specialized in ocean ecosystems and global climate change; in 2009, she was 
appointed head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 
Women environmental scientists working within a variety of interdisciplinary 
frameworks are represented professionally by organizations for earth scientists in 
general, such as the Association for Women Geoscientists (http://awg.org). Other 
groups bring together scientists and professionals in other fields, such as business 
and law, around environmental concerns, such as the Women's Environmental 
Council (http://www.wecweb.org) and the Society of Women Environmental 
Professionals (http://swepweb.com/). 

See also Biology; Biomedical Sciences; Botany; Geography; Geology; 
Ocean Sciences 

References 

Bonta, Marcia Myers. 1991. Women in the Field: America 's Pioneering Women Naturalists. 
College Station: Texas A&M University Press. 

Bonta, Marcia Myers. 1995. American Women Afield: Writings by Pioneering Women 
Naturalists. College Station: Texas A&M University Press. 

Holmes, Madelyn. 2004. American Women Conservationists: Twelve Profiles. Jefferson, 
NC, McFarland. 

Kaufman, Polly Welts. 2006. National Parks and the Woman 's Voice: A History. Albuquerque: 
University of New Mexico Press. 

Norwood, Vera. 1993. Made from This Earth: American Women and Nature. Chapel Hill: 
University of North Carolina Press. 

Perry, Ruth. 2009. "Engendering Environmental Thinking: A Feminist Analysis of the 
Present Crisis." In Women, Science, and Technology: A Reader in Feminist Science 
Studies, 2nd ed., edited by Mary Wyer et al., 312 321. New York: Routledge. 

Stein, Rachel, ed. 2004. New Perspectives on Environmental Justice: Gender, Sexuality, 
and Activism. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers. 



Disciplines | 121 



Genetics 



Genetics is a branch or subfield of biology and is focused on the scientific study of 
heredity or inherited traits through analysis of information stored in DNA (deoxyri- 
bonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), genes, and chromosomes, whether in 
humans, animals, or plants. Genetics provides insight into the most basic level of 
cell functioning and explains many aspects of human biology. Genetics is a fairly 
recent scientific discovery and one in which knowledge advanced rapidly over the 
course of the twentieth century. The concept of genetics was first discovered in 
agricultural experiments with the breeding and hybridization of plants. In the 
mid-nineteenth century, Austrian botanist Gregor Mendel isolated single-gene 
hereditary traits in pea plants. It took several more decades, however, for scientists 
to realize fully the implications of Mendel's findings, especially the applicability 
to human genetics. Charles Darwin's theories of evolution and species adaptability 
were the next leap in scientific understanding of heredity. 

Many scientists and physicians subsequently promoted theories of inherited 
traits and behaviors that often had little to do with actual science and more to do 
with social agendas. For example, the belief that certain personality traits, inter- 
ests, or even criminal behaviors could 
be inherited informed eugenics policy 
well into the twentieth century, result- 
ing in the involuntary sterilization of 
criminals or others deemed deviant in 
an attempt to stop them from passing 
those undesirable social behaviors, 
through their genes, on to the next 
generation. By the 1950s, genetics sci- 
ence was used to promote a new set of 
social policies, including premarital 
counseling and blood testing to ensure 
genetic compatibility (Kline 2001). 

Technology (such as the micro- 
scope) made possible the discovery 
of the cell and, in the early twentieth 
century, the discovery that genes are 
located on chromosomes. Around 
1905, Nettie Stevens discovered that 
sex was a genetic factor and was 

determined by chromosomes. At the Biochemist and geneticist, Maxine Singer. 
time, she was working at Bryn Mawr (National Library of Medicine) 




122 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Human Genome Project and DNA Testing 

The mapping of human genes has social and health implications for the lives of 
women worldwide. The international government-sponsored Human Genome 
Project (HGP) was begun in the 1990s and scientists had mapped more than 
20,000 human genes by 2003. Originally a project of the National Institutes of 
Health, research on the human genome sequence was conducted at scientific 
research centers and universities in several countries. The information collected 
in the HGP has already had implications for the direction of research on known 
hereditary diseases and has inspired the search for possible genetic links to dis- 
eases such as breast cancer. Advances in DNA testing have also made it easier 
to screen the fetus for certain diseases during pregnancy and for the development 
of more accurate testing methods for conditions such as diabetes or HIV/AIDS. 
Besides health and medical research, DNA testing also has social implications 
for women and families, through paternity testing or criminal investigations. In 
the twenty-first century, women are involved in both scientific research and con- 
sumer interest in developing further uses for DNA testing and gene research. 



with her professor, Edmund Beecher Wilson, who is credited with the discovery 
that chromosomes carry genes. In the 1940s, scientists confirmed that DNA (not 
proteins) carried hereditary information, and the double-helix structure of DNA 
was explained in the 1950s. By the 1980s, scientists could reproduce DNA in the 
laboratory, and computers allowed DNA mapping and sequencing, a new field 
called genomics. The Human Genome Project (HGP), a complete mapping of the 
more than 20,000 human genes, began in 1990 and was completed in 2003. The 
HGP allows biologists to study the particular sequences of genes for research into 
human evolution and disease characteristics. Maxine Singer is a leading figure in 
human genetics, and her laboratory helped to decipher the genetic code. 

The study of genetics also informs our understanding of the effect of environ- 
ment on human biology and health — that is, allowing scientists to determine 
which traits or predispositions to certain diseases are encoded in our DNA, which 
are the results of mutations, and the effects of our environment (health, diet, stress, 
etc.) on chromosomes. Reducing human life to the genetic level, however, also 
raises ethical concerns. For example, prenatal genetic testing has become an 
important tool in screening for certain diseases or conditions, but is this knowledge 
used to justify ending a pregnancy or to risk treating a disease before it appears? 
And, armed with such knowledge, who gets to make such decisions? DNA testing 
is also now routinely used in criminal prosecutions and even in historical research. 
Despite the rapid advancement of genetics as a field of inquiry, some scientists, 



Disciplines | 123 



Nettie Stevens 

Geneticist Nettie Maria Stevens (1861-1912) was one of the first researchers to 
demonstrate that sex was determined by a particular chromosome. Prior to her 
research, most biologists thought that external influences such as food and tem- 
perature determined the sex of offspring. She was the first person to establish that 
chromosomes exist as paired structures in body cells and the first to ascertain that 
certain insects have supernumerary chromosomes. Although she received recog- 
nition for her work during her lifetime, many textbooks attribute the discovery of the 
XY sex chromosome system to her contemporary, Edmund B. Wilson, a Columbia 
University biologist who made the simultaneous discovery in 1905. 

Stevens received two degrees from Stanford University and studied at the 
Naples Zoological Station and at the University of Wurzburg. She received her 
doctorate from Bryn Mawr in 1903, where she continued on as a research fellow 
in biology and an associate in experimental morphology. Although she had a short 
research career, she published nearly 40 scientific papers and made an impact on 
the fields of genetics and embryology. 



such as Evelyn Fox Keller and Anne Fausto-Sterling, have been critical or at 
least skeptical of the emphasis on and direction of genetic research. In her contro- 
versial 1993 book Exploding the Gene Myth, Ruth Hubbard warned that an over- 
reliance upon genetic information may skew scientific research priorities and 
create ethical dilemmas in medical care, health insurance, reproductive rights, 
criminal justice, and environmental science. Other feminists have been concerned 
about the use of genetics to explain sexual orientation. 

Genetics is a field of some of the most astounding and significant scientific 
discoveries of the last century, many of them conducted by women scientists. In the 
1950s, British crystallographer Rosalind Franklin discovered that the DNA molecule 
was in the shape of a double helix, or two intertwining coils. She created an X-ray 
image of the helix, from which James Watson and Francis Crick built the model that 
would earn them the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962, four years after 
Franklin's death. There have been at least 19 Nobel Prize winners in work related to 
genetics, including American Barbara McClintock, who won the Nobel Prize in 
Physiology or Medicine in 1983 for her work on maize (corn) genetics. McClintock 
spent 40 years studying mutation in kernels of maize, and discovered transposable or 
"jumping" genes that move from one chromosome to another. Virginia Walbot 
worked with McClintock and conducted her own research on transposable genes. 

Genetic researchers may study humans, animals, or plants, all of which may 
inform and have implications for biomedical research on human health and 



124 | American Women of Science since 1900 

diseases. Other women scientists who have conducted research in plant genetics 
include Jane Rissler on bioengineered plants, Sharon Long on the genetics of 
legumes, Nina Fedoroff, who replicated McClintock's experiments on maize 
and found transposable elements in other plants, and Mary-Dell Chilton and 
Marjorie Hoy on the genetic engineering of agricultural crops. Mary Lou Pardue 
was known for her work in insect genetics, Margaret Kidwell studied the transfer 
of genes in fruit flies, informing biologists' understanding of species evolution, and 
Judith Kimble is an animal geneticist whose work on nematodes (or unsegmented 
worms) has implications for human embryology and genetics. Helen Dean King's 
research on heredity involved breeding pure generations of rats to be used in labo- 
ratory experiments; Elizabeth Russell also bred mice for her genetic studies on 
various hereditary diseases such as anemia, muscular dystrophy, and cancer. 

Medical genetics has perhaps received the most attention, holding out promises 
for new understandings of and genetic therapies for diseases. Madge Macklin was 
one of the earliest medical geneticists (she received her M.D. in 1919) who 
focused on clinical practice and realized the importance of doctors taking into 
account a patient's family history for understanding certain hereditary diseases. 
Elizabeth Neufeld is an international authority on human genetic diseases, and 
Mary-Claire King is renowned for her research on breast cancer; in the 1990s 
King determined the existence of the gene BRCA1, which, if damaged, can predis- 
pose women to breast and ovarian cancer. Psychologist Nancy Wexler led the 
search to identify the gene that causes Huntington's disease, an inherited debilitat- 
ing disease that strikes in middle age. Mathilde Krim is a geneticist and virologist 
researching cancer, tuberculosis, and HIV/ AIDS. Ruth Sager studied nonchromo- 
somal mammalian cell genetics, also with implications for understanding cancer 
and tumor growth, and hematologist Eloise Giblett researched gene therapy for 
certain inherited immune deficiencies. 

See also Biology; Biomedical Sciences; Chemistry; Crystallography; 
Medicine 

References 

Fedoroff, Nina V. and David Botstein. 1992. The Dynamic Genome: Barbara McClintock's 
Ideas in the Century of Genetics. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Labora- 
tory Press. 

Keller, Evelyn Fox. 2002. The Century of the Gene. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 

Kline, Wendy. 2001. Building a Better Race: Gender, Sexuality, and Eugenics from the 
Turn of the Century to the Baby Boom. Berkeley: University of California Press. 

Marteau, Theresa and Martin Richards, eds. 1996. The Troubled Helix: Social and 
Psychological Implications of the New Human Genetics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge 
University Press. 



Disciplines | 125 



Geography 



Geography is the study of the Earth and its natural and human environments. There 
are two major fields within geography: physical geography and human geography. 
Physical geography is the study of the Earth's landforms, physical features, and 
natural phenomena. Human geography is the study of human spaces, including 
land use and built environments for social, political, and religious reasons. Femi- 
nist geography is one approach to the study of human geography and focuses on 
how gender, family life, and sexuality, for example, impact the use and distribution 
of space. This subfield has its own journal, Gender, Place, & Culture: A Journal of 
Feminist Geography. As the study of human uses of land and space, human geogra- 
phy has implications for a variety of nonscientific industries and policymaking, 
including urban planning, architecture, transportation, agricultural development, 
healthcare, and business. Human geography therefore includes the methods and 
tools of the natural sciences and social sciences, such as economics, sociology, 
anthropology, and politics. 

Physical geography is one of the earth sciences and may include all areas of study 
of the planet. Geographers study the Earth's inner core and layers, the Earth's surface 
and land formations (such as mountains, volcanoes, canyons, and forests), the physi- 
cal features of the Earth's environments and ecosystems (soil, water, climate, vegeta- 
tion), and the relationships among the Earth's surface, environments, and immediate 
atmosphere. The primary focus of physical geography, then, is on the features and 
physical processes of our planet; as such, geography is highly interdisciplinary. 
Geographers work both in the field and in the laboratory creating computer models 
and analyses. They may need scientific backgrounds in (or work within) fields such 
as biology, chemistry, glaciology, geodesy, mathematics, meteorology, ocean sci- 
ences, and environmental sciences. Geographical research is one of the foundations 
of environmental studies on climate change (global warming); deforestation and hab- 
itat destruction; forest, water, and other natural-resource management; pollution; and 
soil erosion and flooding, among other issues. 

Early-twentieth-century women geographers worked in a variety of situations 
as government clerks, editors, librarians, field scientists, and teachers of secondary 
school and college. Zonia Baber was one of the earliest women geographers, and 
a pioneer in creating geography curricula; she held a bachelor's degree and taught 
geology and geography at the University of Chicago in the early 1900s. Ellen 
Churchill Semple was another early woman geographer who wrote on human 
geography and history; in 1921, she was the first female president of the Associa- 
tion of American Geographers. Many early women geographers concentrated on 
fieldwork and exploration, and faced similar obstacles to those faced by women 
working in other field studies such as geology, archaeology, or paleontology. 



126 | American Women of Science since 1900 




Environmental geographer Ruth Defries. 
(Courtesy of Sandy Schaeffer, University 
Publications, University of Maryland) 



Louise Boyd was not trained as a 
scientist, but she personally funded 
several explorations of the Arctic 
region, creating some of the earliest 
maps, photographs, and records of 
the region; she represented the United 
States at the 1934 International 
Geographical Congress. 

Modern geographers work on cre- 
ating mathematical and computer 
models for problems in both physi- 
cal and human geography. Irene 
Fischer was a renowned mathemati- 
cian and geodesist; geodesy is the 
measurement of the shape and size 
of the Earth and requires measure- 
ment of large tracts of land, mapping 
the exact positions of geographical 
points, and determining the curva- 
ture, shape, and dimensions of the 
Earth. Fischer worked for the U.S. Army's Defense Mapping Agency Topo- 
graphic Center and later provided the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA) with precise topographical data on both the Earth and 
the seas in order to plan and execute experimental flights. Gwen Bell studied 
urban planning and computers for her doctorate in geography, and was known 
for creating an early computerized geographic mapping system, and Ruth 
DeFries is an environmental geographer who studies the effect of humans 
(through agriculture, urbanization, and carbon emissions) on the Earth's habitats 
and ecosystems. 

As in many scientific fields, the numbers of women receiving doctorates in 
geography was relatively stable until the 1970s and 1980s, and has increased 
significantly since then (Monk 2004). Women in geography receive professional 
support and resources from organizations such as the group Supporting Women 
in Geography (http://www.geography.wisc.edu/swig/index.htm) and from broader 
professional societies within the earth sciences, such as the Association for 
Women Geoscientists (http://www.awg.org). 

See also Economics; Environmental Sciences and Ecology; Geology; 
Meteorology; Ocean Sciences; Sociology 



Disciplines | 127 

References 

Monk, Janice. 2004. "Women, Gender, and the Histories of American Geography." Annals 
of the Association of American Geographers. 94(1): 1 22. (March 2004). 

"Women in Geography History, Events, and What We Do." Supporting Women in Geog- 
raphy (SWIG), http://www.geography.wisc.edu/swig/geography.htm. 



Geology 

Geology is the study of the Earth's physical materials, and their history, formation, 
processes, and uses. Geological subfields include petrology (the study of rocks), 
stratigraphy (the study of sedimentary layers), and structural geology (the study 
of land formations), and their work may include paleontology (the study of 
fossils), and the study of glaciers and ice. There are also planetary geologists 
who study the surface structure and formation of other planets besides Earth. 
Geologists have many tools, methods, and areas of focus, including various types 
of mapping, field observation, underground radar and electrical sensing, drilling, 
and biological and chemical analysis. Their research may support a variety of 
nonacademic interests in the identification and extraction of resources such as 
minerals, petroleum products, coal, natural gas, and water. Their work also has 
implications for civil engineering and for emergency planning through the study 
of natural disasters such as earthquakes, avalanches, volcanoes, and landslides. 
Finally, geological research has implications for and supports work and policy 
issues related to global climate change. 

Ancient explorers and philosophers were interested in collecting and classifying 
types of rocks, minerals, and metals. By the early eleventh century, geologists in 
the Islamic world and in China were formulating theories on the former submer- 
gence of continents under the sea, on the formation of mountains and other land- 
forms, and on the origins of earthquakes, based on the discovery of different rock 
layers (strata) and on observations on the diversity of the Earth's terrain. The age 
of European exploration brought new geographical and geological information 
through mapmaking and through economic activities such as mining. James Hutton 
published his Theory of the Earth in 1795, and, along with major fossil discoveries 
of the early nineteenth century, set off a new course of geological studies devoted to 
establishing the age of the Earth based on rock formation and layers. Hutton (and, a 
few years later, Charles Lyell in his Principles of Geology) promoted the idea that 
the Earth is constantly changing, challenging the biblical version of geological 
events in which the Earth was formed via a single event and remains unchanged 



128 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Mary Lyell 

Mary Elizabeth Horner Lyell (1808-1873) was an English naturalist and geologist 
who specialized in conchology, or the study of shells. She was married to Charles 
Lyell, the founder of modern geological science, whose book, Principles of Geology 
(1830-1833), established that the Earth itself had a history, an idea that directly 
influenced the theory of evolution made famous by their contemporary, Charles 
Darwin. Lyell made a further contribution to the theory of human evolution with 
his work on Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man (1 863). 

Mary Lyell received a thorough education in the sciences; her father was a 
professor of geology and her sister became a botanist. Like other nineteenth- 
century professional wives (such as her friend, Elizabeth Agassiz), Mary's contri- 
bution to her husband's scientific endeavors and publications is acknowledged 
as central, but difficult to measure. The Lyells traveled together on geological 
expeditions throughout Europe and North America, with Mary collecting and cata- 
loging fossil and rock specimens. She read several European languages and 
assisted her husband in translating and reading scientific papers, and in corre- 
sponding with other scientists around the world. Charles Lyell supported the par- 
ticipation of other women in scientific circles by insisting that women be allowed 
to attend his lectures, and Mary Lyell regularly attended meetings of the London 
Geological Society. 



from its origins. By the mid-nineteenth century, the works of Charles Darwin sup- 
ported the idea of a changing Earth and became the standard for scientific knowl- 
edge in the geosciences. In the twentieth century, the discovery of plate tectonics 
confirmed the movement of the continents, and new technologies have allowed 
for geological study of the ocean floor, carbon dating of rocks and fossils, seismo- 
logical understanding and even prediction of earthquakes, and computer modeling 
of the Earth's different layers. 

Geology is a subfield or specialty within earth sciences. Women earned only 4% 
of earth science doctorates between 1920 and 1970 (Aldrich 1990, 64). Even as 
access to higher education expanded, it was difficult for women to find jobs and, 
when they were hired, they received lower pay than their male colleagues. By 
2001, women were earning nearly 40% of bachelor's degrees in the geosciences, 
which includes all earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences; this figure was up from 
about 25% to 30% ten years earlier. Women earn a similar percentage of graduate 
degrees, although the actual numbers of doctorates granted in the field is quite 
small, with only about 250 women earning Ph.D.s in the geosciences in 2003. 
Despite gains over the past decade, however, women geoscientists are still glar- 
ingly underrepresented at higher faculty levels, as is the case across the sciences. 



Disciplines | 129 

In the 2004-2005 academic year, women made up 26% of assistant professors, but 
only 8% of full professors in the geosciences. The numbers of minority women in 
the geosciences is also disproportionately low; for example, only 107 African 
Americans (and only 30 African American women) earned a doctorate in geosci- 
ences in the 30-year period between 1973 and 2003 (AWG 2005). 

As in physical geography, ocean sciences, or environmental studies, geology 
requires both field and laboratory work, addressing both theoretical and practical 
problems and applications. In the United States, geology was one of the founda- 
tions of all American science and was important for the exploration and utilization 
of newly discovered regions and natural resources. In the nineteenth century, 
women were prominent as collectors of rocks, minerals, and fossils, as illustrators 
and recorders of natural history, and as creators of topographical maps. Early 
women geologists were trained and employed at the women's colleges, at secon- 
dary schools, in museums, and in government field stations. One of the earliest 
women to earn a doctorate in geology was Mary Emilie Holmes, who earned her 
Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1888 and was the first female member 
of the Geological Society of America. Florence Bascom received her Ph.D. in 
geology from Johns Hopkins in 1893 and is considered the first female professional 
geologist. Bascom was a petrologist who was one of the first scientists to use the 
microscope to study mineral crystals and was also the first woman scientist hired 
at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which was established in 1879. Bascom 
built the department of geology at Bryn Mawr and trained several other early 
women geologists who went on to get their doctorates at other institutions, includ- 
ing Ida Ogilvie (Ph.D., Columbia, 1903), Julia Gardner (Ph.D., Johns Hopkins, 
191 1), and Eleanora Bliss Knopf (Ph.D., Berkeley, 1912). Both Knopf (a petrolo- 
gist) and Gardner (a paleogeologist who studied shell fossils and created maps of 
Pacific islands) also worked for the USGS. Gardner later served as president of 
the Paleontological Society in 1952; Winifred Goldring had been the first female 
president of that organization just a few years earlier, in 1949. 

Geologists have worked closely with paleontologists and other scientists to 
uncover the history of the Earth and its inhabitants through the sedimentary and 
fossil record. Christina Lochman-Balk researched invertebrate fossils and sev- 
eral women were heavily involved in the research project begun by Nobel Prize- 
winning physicist Luis Alvarez to determine whether a meteor was responsible 
for the disappearance of dinosaurs from the Earth. Nuclear chemist Helen Michel 
conducted analyses of specimens from the sedimentary record believed to be 
evidence of the meteor; planetary geologist Adriana Ocampo worked for the 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) when she helped confirm 
the location of the crater created by the meteor, which was found under the sea; 
and Susan Kieffer, an expert on volcanoes and crater impacts on other planets, 



130 | American Women of Science since 1900 

advised the team on the characteristics of a crater site and on the possible trajec- 
tory of the asteroid. Astronomer Lucy- Ann McFadden was the principal investi- 
gator for NASA's planetary geology program, and Ursula Marvin is a planetary 
geologist who studies lunar rocks and meteorites. 

Other women geologists have been explorers, chemists, physicists, and ocean 
scientists, conducting research for a variety of government and industrial projects. 
Katharine Fowler-Billings was an explorer and field geologist beginning in the 
1930s and 1940s who conducted mineral expeditions throughout North America 
and on the Gold Coast of Africa. Gisela Dreschhoff is a geophysicist of the polar 
regions who conducted surveys in Antarctica to locate radioactive materials such 
as uranium. Delia Roy is a geochemist who studies the properties of materials 
for different uses (the mineral dellaite is named for her), and Alexandra Navrotsky 
is a geochemist who researches the composition and thermal chemistry of the 
Earth. Mary Lou Zoback is a geophysicist who specializes in plate tectonics 
and earthquake fault lines. 

Others interested in plate tectonics and seismology have focused on the geology 
and geography of the ocean floor. Elizabeth Bunce was a geophysicist who spent 
a long career at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution studying marine seismol- 
ogy and underwater acoustics. Marie Tharp studied underwater geology and cre- 
ated some of the first maps of the ocean floor, including her discovery of the valley 
that divides the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Marcia McNutt also mapped and measured 
the depth of the sea floor and researched plate tectonics; McNutt was the director 
of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute until 2009, when she was 
named the first female head of USGS. 

The American Society of Geologists and Naturalists was formed in the 1840s 
and was one of the scientific organizations subsumed under the new American 
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). As it has application to a 
wide range of scientific pursuits and discoveries, geology is included within the 
same professional societies and academic departments as geography, geochemis- 
try, geophysics, and other earth sciences. Scientific organizations include the 
Geological Society of America (http://www.geosociety.org), which in 2008, for 
first time ever, had both a woman president (Judith Parrish) and vice president 
(hydrogeologist Jean Bahr), and the American Geological Union (http://www 
.agu.org), a cross-disciplinary organization that includes earth, ocean, atmos- 
pheric, and planetary geology. Additionally, women scientists are represented 
through the Association for Women Geoscientists (http://www.awg.org), which 
was founded in 1977, and specialty groups such as the Association of Women Soil 
Scientists (http://www.awss.org). 

See also Astronomy and Astrophysics; Environmental Sciences and 
Ecology; Geography; Paleontology; Ocean Sciences 



Disciplines | 131 

References 

Aldrich, Michele L. 1990. "Women in Geology." In Women of Science: Righting the 
Record, edited by G. Kass-Simon and Patricia Fames, 42 70. Bloomington: Indiana 
University Press. 

Association for Women Geoscientists (AWG). "AWG is Committed to Gender Equity in 
the Geosciences." (February 2005). http://www.awg.org/gendereq.html. 

Burek, Cynthia V. and Bettie Higgs. 2007. The Role of Women in the History of Geology. 
London, UK: Geological Society of London. 

Home Economics 

See Economics; Nutrition and Home Economics 



Mathematics 

Mathematics is the theory and application of using numbers and symbols in calcu- 
lating measurements, spatial relationships, shapes, and patterns. Since ancient 
times, humans have had practical or economic reasons for establishing systems 
for counting, recording, and calculating physical objects. Humans also had an 
early need for creating abstract concepts, such as time and seasons, necessary, 
for example, in agriculture. Mathematics also provides the theoretical foundation 
and rules of logic for many scientific principles and rules and thus is the founda- 
tion of the natural sciences (physics, chemistry, astronomy) and applied sciences 
(computer sciences and engineering), as well as the social sciences (economics). 
Although scientists in these various fields must have strong backgrounds in 
applied mathematics, many mathematicians work in pure mathematics, or the 
study and development of mathematical principles for their own sake, without 
application. In most cases, mathematics is therefore related to, but still seen as sep- 
arate from, work in the sciences. For example, to speak of education and work in 
STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields clearly sepa- 
rates out the distinct realms of each. 

The perception that math is somehow different or more "pure" than the other 
sciences has had implications for the status of women in the field. Math, like phys- 
ics, is at the top of the science hierarchy, and the belief that success in mathematics 
is based on pure talent or "genius" (rather than education) has been used to explain 
the underrepresentation of women in higher-level mathematics. This belief has 
implications for the education of girls and women beginning in the elementary 
years, when girls are not expected to show an interest in or talent for math. Begin- 
ning in the 1970s and 1980s, feminist reformers pushed for more attention to the 



132 | American Women of Science since 1900 





math education of girls, and the elimi- 
nation of gender bias in the classroom 
and in testing, recognizing that early 
math education is the foundation for 
women's later career choices and 
success in a variety of science, engi- 
neering, and medical fields. Still, even 
as women's presence in the field 
increased throughout the twentieth 
century, the assumptions and attitudes 
about women's mathematical interests 
and abilities continued. In perhaps no 

r^r ^^^ other scientific field has the debate 

H about differences of ability been so 
centered on gender, and the issue has 
>* engaged scientists in other fields. From 
neuroscientists to reproductive biolo- 
y gists to psychologists, scientists want 

to know if math ability (defined as 
logic or spatial reasoning) is somehow 
related to the structure of our brains, 
to sex hormones, or genetics, or if it is 
entirely explained by education and 
social expectations (Henrion 1997; 
Dweck 2007). 
The history of American women's presence in higher-level mathematics 
follows that of other sciences. Women benefited from the expansion of educational 
and professional opportunities in the late nineteenth century, and then faced a 
backlash and retrenchment of opportunities in the mid-twentieth century. Winifred 
Edgerton was the first American woman to earn a doctorate in mathematics, 
receiving her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1886. Other early women math- 
ematicians included Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler (Ph.D., University of Chicago, 
1910) and Olive Hazlett (Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1915). The low point of 
women's representation in the field was the 1950s and 1960s. Between 1947 and 
1961, women earned just 5.53% of mathematics doctorates (Rossiter 1995, 80). 
Still, some women of this generation stood out for their mathematical contribu- 
tions in the post- World War II era. Grace Hopper and Margaret Butler both 
worked on the early military and government development of digital computers; 
Mina Rees also worked on military applications for jet rocket propulsion and 
high-speed computers after World War II; Evelyn Boyd Granville was one of 



Mathematician Grace Hopper was an early 
computer programmer who helped develop 
the COBOL language. (U.S. Department of 
Defense) 



Disciplines | 133 



Emmy Noether 

German mathematician (Amalie) Emmy Noether (1882-1935) is considered one 
of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century. She was one of the 
earliest figures in twentieth-century theoretical physics, devising mathematical 
theorems for several concepts later found in Einstein's general theory of relativity 
and writing numerous technical papers on abstract algebra. As the University of 
Erlangen (where her father was a mathematics professor) did not accept female 
students until 1904, she attended the University of Gottingen before returning to 
Erlangen to receive her Ph.D. in 1907. She worked as an unpaid lecturer at 
Erlangen until 1915 and held only an honorary position at Gottingen, although 
she did eventually earn a small salary as a lecturer. It was difficult enough for a 
woman to find regular university employment at that time, but in 1933, she and 
the other Jewish faculty members were dismissed from their positions under Nazi 
rule. She emigrated to the United States, where she had several employment 
offers, and accepted a position at Bryn Mawr College under a grant from the 
Rockefeller Foundation. She also lectured and conducted research at the Institute 
for Advanced Study at Princeton University but died in 1935, just two years after 
arriving in the United States. 



the first black women to earn a Ph.D. in mathematics (from Yale in 1949) and 
worked for private industry in support of National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA) space missions. Gertrude Cox was president of the 
American Statistical Association in 1956 and the Biometric Society in 1969. 

After the 1970s, the influence of feminism, and new attention to early math edu- 
cation, brought a push for gender equity in education, recruitment, and retention of 
women in mathematics. By 2006, women earned 45% of bachelor's degrees in 
mathematics and statistics and 29.6% of Ph.D.s. This was a greater representation 
than in related fields such as physics (in which women earned only 16.6% of doc- 
torates), engineering (20.2%), or computer sciences (21.3%) (NSF Table F-2); 
at the same time, women made up a little more than 27% of doctoral-level employed 
mathematicians (NSF Table H-7). Thus, despite the sense that mathematics is still 
more heavily male-dominated than some other fields, the numbers of women with 
doctorates and employed in mathematics fields are actually consistent with women's 
representation throughout science, technology, and engineering fields; in some cases, 
their representation is greater than in comparable fields, such as physics. 

Mathematicians work in academic research and teaching, as well as in a variety 
of applied settings for business, industry, medicine, and government. Persons with 
mathematical training and education may work as economists, statisticians, 



134 | American Women of Science since 1900 

computer scientists, and engineers. Joan Rosenblatt worked as a statistician estab- 
lishing unified units of measurement for the National Institute of Standards and 
Technology. Irene Fischer had a background in mathematics and worked as an 
earth scientist in the field of geodesy, the measurement of the size and shape of 
the Earth. Rosalie Bertell was a pioneer in the field of biomathematics, using 
mathematical theory and probability studies to assess biomedical risks including 
risks from radiation; before her, Hilda Geiringer (Von Mises) had also been inter- 
ested in applying mathematical theory to genetics and other bio-information. 
Others were renowned as educators. Grace Bates was a teacher who contributed 
several papers on algebra and probability theory to technical journals and was the 
co-author of two books. Edith Luchins pioneered the field of mathematical 
psychology and focused on the role of gender in learning and teaching mathematics. 

Others have worked primarily in mathematical theory, such as Mary Ellen Rudin 
on abstract geometry, and even theoretical physics, such as Karen Uhlenbeck and 
Marian Pour-El. Carol Karp introduced new symbols to the theory of infinitary 
logic. Julia Robinson developed a hypothesis for solving an equation proposed in 
1900 and known as "Hilbert's Tenth Problem"; a Russian mathematician solved the 
equation based on Robinson's hypothesis. Olga Taussky-Todd — known for her 
work in algebraic number theory and matrix theory, which she helped popularize — 
was founding editor of the journal Linear Algebra and Its Applications. Academic 
mathematician Cathleen Morawetz became the first female director of the Courant 
Institute of Mathematical Science at New York University. Female mathematicians 
are represented through professional organizations such as the Association for 
Women in Mathematics (http://www.awm-math.org). 

See also Computer Sciences and Information Technology; Engineering; 
Physics 

References 

Case, Bettye Anne and Anne M. Leggett. 2005. Complexities: Women in Mathematics. 
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 

Dweck, Carol S. 2007. "Is Math a Gift? Beliefs That Put Females at Risk." In Why Aren't 
More Women in Science?: Top Researchers Debate the Evidence, edited by Stephen J. 
Ceci and Wendy M. Williams, 47 55. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological 
Association. 

Henrion, Claudia. 1997. Women in Mathematics: The Addition of Difference. Bloomington: 
Indiana University Press. 

Kenschaft, Patricia Clark. 2005. Change Is Possible: Stories of Women and Minorities in 
Mathematics. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society. 

Murray, Margaret Anne Marie. 2000. Women Becoming Mathematicians: Creating a 
Professional Identity in Post World War II America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 



Disciplines | 135 

National Science Foundation. "Table F-2. S&E doctoral degrees awarded to women, by 
field: 1999 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and 
Engineering. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, 
Survey of Earned Doctorates, 1999 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/ 
tabf-2.pdf. 

National Science Foundation. 2006. "Table H-7. Employed scientists and engineers, by 
occupation, highest degree level, race/ethnicity, and sex: 2006." Women, Minorities, 
and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering. National Science Founda- 
tion, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data 
System (SESTAT). http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabh-7.pdf. 

Rossiter, Margaret W. 1995. Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 
1940 1972. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University. 

Medicine 

While some individuals may be trained in biomedical or health research fields, medi- 
cine here refers to the clinical practice of treating patients as physicians, surgeons, or 
other medical practitioners. Physicians focus on health maintenance as well as the 
prevention and treatment of illness and disease. Medical doctors (those with an 
M.D. degree) do not work alone, however, and usually oversee a team of other 
healthcare professionals. These may include nurses, physician's assistants, labora- 
tory scientists, physical therapists, pharmacologists, anesthesiologists, radiation 
technicians, or other specialists specific to the needs and conditions of individual 
patients. All medical doctors receive basic scientific training in biology, anatomy, 
physiology, pharmacology, and pathology as tools for diagnosing and treating illness 
or disease. Physicians also typically specialize, either by patient group (gerontology, 
pediatrics, women's health), by organ or system (dermatology, urology, pulmonol- 
ogy), or as surgeons, general or further specialized. Women work throughout the 
medical profession as doctors and in these other positions, and may be employed in 
private practice, in group offices or hospitals, or in government and the military. 

The care and treatment of the sick has traditionally been the role of women, and 
throughout history, women developed specialized knowledge about herbal medi- 
cines, palliative treatments, and specific areas of assistance, such as midwifery. 
In the United States, the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries brought 
the first professional medical schools, and the American Medical Association 
(http://www.ama-assn.org) was founded in 1847; the AMA did not admit its first 
female member until 30 years later, in 1876. Despite the barriers to advanced edu- 
cation and professional affiliation, women made great strides in medicine in the 
nineteenth century. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to earn a medical 
degree, from Geneva Medical College in New York in 1849. A few years later, 



136 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Florence Nightingale 

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was an English nurse renowned for her work 
with injured soldiers during the Crimean War of the 1 850s. Her name became syn- 
onymous with women's self-sacrificing care of the sick and injured, but she helped 
establish nursing as a serious profession for women. As a teenager, she decided 
(against her parents' wishes) to pursue a career in medicine, eventually securing a 
position at a women's hospital in London. After hearing reports of the horrifying 
conditions on the battlefront, in 1854, Nightingale volunteered to lead a group of 
nurses to the main British camp in Crimea, near Turkey. Patients were dying in 
greater numbers from infections, poor nutrition, and contagious diseases than 
from battle wounds, and she set up a plan not only for medical care but for sanitiz- 
ing the wards and improving ventilation. She herself became ill and was forced to 
return to England in 1856, but remained committed to public health and hygiene 
issues and to nursing education throughout her life. She published her founda- 
tional text, Notes on Nursing, in 1859, and with American physician Elizabeth 
Blackwell opened the Women's Medical College in England in 1869. What is less 
known about Nightingale is that she was a pioneering statistician who designed 
her own diagrams and charts to report on hospital conditions, mortality, and public 
health issues. She was one of the first women to be affiliated with both the Royal 
Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association. 



Blackwell, along with her sister, Emily, and another doctor, Marie Zakrzewska, 
opened the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, where they trained 
and employed female doctors. In 1864, Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first 
African American woman to receive an M.D. degree, receiving her medical train- 
ing at the New England Female Medical College in Boston. 

In the late nineteenth, many women earned medical degrees at separate medical 
schools for women. The next generation, however, would push for access to and 
employment in traditionally male (and thus more prestigious) medical schools. 
Florence Sabin received her M.D. from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 
1900 and also became the first female faculty member of the medical school. 
Sabin also distinguished herself as the first female president of the American 
Association of Anatomists, in 1924, and the first woman elected to the National 
Academy of Sciences in 1925. Helen Taussig was another early Johns Hopkins 
graduate, receiving her M.D. in 1927. Other schools were slower to admit women; 
Harvard Medical School did not open its doors to female students until 1945. 

Other early women physicians who were medical researchers included Dorothy 
Reed Mendenhall, who also received her M.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1900, and 
who researched Hodgkin's disease and issues related to infant health and 



Disciplines | 137 



Elizabeth Blackwell 

Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910) was the first woman in the United States to earn 
a medical degree, graduating from Geneva Medical College in New York in 1849. 
She promoted the medical education of women and went on to establish her own 
hospital for training female physicians. Born in England, Blackwell's family emi- 
grated to the United States when she was a child. She began her career as a 
teacher, but educated herself in medicine by reading in the libraries of physician 
friends. She was rejected by a dozen U.S. medical schools before being accepted 
to Geneva, where the student body had voted for her admission as a joke. Still, 
she was able to attend and complete her education and practiced medicine in 
England, France, and the United States. In 1857, she and two other women 
doctors — her sister Emily Blackwell and Marie Zakrzewska — opened the New 
York Infirmary for Women and Children; during the American Civil War, they 
trained women as nurses for the Union Army. Throughout her career, Blackwell 
was active in the women's rights movement (her sisters-in-law, Antoinette Brown 
Blackwell and Lucy Stone, were both prominent reformers), and she published 
on issues related to women's education, professional opportunities, and health. 



mortality. Elise L'Esperance received an M.D. from Women's Medical College of 
New York in 1900 and led a public health and information campaign through her 
clinics to promote early detection and treatment of cancer. Ida Hyde earned an 
M.D. from Rush College in 1911 and was the first female member of the American 
Physiological Society. Virginia Apgar developed the Apgar scoring system for 
evaluating newborn health and became the first female full professor at Columbia 
University's medical school in 1952. The AMA elected a female vice president in 
1969, but the primary professional organization for medical doctors did not elect 
its first female president until 1998, more than 150 years after its founding; the 
AMA elected its second female president, Nancy Nielsen, in 2008. 

By the end of the twentieth century, women had a greater presence in medicine 
than in other scientific fields in general. In the 40-year period between 1968 and 
2008, the number of female medical school students rose from 8.8% to 47.9% 
(AAMC Table 31). During that same time period, the number of women as practicing 
physicians also rose, from 7.6% of all physicians to 26.6% (Boulis and Jacobs 2008, 
42). These numbers are the result of women's greater access to education and the pro- 
fessions after 1970, but also reflect the growth of the healthcare industry in general. 
As faculty of medical schools, however, there are similar patterns to those of wom- 
en's employment in academic science in general. In 2006, women made up 33% of 
all clinical medical faculty, but the numbers dwindle the higher up the academic 
career ladder one moves. Women accounted for 38% of assistant (nontenured) 



138 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Fran?oise Barre-Sinoussi 

French virologist Francoise Barre-Sinoussi (b. 1947) received the Nobel Prize in 
Physiology or Medicine in 2008 for her discovery of HIV, the human immuno- 
deficiency virus that causes AIDS. She shared the prize with her colleague in this 
work, Luc Montagnier, and with German scientist Harald zur Hausen, for his dis- 
covery of the human papilloma viruses (HPV) that causes cervical cancer. 
Barre-Sinoussi has been affiliated with the Pasteur Institute in Paris since the 
1970s and is currently director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Unit. 
She began her career studying the link between viruses and cancers, such as leu- 
kemia, and by the early 1980s was part of a team researching a new epidemic 
among homosexuals as reported by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The 
scientists at the Pasteur Institute had isolated the virus by early 1983 and pre- 
sented the data that linked the new HIV virus to what became known as acquired 
immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Since that time, Barre-Sinoussi has 
focused on vaccine research and on international efforts to prevent, test for, and 
treat HIV/AIDS, including understanding and preventing mother-child transmis- 
sion, in countries throughout Africa and Asia. 



professors, 27% of tenured associate professors, and only 15% of full professors in 
the clinical sciences (AAMC Table 3). Furthermore, the American Association of 
Medical Colleges listed only 14 individual women as deans or interim deans out of 
130 accredited medical schools in the United States in 2006 (AAMC Table 12). 

As in the sciences in general, women are better represented in some medical fields 
or specialties than in others. A survey of medical residents in 2005 found that, within 
the clinical sciences, the largest percentage of women (those in which women made 
up 50% or more of the residents) were training in dermatology, family medicine, 
obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, pediatrics, and psychiatry. Women are there- 
fore substantially represented in fields related to the primary care of women and 
children, and to the "helping" professions. The lowest percentage of women is seen 
in surgery and a variety of surgical specialties, fields that are the most prestigious, 
and highest-paid, among medical specialties (AAMC Table 2). The increasing num- 
bers of female doctors overall has an impact on the quality and focus of healthcare 
services and research. The medical specialties with larger numbers of women are 
not only those that cultivate long-term one-on-one relationships with patients (which 
may be more attractive to some women), but are also career choices in fields that 
make it easier for work/life balance; that is, primary-care physicians are more likely 
to have regular office hours, and are less focused on research or publication and (in 
most cases) less likely to be subject to unscheduled emergencies or surgical calls. 



Disciplines | 139 




Physician Virginia Apgar attending a newborn baby, 1957. She created the Apgar Score, 
the first standardized method for evaluating newborn health. (National Library of Medicine) 

Besides the impact on the careers of individual women as physicians, women as 
patients and consumers of healthcare has also been a subject of inquiry since the 
1970s, and reformers and female medical professionals have pushed for new stud- 
ies and funding for women's and minority health issues. The National Institutes of 
Health (NIH) established guidelines requiring female subjects in all government- 
funded medical and pharmacological research proposals, and sponsored new stud- 
ies on women and heart disease, osteoporosis, AIDS, and breast and other cancers. 
At the grassroots level as well, the women's health movement encouraged women 
to take control of their own bodies and health, with projects such as the book Our 
Bodies, Ourselves (http://www.ourbodiesourselves.org), which has gone through 
numerous editions and been translated into several languages, the National Black 
Women's Health Project (http://www.blackwomenshealth.org), the National 
Women's Health Network (http://www.nwhn.org), and other health advocacy and 
consumer groups. Geneticist Mary Harris founded Journey to Wellness (http:// 
www.journeytowellness.com), an organization committed to African American 
health issues and information, and psychologist Jane Delgado is the president 



140 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Our Bodies, Ourselves and the Women's Health Movement 

The book, Our Bodies, Ourselves, was first published in 1973 and became a 
classic of the American women's health movement. Published by the Boston 
Women's Health Book Collective, the book was the result of a grassroots movement 
of women inspired by feminism to encourage women to take charge of their own 
health. The project was radical at the time of its publication for its open discussion 
of sexuality (including lesbianism), women's sexual health, body image, gender 
identity, violence against women, menstruation, pregnancy and childbearing, 
abortion, mental health, and other general health issues. Although incorporating 
the latest medical information available, the collectively-authored book was 
grounded in women's first-hand experiences and rejected the male-dominated 
medical profession's dismissal or pathologizing of women's issues and sexuality. 
Our Bodies, Ourselves has gone through several editions, sold millions of copies, 
and has been published in more than 20 languages. It has also inspired companion 
volumes on specific topics, such as Ourselves, Growing Older, Our Bodies, 
Ourselves: Menopause, Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth, and a special 
volume for teens. 



and CEO of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health (http://www.hispanic 
health.org). Helen Gayle is a pediatrician and public-health epidemiologist who 
became the director of CARE USA, a humanitarian agency that addresses poverty, 
education, and healthcare as social issues, and Susan Love left a surgical career to 
focus on legislative, funding, and research commitments to ending breast cancer 
and to empower women with the latest information on treatment alternatives. 
Anthropologist and nurse-midwife Ruth Lubic founded an organization in 
Washington, D.C., committed to the care of families with children. 

Other women physicians have been prominent in government and research posi- 
tions. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush appointed Antonia Novello as the first 
woman, and first Latino, U.S. Surgeon General; Joycelyn Elders was the second 
female Surgeon General, serving under President Bill Clinton. Cardiologist 
Bernadine Healy has served as president of the NIH and the American Red Cross, 
as well as president of the American Heart Association; in each of these roles, Healy 
has focused on the healthcare needs of women and minorities. Several astronauts 
and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists have been 
trained in medicine, including Mae Jemison, who studied weightlessness and 
motion sickness, and Irene Long, who served as chief of the Occupational Medicine 
and Environmental Health Office at NASA, overseeing the health and safety of the 
astronauts and other NASA employees. Eight American women have been awarded 



Disciplines | 141 

the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, but these have all been Ph.D. -holding 
biomedical researchers and not physicians. 

See also Biochemistry; Biology; Biomedical Sciences; Genetics; Neurosci- 
ence; Psychiatry and Psychology 

References 

American Medical Association. Women Physicians Congress (WPC). http://www.ama 
-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-people/member-groups-sections/women-physicians 
-congress. shtml. 

Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). "Table 2: Distribution of Residents by 
Specialty, 1995 Compared to 2005." http://www.aamc.org/members/gwims/statistics/ 
stats06/table02.pdf. 

Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). "Table 3: Distribution of Faculty by 
Department, Rank & Gender, 2006." http://www.aamc.org/members/gwims/statistics/ 
stats06/table03.pdf. 

Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). "Table 12: Women Deans of the U.S. 
Medical Schools, October 2006." http://www.aamc.org/members/gwims/statistics/ 
stats06/table 12.pdf. 

Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). "Table 31: Women Enrollment and 
Graduates in U.S. Medical Schools, 1961 2008." http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/ 
2008/women-count.htm. 

Association of American Medical Colleges, Women in Medicine (WIM). "Women in U.S. 
Academic Medicine Statistics and Medical School Benchmarking, 2005 2006." http:// 
www.aamc.org/members/gwims/statistics/stats06/start.htm. 

Boulis, Ann K. and Jerry A. Jacobs. 2008. The Changing Face of Medicine: Women Doctors 
and the Evolution of Health Care in America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 

Fames, Patricia. 1990. "Women in Medical Science." In Women of Science: Righting the 
Record, edited by G. Kass-Simon and Patricia Fames, 268 299. Bloomington: Indiana 
University Press. 

More, Ellen S. 1999. Restoring the Balance: Women Physicians and the Profession of 
Medicine, 1850 1995. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 

National Library of Medicine. Online Exhibit. "Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating 
America's Women Physicians." http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/ 
exhibition/. 

Meteorology 

Meteorology is the science of the Earth's atmospheric processes and phenomena, 
including short-term weather forecasting. Meteorology is related to climatology, 
the longer-term study of the climate, including weather patterns, air pressure, 



142 | American Women of Science since 1900 




humidity, and temperature, either 
locally or globally. Another branch 
of meteorology is hydrology, which 
is the study of the Earth's water re- 
sources, whether ground or air, and 
overlaps with work in geography, 
geology, and environmental sciences 
on sustainability and use of resources. 
Meteorologists provide weather 
information to the general public via 
the media, but also inform (and may 
be employed in) the military, avia- 
tion, space, and maritime industries, 
and local and national governments 
for purposes of natural disaster pre- 
paredness. Many meteorologists in 
the United States are employed as 
forecasters for the National Weather 
Service of the National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration 
(NOAA). In 2009, Jane Lubchenco, 
a marine ecologist who specialized 
in global climate change, was named 
the first female head of NOAA. Meteorology is usually considered one of the earth 
sciences, and education and training may occur under combined interdisciplinary 
programs for earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences. 

Even ancient societies had a material interest in observing and predicting weather 
events and changes, primarily for planning in agriculture. Early weather observa- 
tions and forecasting went hand in hand with astronomy, as an understanding of 
the solar and lunar cycles informed the understanding of seasons, winds, rainfall, 
and other weather patterns and events. In the age of exploration, sailors recorded 
tropical and other ocean-related weather events that aided future travelers, and in 
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the first weather maps (or atlases) were pub- 
lished and the Celsius temperature scale was created. The U.S. Weather Bureau 
(now the National Weather Service) was first established in 1 870 and later became 
part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The first weather-observation stations 
were also established, and soon an international network of weather information 
and a standardized form of communication was needed. By the mid-twentieth cen- 
tury, computers and satellites aided these efforts, making it possible to map global 
weather patterns and generate statistical analyses for forecasting. 



Marine ecologist and conservation biologist, 
Jane Lubchenco. In 2009 she was chosen as 
head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration, the first woman to hold that post. 
(AP/Wide World Photos) 



Disciplines | 143 

The actual numbers of trained meteorologists remains small, but a few women 
have stood out in the field since the mid-twentieth century. The national Weather 
Bureau began to employ many women during and after World War II; some of these 
were only temporary workers, but others built careers in meteorology out of this 
experience. Florence Van Straten monitored weather conditions for the Pacific fleet 
during the war and went on to work for the Naval Weather Service as a civilian 
meteorologist, providing weather forecasting to support military operations, such 
as launching long-range missiles. Pauline Morrow Austin held a Ph.D. in physics 
and worked as a "computer" in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 
Radiation Lab before being trained as a meteorologist during World War II. Joanne 
Simpson was the first woman to receive a doctorate specifically in meteorology 
(earning her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1949) and worked as a fore- 
caster for the military during World War II; she also held several positions at NOAA 
and was the first female president of the American Meteorological Society (1989). 
Bernice Ackerman was also trained as a meteorologist during World War II and 
went on to earn a doctorate in meteorology in 1965; she is considered the first female 
weather forecaster in the United States, and worked as a research meteorologist in the 
Cloud Physics Laboratory at the University of Chicago and as the first woman 
meteorologist at Argonne National Laboratory. 

In the 1970s, Joanne Simpson and Margaret LeMone, an observational meteor- 
ologist whose research focuses on storm and cloud systems and who received her 
Ph.D. in 1972, began tracking the education and careers of women in meteorology. 
They found that, between 1971 and 1976, women earned just 3.3% of the more than 
500 doctorates awarded in meteorology (LeMone et al. 1984). Women's representa- 
tion in the field rose significantly over the subsequent decades. By 1999, women 
earned 17.7% of doctorates in the field of atmospheric sciences; by 2006, that num- 
ber had risen to 3 1 .3% (NSF Table F-2). Again, the overall numbers of meteorology 
or atmospheric science doctorates and professionals remains small; the 2006 number, 
for example, represents only 46 women out of a total of 147 doctorates in atmos- 
pheric sciences awarded that year (NSF Table F-l). 

Women meteorologists continue to make important contributions in 
government, industry, and academic settings, especially as global climate change 
has become an important social and political issue of our time. Tamara Ledley is 
known for her research on the role of the polar regions in shaping climate and has 
examined how the interaction of atmosphere and sea with ice and oceans influences 
climate change. She has conducted research in both Alaska and Antarctica, and 
been active in presenting information on climatology to elementary school children 
as well as to university students. Eugenia Kalnay received a Ph.D. in meteorology 
from MIT in 1971. Kalnay uses computer models and analysis to make numerical 
global weather predictions based on ocean and atmospheric climates and has been 



144 | American Women of Science since 1900 

one of the most outspoken voices on the role of humans in global climate change. 
Atmospheric scientist and engineer Susan K. Avery had a long career in academia 
before being appointed the first female director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic 
Institution in 2008. Scientists in the field may be affiliated with the National 
Weather Association (http://www.nwas.org) and the American Meteorological 
Society (http://www.ametsoc.org). 

See also Astronomy and Astrophysics; Environmental Sciences and Ecology; 
Geology; Geography; Ocean Sciences 

References 

LeMone, Margaret A., Joan V. Frisch, and Lesley T. Julian. 1984. "Tracking Women and 
the Weather." Weatherwise. 176 181. (August 1984). 

National Science Foundation. "Table F-l. S&E doctoral degrees awarded, by field: 
1999 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engi- 
neering. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Survey 
of Earned Doctorates, 1999 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabf-l.pdf. 

National Science Foundation. "Table F-2. S&E doctoral degrees awarded to women, by field: 
1999 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineer- 
ing. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Survey of 
Earned Doctorates, 1999 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabf-2.pdf. 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Women in the Weather Bureau 
during WWII." NOAA History. A Science Odyssey, http://www.history.noaa.gov/ 
stories tales/w omenl.html. 

World Meteorological Organization. Gender theme page, http://www.wmo.ch/pages/ 
themes/gender/index en. html. 

World Meteorological Organization. 1995. "Statement to the Fourth World Conference on 
Women, Beijing, China." United Nations. http://www.un.org/esa/gopher-data/conf/ 
fwcw/conf/una/950908210829.txt. 



Neuroscience 

Neuroscience is the study of the brain and nervous system, and may include scien- 
tists working in a variety of backgrounds, fields, and subdisciplines, including cel- 
lular and molecular neurosciences, neuroscience systems, pharmacology, 
behavioral or cognitive neuroscience, neurolinguistics, developmental neurosci- 
ence, evolutionary neuroscience, and brain diseases, disorders, or injuries. Neuro- 
scientists may focus on the chemical, genetic, or behavioral aspects of brain 
science. Neuroscience differs from psychiatry, however, in its foundation in the 
physical structure and processes of the brain and nervous system. 



Disciplines | 145 

Numerous ancient cultures observed the effects of brain damage and many 
engaged in practices to relieve physical and mental pain, such as cranial drilling. 
The exact function and structure of the brain, however, was not understood for 
many centuries. In some sense, phrenology and early psychology and philoso- 
phy of the nineteenth century were precursors to neuroscience, in that these sci- 
entific endeavors sought to understand the relationship between the brain and the 
mind, or between the physical structure of the brain and human thought and 
behavior. Microscope technology allowed scientists in the late nineteenth cen- 
tury to study brain tissues and led to the discovery of nerve cells, or neurons. 
Neuroscientists in the twentieth century have focused their research on the func- 
tion or role of specific parts of the brain, finding that certain regions of the brain 
correspond to different behaviors and skills, such as language, movement, or 
organ function. Other researchers focus on the chemical, hormonal, or environ- 
mental influences upon the brain and nervous system. Neuroscience as it exists 
today, then, is a relatively new field, made possible by great technological 
advances in radiology and computer imaging that allow us to see what is going 
on inside the human brain. 

In 1963, women earned just 10% of higher degrees in neuroscience; by 1973, 
that number had increased to 20%. Although the numbers and status of female stu- 
dents, faculty members, and researchers are sometimes difficult to track since neu- 
roscientists may be working within a variety of interdisciplinary fields and settings 
related to the biological or life sciences, most reports show a continued increase in 
women's numbers in neuroscience. By 1998, women made up as many as 45% of 
graduate students in the neurosciences, approximately 31% of assistant (nonten- 
ured) professors, but still less than 20% of tenured full professors (Haak 2002). 
This is a "leaky pipeline" pattern found throughout the sciences in which there 
are fewer women at each successive stage of the career ladder. 

Elizabeth Crosby, who earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1915, 
was one of the earliest women brain researchers and published several textbooks 
on neuroanatomy and neurosurgery. Barbara Brown was trained in pharmacol- 
ogy and was another among the first generation of women in neuroscience. Brown 
received her doctorate from the University of Cincinnati in 1950 and was a pioneer 
researcher in the concept of "biofeedback," a method of learning to control one's 
bodily functions by monitoring one's own brain waves and other bodily functions. 
A professional organization, Women in Neuroscience (WIN) was founded in 1980 
to support women in careers in neuroscience. WIN (now the Committee on 
Women in Neuroscience, http://www.sfn. org/index.cfm?pagename=womenin- 
neuroscience) was founded by Candace Pert, a neurophysiologist who, as a 
graduate student, co-discovered the brain's opiate receptors, the areas in which 
painkilling substances such as morphine can be inserted. Her work led to the 



146 | American Women of Science since 1900 




Neurophysiologist Candace Pert with a CAT scan of a brain. Pert researches the 
connection between brain chemicals and emotions. (Claudio Edinger/Corbis) 



discovery of endorphins, the naturally occurring substances manufactured in the 
brain that relieve pain and produce sensations of pleasure. 

Thelma Estrin is a bioengineer who pioneered the use of computers in brain 
research, and Patricia Goldman-Rakic is a neurobiologist who mapped the fron- 
tal lobe of the brain and combined methods in anatomy, psychiatry, and biochem- 
istry to understand certain brain disorders, behaviors, and the effects of drug 
treatments for memory loss; Goldman-Rakic also founded and co-edited the jour- 
nal Cerebral Cortex. Nobel Prize winner Rita Levi Montalcini is a neurologist 
who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1986 for her discovery of 
nerve growth factor (NGF), which is responsible for the rapid growth of immature 
cells implicated in diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's. 

Marian Cleeves Diamond studies the physical structure of the cerebral cortex 
and the impact of environmental factors (such as diet, exercise, stress, and emo- 
tions) on the development of the brain. Nancy Wexler holds a Ph.D. in clinical 
psychology and combined neuroscience and psychology as a neuropsychologist 
who looked at Huntington's disease, a hereditary disease that kills nerve cells in 
the brain, causing dementia and rapid, uncontrollable movements of the joints 



Disciplines | 147 

and limbs. Susan Hockfield is a neurobiologist who studies pain and the nervous 
system — in 2004, she became the first woman (and first life or biological scientist) 
president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). 

Other neuroscientists have contributed to the debate over whether male and 
female brains are different, looking at the physical structure of brains as well as 
the effect of hormones and environment, for insight into gendered differences in 
language, behavior, sexuality, and even math and science aptitude. Elizabeth 
Spelke is a cognitive psychologist whose research focuses on language and knowl- 
edge acquisition in young infants; Spelke has been one of the most outspoken crit- 
ics of the idea of innate gendered differences in the brain, arguing that there are no 
biological differences between the brains of male babies and female babies. 
Spelke's colleague, Nancy Kanwisher, is a cognitive psychologist who has also 
argued against innate gender difference; Kanwisher uses neurological research 
methods and tools to study the various functions of specific parts of the brain as 
well as the social and evolutionary development of the brain. Psychologist Susan 
Carey also focuses on the brain development of young infants and the acquisition 
of language and other knowledge. 

See also Biochemistry; Biology; Biomedical Sciences; Genetics; Medicine; 
Psychiatry and Psychology 

References 

Haak, Laurel L. 2002. "Women in Neuroscience (WIN): The First Twenty Years." Journal 
of the History of the Neurosciences. 11(1): 70 80. (March 2002). 

Taylor, Jill Bolte. 2006. My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey. 
Penguin Books, http://drjilltaylor.com/book.html. 



Nutrition and Home Economics 

Nutrition sciences is the study of human nutritional needs and intake, and their 
relationship to health, illness, and disease. Nutritional scientists study individual 
aspects of the human diet and the body's processing of fats, proteins, carbohy- 
drates, vitamins, and minerals. Nutritionists may be trained in biochemistry, path- 
ology, plant biology, microbiology, and toxicology, and may work in fields related 
to education, community health, medicine and healthcare, government policy- 
making, and food development, safety, and preparation. 

The growing, gathering, and processing and cooking of food has traditionally 
been the work of women across human cultures. In the nineteenth century, the 
U.S. government became involved in regulating agricultural production through 
the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), founded in 1862. Work in food 



148 | American Women of Science since 1900 




sciences and nutrition was supported 
and carried out through government 
land-grant colleges in the Midwest, 
where women were admitted into pro- 
grams in animal, agriculture, and 
household sciences. The USDA sub- 
sequently became one of the earliest 
and largest employers of women sci- 
entists. Mary Engle Pennington, 
who earned a Ph.D. in 1895 and was 
trained in chemistry and botany, 
worked for the USDA, where she 
established guidelines for poultry and 
egg production as well as new meth- 
ods of killing and transporting chick- 
ens; this technology was important 
for farm productivity as well as for 
food safety. 

It was during World War I, how- 
ever, that the U.S. government became 
involved in creating dietary standards, 
first out of concern for the nutritional 
needs of those serving in the armed forces, and then in establishing guidelines 
for the population at large. Interest in these issues coincided with the entrance of 
women into higher education and the scientific professions, and with reformers' 
concerns about the dietary habits of urban families and children. Frances Stern 
applied her dietary research to the needs of the urban poor and immigrants through 
her internationally recognized Boston Dispensary Food Clinic in the 1920s. Nutri- 
tion science was also aided by technological advances in biology and chemistry. 
The isolation of vitamins and minerals, and research on human vitamin require- 
ments, advanced steadily beginning in the 1920s and 1930s, and by the 1940s 
and 1950s (again prompted by wartime concerns), the government had established 
Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA) for various vitamins and minerals, and 
the idea of food groups and the food pyramid for the general public. Eventually, 
food packaging was changed to include nutritional information guidelines for 
consumers. 

Many of the first women nutrition scientists focused on the specific dietary 
needs of women and children. Mary Swartz Rose received a Ph.D. in physiologi- 
cal chemistry from Yale University in 1909 and was a pioneer in research on vita- 
mins and minerals. She published several textbooks and popular books for the 



Chemist and nutritionist Mary Swartz Rose 
was a pioneer in research on nutrition and 
dietetics. (National Library of Medicine) 



Disciplines | 149 

public, such as Feeding the Family (1916) and Teaching Nutrition to Boys and 
Girls (1932). Icie Macy-Hoobler, another Ph.D. in physiological chemistry from 
Yale (1920), focused on the nutritional needs of pregnant and lactating women, 
on the connection between nutrition or malnutrition and birth defects, and on 
infant development and growth; she also served as president of the American Insti- 
tute of Nutrition in 1944. Grace MacLeod (Ph.D., Columbia, 1924) focused on 
calcium, iron, and other supplements, and on the energy metabolism of children. 

Several women nutritional researchers were involved in government efforts 
to establish the RDA and food guidelines in the mid-twentieth century. Lydia 
Roberts held a Ph.D. in home economics from the University of Chicago 
(1928), and was a pioneer in the field of children's nutrition, and Helen Swift 
Mitchell was another early physiological chemist (Ph.D., Yale, 1921) who 
studied vitamins; both women had a key role in development of the RDA. Hazel 
Stiebeling also held a Ph.D. in chemistry (Columbia, 1928) and had a long career 
at the USDA, where she also helped develop the government dietary guidelines 
and RDA of vitamins and minerals. Gladys Emerson (Ph.D., 1932) was a bio- 
chemist who researched amino acids and vitamins and helped isolate vitamin E. 
Doris Calloway earned her Ph.D. in nutrition in 1947 and did research for the 
U.S. Army on the effect of nuclear radiation on soldiers' rations and later food 
processing and packaging research for the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA) astronaut program. Others interested in nutrition have 
launched more popular programs, such as Jane Brody, who combined degrees in 
biochemistry and journalism to become a popular nutrition and personal health 
columnist, author, and media personality. 

Many women nutritionists worked in the field of home economics in the first 
half of the twentieth century. Catharine Beecher published A Treatise on Domestic 
Economy in 1841, but home economics was established as a profession by a new 
generation of women with advanced education who combined the social, physical, 
and natural sciences to elevate the status of household studies in the early twenti- 
eth century. The American Home Economics Association (AHEA) was founded 
in 1908. Home-economics programs included courses in food and nutrition, but 
also household consumption, management, and budgeting, household technolo- 
gies, child development, and sewing and textiles. The Bureau of Home Economics 
was the first USDA department to have a female bureau chief; Louise Stanley 
(who held a doctorate in biochemistry from Yale, 1911) spent over 25 years at 
the USDA as one of the highest-paid and highest-ranking female scientists in the 
federal government. 

Other women built and directed home-economics programs at major univer- 
sities. Agnes Fay Morgan held a doctorate in chemistry (from the University of 
Chicago in 1914) and helped build an outstanding scientific research-based 



150 | American Women of Science since 1900 

program at the University of California, Berkeley, insisting that chemistry was an 
integral part of the home-economics curriculum. Flora Rose and Martha Van 
Rensselaer founded and co-directed the School of Home Economics at Cornell 
University. Abby Marlatt had a master's degree in chemistry and studied nutri- 
tion, and she brought her scientific background and commitments to her work as 
head of the home-economics department at the University of Wisconsin. 

In these early years, home economics was often a place to channel the work and 
interests of women scientists, who may have been excluded from other depart- 
ments or programs. In this sense, home economics institutionalized the idea of 
domesticity as "women's work." Its proponents argued, however, that it legiti- 
mized household work by deeming it skilled and scientific, and that home- 
economics training not only took women's work seriously, but made it more effi- 
cient. This was the argument exemplified in the life and career of Lillian 
Gilbreth, a trained psychologist who developed household efficiency studies 
which she modeled in running her own household of 12 children. Other critics 
have focused on the ethnocentrism of early nutritional and home-economics 
reformers, who sought to alter the lifestyles and households of immigrants and 
the working poor. Several black colleges also offered courses and therefore trained 
black women as scientists, teachers, and consultants. Cecile Edwards held a doc- 
torate in nutrition (1950) and helped establish the program in nutrition at Howard 
University, but she worked evaluating interdisciplinary programs that provided re- 
sources for low-income people around issues of not only nutrition, but also parent- 
ing, childcare, household budgeting, and job skills. Still, after the 1950s, home- 
economics programs were increasingly aimed at female undergraduates who 
would presumably devote their post-college lives to roles as wives, mothers, and 
household consumers. 

In the late twentieth and now twenty-first centuries, home economics has taken 
a more international approach. The International Federation for Home Economics 
(IFHE) focuses its research and practitioners on international development, 
addressing poverty and malnutrition, and agricultural programs. Such work often 
requires training and field work in cultural anthropology or politics, as well as lan- 
guage studies, more so than in the natural or biological sciences. 

See also Animal Sciences; Biochemistry; Biomedical Sciences; Botany; 
Chemistry; Economics 

References 

Iowa State University Library. 1998. "Today's Seeds for Tomorrow's Harvest: The Impact 
of Women Nutritionists." Online exhibit. Archives of Women in Science & Engineer- 
ing. Special Collections. Iowa State University Library, http://www.lib.iastate.edu/ 
spcl/exhibits/Seeds/. 



Disciplines | 151 

Harper, Alfred E. 2003. "Contributions of Women Scientists in the U.S. to the Develop- 
ment of Recommended Dietary Allowances. "The Journal of Nutrition. 133: 
3698 3702. (November 2003). http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/133/ll/3698. 

King, Janet C. 2003. "Contributions of Women to Human Nutrition." The Journal of Nutri- 
tion. 133: 3693 3697. (November 2003). http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/133/ll/ 
3693. 

Levine, Susan. 2008. School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America's Favorite 
Welfare Program. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 

Shapiro, Laura. 2009. Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century. 
2nd edition. Berkeley: University of California Press. 

Stage, Sarah and Virginia Vincent, eds. 1997. Rethinking Home Economics: Women and 
the History of a Profession. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 



Ocean Sciences 

Ocean sciences is one of the earth, atmospheric, and environmental sciences, and 
includes oceanography and marine biology. Oceanography is the study of the 
physical nature and processes of the oceans, and includes the chemical, geologi- 
cal, and ecological features of the Earth's oceans, including currents, tides, and 
ocean weather or climate, underwater landforms and plate tectonics, or the chemi- 
cal and biological interaction of species and environment. Marine biology is a sub- 
field of both general biology and oceanography, and focuses on the study of 
marine life, from the microscopic, to invertebrates, fish, and marine mammals, to 
plants and algae. Marine biologists use the same methods and tools of the biologi- 
cal sciences, and may focus on cellular or molecular biology, genetics, develop- 
ment and evolution, or the behavior of organisms, or may concentrate on life 
forms within a particular environment or habitat, such as the ocean floor, the coral 
reefs, or the open ocean. Marine biology is therefore a scientific field determined 
by environment or location, rather than by subject or method. The ocean sciences 
are usually specializations studied at the graduate level, and undergraduate prepara- 
tion may be in fields such as earth or environmental sciences, biology, or geology. 
Covering three-quarters of the Earth's surface, the oceans are often considered 
the last frontier, and remain less explored by humans than space. The oceans and 
marine life support human life as a resource for food, medicines, oil, and other 
raw materials used in a variety of industries and products. The oceans also impact 
landforms (coastlines, ice formation, etc.) and affect both local weather events and 
global weather systems and climate change through the system of evaporation, 
rain, wind, and atmospheric changes. The health of the oceans is crucial to human 



152 | American Women of Science since 1900 

life and is thus at the center of global ecological and environmental concerns .The 
work of oceanographers also informs other disciplines related to use of the ocean's 
resources, such as engineering, food and pharmaceutical industries, and ocean 
travel. 

The interdisciplinary nature of oceanography led early scientists to develop sci- 
entific principles from astronomy, meteorology, and physics, and apply them to the 
ocean currents and tides system. The history of oceanography thus overlaps with 
the astronomical and meteorological sciences, and begins with human efforts to 
observe and track the tides and currents, and chart ocean weather patterns, for pur- 
poses of coastal living and maritime travel. The age of exploration took Europeans 
around the globe, leading to the discovery of new animal and plant species, and 
science replaced earlier mythologies of sea monsters, mermaids, and mysterious 
forces ruling the seas. Explorers and coastal inhabitants recorded observations 
about the shoreline and reef systems. The nineteenth century brought the first 
efforts to measure the depths of the oceans and chart the undersea geography of 
cliffs, ridges, and valleys. The accuracy of this work, however, required 
twentieth-century technology and computer mapping systems. 

Oceanography began as a serious scientific endeavor in the late nineteenth and 
early twentieth centuries, with expeditions focused on geographical and marine 
biology research to the Arctic and other regions. In the United States, the Scripps 
Institution of Oceanography (http://sio.ucsd.edu) was founded on the west coast, 
in California, in 1892, and the next major oceanographic research facility, Woods 
Hole Oceanographic Institution (http://www.whoi.edu), was founded on the east 
coast, in Massachusetts, in 1930. The U.S. government created several agencies 
focused on scientific ocean research and conservation, beginning with the U.S. 
Coast Survey (founded in 1807), the U.S. Weather Bureau (1870), and the U.S. 
Commission of Fish and Fisheries (1871). The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 
founded in 1879, is also involved in oceanographic research; indeed, marine 
geologist Marcia McNutt, formerly director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium 
Research Institute in California, was named by President Obama as the first female 
director of USGS in 2009. In 1966, the U.S. government created a National Coun- 
cil for Marine Resources and Engineering Development, and a few years later, in 
1970, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was 
founded. In 2009, Jane Lubchenco, a marine ecologist who researched issues 
related to global climate change, was also chosen by the president as the first 
female head of NOAA. In 2008, Woods Hole also named its first female president 
and director, Susan K. Avery, an atmospheric scientist. 

There were few doctorates specifically in oceanography before 1960. Oceanog- 
raphers have studied in many different degree programs and are still included 
in statistics on the combined earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences (EAOS). 



Disciplines | 153 




In 1974, women earned just 4.9% of 
earth, atmospheric, and ocean science 
doctorates; by 1999, that number had 
risen to 27.8%, and it is estimated that 
in 2001, women earned 38% of all 
specifically oceanographic doctorates, 
a number consistent with women's 
representation across all scientific 
fields (O'Connell and Holmes 2005). 
As part of the earth sciences, oceanog- 
raphers are represented by the same 
professional organizations, such as 
the Association for Women Geo- 
scientists (http://www.awg.org), and 
through special programs such as 
Mentoring Physical Oceanography 
Women to Increase Retention 
(MPOWIR) (http://www.mpowir.org), 
sponsored by NOAA and other 
organizations. The Society for 
Marine Mammology (http://www 
.marinemammalscience.org) repre- 
sents marine biologists with a spe- 
cialty in mammals, and other subfields within oceanography and marine biology 
have their own professional networks and organizations, many of which are 
international in scope, related to specific regions, organisms, or research concerns. 
One of the most renowned American women oceanographers is Sylvia Earle, 
who holds a Ph.D. in botany and has been involved in numerous organizations 
and projects concerned with observing and preserving marine environments; she 
was also the first female chief scientist of NOAA. Kathryn Sullivan was an astro- 
naut who was trained as a marine geologist and replaced Earle as the next chief 
scientist of NOAA. Kathleen Crane received her doctorate in oceanography at 
Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1977 and became the Program Manager 
in NOAA's Arctic Research Office, leading several U.S.-Russian expeditions to 
the Arctic. Many oceanographers have been trained in geology and geosciences. 
Elizabeth Bunce was a geophysicist who spent a long career at Woods Hole 
Oceanographic Institution studying marine seismology and underwater acoustics. 
Marie Tharp studied underwater geology and created some of the first maps of 
the ocean floor, including her discovery of the valley that divides the Mid- 
Atlantic Ridge. Marcia McNutt, who became director of both the Monterey 



Marine botanist Sylvia Earle next to a 
submersible suit. (Bettmann/Corbis) 



154 | American Women of Science since 1900 

Bay Aquarium Research Institute and then USGS, also mapped and measured the 
depth of the sea floor and researched plate tectonics. Helen McCammon is a 
marine geologist who began her career in marine paleontology, but then began to 
research living invertebrates and marine ecology. Joan Owens is considered the 
first African American woman to earn a doctorate in geology; she studied marine 
geology and researched deep-sea button corals. 

An earlier generation of women also conducted research on marine ecology, 
which provides insight into human and planetary health. Josephine Tilden earned 
her master's degree in 1897 and in the early 1900s was a specialist in marine bot- 
any and ecology who studied coastal and Pacific algae. Mary McWhinnie was a 
marine biologist and ecologist who studied krill in the ocean food chain; she was 
one of the first women scientists to winter in Antarctica. Audrey Haschemeyer 
was trained in physical chemistry and was another of the earliest American 
women to conduct research in Antarctica, where she studied how temperature 
change affects the biological processes of fish. Renowned ecologist Rachel Car- 
son held a master's degree in zoology and began her career as an aquatic biologist 
at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, publishing 
two early books on marine ecology and oceanography: Under the Sea Wind 
(1941) and The Sea Around Us (1951). In the 1980s, Rita Colwell became a leader 
in marine biotechnology, concerned with medical, industrial, and aquaculture re- 
sources available from the sea; she served as president of the University of Mary- 
land Biotechnology Institute (UMBI). 

Marine biologists study animal life in the oceans, work that overlaps with zool- 
ogy. Francesca La Monte did not hold an advanced scientific degree, but worked 
as an ichthyologist at the American Museum of Natural History for her entire 
career, between 1919 and 1962; she wrote several books on large marine species, 
such as marlin and swordfish. Eugenie Clark received her Ph.D. in zoology in 
1950 and became a world-renowned marine biologist who specializes in sharks 
and other fishes. Dixy Lee Ray was trained as a zoologist and marine biologist 
who focused on crustaceans, but she became involved in environmental policy 
and then politics as governor of the state of Washington. 

See also Biology; Botany; Environmental Sciences and Ecology; Geogra- 
phy; Geology; Meteorology; Paleontology; Zoology 

References 

Crane, Kathleen. 2003. Sea Legs: Tales of a Woman Oceanographer. Boulder, CO: 
Westview Press. 

Delaney, Peggy, ed. 2005. "Autobiographical Sketches of Women in Oceanography." 
Oceanography 18(1): 65 246. (March 2005). The Oceanography Society, http:// 
www.tos.org/oceanography/issues/issue archive/issue pdfs/18 1/18.1 sketches.pdf. 



Disciplines | 155 

Hamblin, Jacob Darwin. 2005. Oceanographers and the Cold War: Disciples of Marine 
Science. Seattle: University of Washington Press. 

O'Connell, Suzanne and Mary Anne Holmes. 2005. "Women in Oceanography: Women of 
the Academy and the Sea." Oceanography 18(1): 12 24. (March 2005). The Oceanogra- 
phy Society, http://digitalcommons.unl. edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1068&context 
=geosciencefacpub. 

Rozwadowski, Helen M. 2005. Fathoming the Ocean: The Discovery and Exploration of 
the Deep Sea. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 

"Women Exploring the Oceans." Women Oceanographers. http://www. women 
oceanographers.org/. 

"Women in Oceanography: Investigators of the Earth, Oceans, and Atmosphere." Scripps 
Institution of Oceanography. http://www.siommg.ucsd.edu/wio/Women pi. html. 



Paleontology 

Paleontology is the study of ancient (or prehistoric) life forms and geological struc- 
tures through the Earth's fossil record. The work of paleontologists may depend 
upon the tools and methods of biology, botany, chemistry, geology, oceanography, 
and zoology, as well as evolutionary biology, environmental sciences, anthropology, 
and history. Although archaeology is also the study of the ancient past, archaeology 
focuses on the material record of the human past, whereas paleontology might also 
include fossils of rocks, shells, animals, and plants. Paleontology involves fieldwork 
for specimen collection, and scientific tools for analysis, but shares with the social 
sciences the attempt to observe and explain phenomena, rather than formulating the- 
ories through experiments. Although we tend to think of dinosaurs as the primary 
subject of paleontologists, some subfields of paleontology are paleobotany, paleo- 
ecology, paleoclimatology, paleoceanography, and paleogeography. Paleontologists 
may also focus on specific types of fossils or species, such as mammals, reptiles, 
birds, insects, invertebrates, or specific types of plant life forms. 

The science of paleontology developed beginning in the eighteenth century, and 
the first professional scientific organizations and museum collection efforts began 
in the nineteenth century. The first North American dinosaur fossil was found in 
1858, coinciding with the westward expansion of the population in the United 
States, which promoted new geological discoveries and competitive fossil- 
collecting expeditions in the late nineteenth century. In the early twentieth century, 
other scientific advances, tools, and concerns led to new inquiries and new prior- 
ities in paleontology. Modern paleontologists use a variety of technologically 
advanced tools in genetics, biochemistry, and computer science, making possible 



156 | American Women of Science since 1900 



computer and DNA analysis and dating of fossils for the study of the chemical and 
biological origins and evolution of life, and for specific problems such as the 
extinction of species, historical changes in the Earth's climate and ecosystems, 
and the origins and dating of Earth itself. 

British women made some of the earliest discoveries in paleontology. In the 
nineteenth century, more women were involved as "amateurs" in fieldwork and 
specimen collecting, not only in paleontology, but also in natural history, botany, 
geology, and archaeology. Mary Anning was an early-nineteenth-century British 
fossil collector and paleontologist who sold fossils to tourists, scientists, and 
museums for income. Anning discovered the first complete skeleton of an ichthyo- 
saur and the first known skeleton of a plesiosaur, both sea reptiles, and her contri- 
bution was acknowledged by membership in the Geological Society of London 
and a later pension from the British Association for the Advancement of Science. 
In the United States, one of the earliest and most significant female fossil hunters 
was Annie Montague Alexander, who did not hold a science degree but went on 
several field expeditions in the early 1900s, discovered new species, and donated 
thousands of animal and fossil specimens to the University of California, Berkeley 
for their zoology and paleontology museums (Stein 2001). 

In the twentieth century, many 
women have worked in the field of 
paleontology, although as with 
archaeology, geology, or other field- 
based sciences, they have come up 
against stereotypes and concerns 
about women joining in expeditions, 
working alongside male scientists, 
and leaving home and family behind. 
Carlotta Maury was one of the ear- 
liest professional American women 
paleontologists, receiving her doctor- 
ate from Cornell University in 1902; 
she specialized in South American 
geological expeditions and was the 
official paleontologist of Brazil for 
20 years. Winifred Goldring did not 
hold an advanced degree, but she took 
graduate courses at Columbia, Har- 
vard, and Johns Hopkins University 
in the early 1900s and became the 
state paleontologist of New York. 




Paleontologist Tilly Edinger proved that the 
brain's evolution could be studied through 
fossils. (Bettmann/Corbis) 



Disciplines | 157 



Mary Anning 

Mary Anning (1799-1847) was a British fossil collector who made some of the 
most important marine fossil discoveries of the nineteenth century through explor- 
ing the cliffs and fossil beds along the shore near her home in Lyme Regis. She 
uncovered a complete ichthyosaur skeleton and the first plesiosaur skeletons ever 
found. Her work changed the nineteenth-century scientific understanding of pre- 
historic life and extinction, paving the way for Darwin's theory of evolution and 
for the modern studies of geology and paleontology. 

Anning and her brother, Joseph, began by selling shells, rocks, and fossils to 
tourists at Lyme Regis, inspiration for the later tongue-twister "She sells sea shells 
by the seashore." They later opened a storefront where the ichthyosaur skeleton 
was on display and were soon visited by fossil hunters and museum collectors 
from across Europe and the United States. As a self-educated woman (she read 
scientific journals and dissected animals to study anatomy and classification), 
Anning was always an outsider to the scientific community, but she was able to 
support herself through the sale of her specimens and through the patronage of 
those who supported her work. Eventually, one such friend arranged for her to 
receive a government pension for her contributions to science. Interest in Anning's 
compelling story continues, as she is the subject of two modern biographies, as 
well as a novel inspired by her life. 



She wrote several books on fossils for the general public and was named the first 
female president of the Paleontological Society in 1949. Julia Gardner earned a 
Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1911 and was also president of the Paleontological 
Society in 1952. Gardner studied mollusks found in sedimentary and other 
rocks and was one of the first women employed by the U.S. Geological Survey. 
Katherine Palmer had a Ph.D. in paleontology from Cornell University (1925) 
and also studied mollusk fossils; she was president of the American Malacological 
Union in 1960. Tilly Edinger received her doctorate in Germany in 1921 
and researched fossils of mammal brains to understand the evolution of the 
brain; she became president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in 1964. 
Christina Lochman Balk earned a Ph.D. in 1933 and researched invertebrate 
fossils; she was also a geologist who specialized in stratigraphy, or the analysis 
of rock layers. 

In the post- 1960s generation, paleontologists continue to combine work in biol- 
ogy, botany, geology, and environmental studies in a variety of fields and research 
interests. Margaret Bryan Davis is a paleoecologist and plant biologist trained in 
biology at Harvard University (Ph.D., 1957) who analyzed ancient pollen and 



158 | American Women of Science since 1900 

vegetation and has taught in departments of ecology and evolution. Estella 
Leopold is also a paleoecologist and botanist who received her Ph.D. in botany 
from Yale University in 1955 and has studied ancient environments through the 
pollen and spore fossil record. Helen Loeblich earned a Ph.D. in geology from 
the University of Chicago in 1942, and was another plant paleontologist whose 
research focused on living and fossil plant microorganisms. Pat Shipman has 
combined paleontology and archaeology (she holds a doctorate in anthropology 
from New York University, 1977) to understand how ancient humans evolved 
and interacted with their physical environments. 

Women paleontologists are represented by professional organizations accord- 
ing to their subspecialties (botany, geology, or zoology, for example), or by broad 
groups such as the Paleontological Society (http://www.paleosoc.org), the Society 
of Vertebrate Paleontology (http://www.vertpaleo.org), or the Society for Sedi- 
mentary Geology (http://www.sepm.org). In many cases, the fieldwork and 
research of paleontologists is international in scope and is carried out throughout 
the globe, and in cooperation with professional societies, institutions and govern- 
ments in other countries. 

See also Anthropology and Archaeology; Biology; Botany; Geology; Zoology 

References 

Aldrich, Michele L. 1982. "Women in Paleontology in the United States, 1840 1960." 
Earth Sciences History. 1: 14-22. 

Hager, Lori. 1997. Women in Human Evolution. New York: Routledge. 

Stein, Barbara R. 2001. On Her Own Terms: Annie Montague Alexander and the Rise of 
Science in the American West. Berkeley: University of California Press. 

Pharmacology 

See Biochemistry; Biomedical Sciences; Botany; Chemistry; Medicine 



Physics 

Physics is the science of the physical properties and laws of matter, energy, force, 
time, and motion. In broadest terms, physics is an attempt to understand the prin- 
ciples or laws of the natural world and the universe. As such, it is grounded in 
natural philosophy as much as in scientific observation and experimentation. 
Physics relies upon and also informs work in mathematics, engineering, chemistry, 
and astronomy. Physics results in the creation of new theories about the natural 
world as well as new technologies. Because of this comprehensiveness and 



Disciplines | 159 



Marie Curie 

Perhaps the most well-known woman scientist, Marie Sklodowska Curie 
(1867-1934) is the only woman (and one of the few scientists) to win two Nobel 
Prizes. For her work on radium, she shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with 
her husband, Pierre Curie, and with Antoine Henri Becquerel, the discoverer of radio- 
activity; Marie Curie went on to win a second prize, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in 
191 1. The Curies developed techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and dis- 
covered two new chemical elements: radium and polonium, named for Marie Curie's 
native country of Poland. During and after World War I, Marie Curie (along with her 
daughter Irene Joliot-Curie, who also later received a Nobel Prize) dedicated her 
research to medical uses for radium and radiography in treating wounded soldiers. 
Born in Warsaw, Poland, Marie Curie studied physics and math at the Sorbonne 
in Paris, France, where she met and married Pierre Curie. She received her doctor- 
ate in 1903 and later took her husband's place as Head of the Physics Laboratory, 
and was the first woman appointed Professor of General Physics at the Sorbonne. 
In 1914, she became director of the newly founded Curie Laboratory in the Radium 
Institute of the University of Paris, and later founded the Radium Institute in 
Warsaw. A curie is now a scientific term for a unit of radioactivity. 



breadth of inquiry, physics has a long history and developed along with discoveries 
in chemistry, mathematics, and astronomy. Physics began as a distinct discipline 
with the experiments and observations on motion, mechanics, and space of indi- 
viduals such as Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton in the seventeenth century. By 
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, more abstract theories about the 
natural world were formulated based on scientific discoveries in mechanics, mag- 
netism, sound, light, and electricity. The discovery of X-ray radiation and the atom 
led to the development of crystallography and atomic physics as subfields of phys- 
ics. One of the most famous women scientists, Marie Curie of France, won Nobel 
Prizes in both Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911) for her theory of radioactivity 
and for her isolation of radioactive isotopes. 

One of the earliest American women physicists was Margaret Maltby, who 
was an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology but went on 
to earn her Ph.D. from the University of Gottingen in 1895. Maltby 's areas of 
research included radioactivity and the physics of sound. She taught courses in 
chemistry and physics to female students at Barnard College for more than 
30 years. Elizabeth Laird was another one of the earliest professional female 
physicists in the United States, earning her Ph.D. in physics and mathematics from 
Bryn Mawr in 1901. Laird went on to train an entire generation of women in the 



160 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Women and the Manhattan Project 

The Manhattan Project was the U.S. government's secret project to develop 
nuclear weapons during the early years of World War II. The government 
employed military and civilian scientists to research and develop three atomic 
bombs. Many women scientists and engineers were involved in various stages 
of the project, many of them through the Women's Army Corps (WAC), but others 
were scattered as civilians at government research centers and universities 
throughout the country as physicists, chemists, engineers, mathematicians, biolo- 
gists, medical researchers, technicians, and machine operators. Nuclear science, 
and the development of nuclear power, was an exciting new field in the early 
decades of the twentieth century, and not all scientists involved in the project sup- 
ported or fully understood the military intentions for a bomb. Some of the highest- 
level female physicists of that generation were involved in the project, including 
later Nobel Prize winner Maria Goeppert-Mayer, Leona Woods Marshall Libby, 
Chien-Shiung Wu, and Katharine Way, who eventually joined with other scien- 
tists in addressing the ethical uses of and concerns about nuclear power. 



sciences during her 40-year career at Mount Holyoke College. During World War 
II, she returned to her home country of Canada as a physicist in radar development 
and radio techniques for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Dorothy Nickerson was a 
physicist who applied color-graded standards to agricultural and horticultural 
products and soil; she developed the Nickerson color fan of more than 300 color 
samples graded by light value, hue, and chroma, and had a long career with the 
U.S. Department of Agriculture beginning in the 1920s. 

By the mid-twentieth century, there was a great demand for physicists in the 
United States and the development of several specialized subfields for particular 
industries and government/military applications, including optics, astrophysics, 
geophysics, physical chemistry, materials engineering, and nuclear physics. Many 
women worked for the U.S. government on various aspects of the atomic bomb 
project during and after World War II. American scientist Maria Goeppert- 
Mayer was the second woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics; she was co- 
recipient of the prize in 1963 for her work on the structure of atomic nuclei. 
Katharine Blodgett earned her Ph.D. in physics in 1926 and spent her entire 
career in industry, working for General Electric, and her work contributed to two 
world wars; her early research on the ability of activated charcoal to absorb gases 
was important to the design of gas masks during World War I, and during World 
War II she researched ways to de-ice airplane wings and developed a method for 
military weather balloons to measure air humidity. Several women were directly 



Disciplines | 161 




Physicist and electrical engineer, Elsa 
Garmire. (Courtesy of Dartmouth/Kathryn 
LoConte) 



involved in the Manhattan Project, 
the U.S. government project to 
develop the atomic bomb. Katharine 
Way worked at the Naval Ordnance 
Laboratory and the Oak Ridge 
National Laboratory, and also worked 
in atomic physics for the National 
Bureau of Standards and the National 
Research Council; she later joined 
with other prominent scientists to 
warn of the ethical considerations of 
developing and using the atomic 
bomb. Chien-Shiung Wu was one of 
the top women in elementary particle 
physics in the world in the mid- 
twentieth century; she helped develop 
sensitive radiation detectors for the 
atomic bomb project. 

The post- World War II generation of women earning doctorates in physics 
have worked in academia, government and industry on a variety of applications. 
Mildred Dresselhaus is a physicist renowned for her research on electronic prop- 
erties of materials such as semiconductors and semimetals. Doris Kuhlmann- 
Wilsdorf is a metallurgist and materials scientist who holds patents on six 
inventions related to electrical brushes for machines and engines, and Elsa 
Garmire holds 10 patents for her work in laser and optical research. Betsy 
Ancker- Johnson was a solid-state physicist who spent many years at General 
Motors as vice president in charge of environmental policy and was one of the 
early advocates for more fuel-efficient cars. Esther Conwell was head of research 
departments at both GTE and Xerox, and Diana Prichard conducts research on 
fundamental photographic materials as a research scientist for Eastman Kodak 
Company. Caroline Herzenberg used spectrometry to analyze the first lunar sam- 
ples returned to Earth from the Apollo missions. Shirley Ann Jackson achieved 
many firsts in physics: In 1973, she was the first African American woman to 
receive a doctorate in any field from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
and she was the first woman and the first African American to serve as chair of 
the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). In 1999, Jackson was 
appointed president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. 

Other physicists have worked in medical and bioengineering fields. Rosalyn 
Yalow was a physicist and neuroendocrinologist who helped establish modern 
biomedical physics; she was co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or 



162 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Lise Meitner 

Austrian-bom physicist Lise Meitner (1878-1968) made great advances in the 
new field of nuclear physics and collaborated on the discovery of nuclear fission, 
for which her colleague Otto Hahn won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1944. 
Meitner attended the University of Vienna and in 1905 was only the second 
woman to receive a doctorate from that institution. She went on to study with 
Max Planck in Berlin and then formed a research group with Hahn at Kaiser Wil- 
helm Institute, where they began their work on radioactive isotopes, work that 
would eventually lead to the creation of nuclear weapons. The Jewish Meitner 
was forced to emigrate to The Netherlands in 1938 to escape the Nazi takeover 
of Austria, eventually finding a position in Stockholm. Although she continued 
her research through correspondence (and even secretly meeting) with Hahn 
and others, and published her own paper in the journal Nature explaining the 
physics of nuclear fission, her exile meant that Hahn was acknowledged sepa- 
rately for his chemical research and Meitner was overlooked by the Nobel Prize 
committee. Twenty years later, colleagues Meitner, Hahn, and Fritz Strassmann 
were co-recipients of the prestigious Enrico Fermi Award of the U.S. Department 
of Energy. 



Medicine in 1977, the second woman to win in that category. Eugenie Mielczarek 
is known for her work in biophysics, and researches metal and biological com- 
pounds, including iron in the blood. Women have contributed to the profession 
of physics in other ways. Mary Warga received her doctorate in spectroscopy in 
1937. After a distinguished career in teaching and research, Warga served the 
physics profession during a period of rapid growth and technological development 
for many years as the first executive secretary of the Optical Society of America. 
Gloria Lubkin held a master's degree in physics and contributed to the profession 
in her 40-year career as editor of Physics Today, the publication of the American 
Institute of Physics. 

Despite the early gains made by a first generation of women physicists before 
and through the 1940s, there was a marked decrease in women's presence in phys- 
ics during the 1950s, when gender roles became more fixed and scientific disci- 
plines more specialized and prestigious. Despite the astonishing accomplishments 
and significance of a few individual women, the representation of women in phys- 
ics throughout the twentieth century was one of the lowest of all sciences, and the 
lowest of the physical or "hard" sciences (physics, chemistry, astronomy, and 
math). In 1972, women earned just 3% of doctorates in physics; by 2003, women 
earned 22% of the bachelor's degrees awarded in physics and just 18% of physics 



Disciplines | 163 

Ph.D.s (Ivie and Ray 2005). In 2006, women made up 12% of all physics faculty, 
but only 6% of full professors; many physics departments still have no women fac- 
ulty at all (Ivie 2006). 

Although there are so few women in physics (and in the physical sciences in 
general, compared to the biological and social sciences), the view that physics is 
a neutral or hard science has protected the field from much feminist analysis or cri- 
tique. As with mathematics, there is also a widely held belief that success in the 
highest levels of the field depends as much upon talent or innate "genius" as upon 
education or training. Physics does, in fact, rely heavily on theoretical abstraction 
and interpretation as much as on the scientific laws of objects; in other words, 
physics involves on some level dealing with metaphysics, and physicists often talk 
about "the face of God," "the God particle," or "the mind of God" in their work 
(Wertheim 1995). As feminist historian of science Londa Schiebinger has charac- 
terized the discipline, physics is often held apart from other scientific endeavors in 
part because it takes as its goal nothing less than "the mastery of the whole world" 
(Schiebinger 1999, 162). Indeed, physics is often considered the most difficult and 
therefore the most prestigious of the sciences. As is often the case, the more presti- 
gious the field, the more hierarchical the profession, and the fewer women are rep- 
resented. 

See also Astronomy and Astrophysics; Chemistry; Crystallography; Engi- 
neering; Mathematics 



References 

Byers, Nina and Gary A. Williams. 2006. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth- 
Century Women to Physics. New York: Cambridge University Press. 

Ivie, Rachel and Kim Nies Ray. 2005. "Women in Physics and Astronomy, 2005. High- 
lights." American Institute of Physics, http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/highlite/ 
women05/women05 .htm. 

Ivie, Rachel. 2006. "Women in Physics and Astronomy Faculty Positions. Highlights." 
American Institute of Physics, http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/highlite/women3/ 
faculty.htm. 

Jones, L. M. 1990. "Intellectual Contributions of Women to Physics." In Women of Sci- 
ence: Righting the Record, edited by G. Kass-Simon and Patricia Fames, 188 214. 
Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 

Rayner-Canham, Marelene and Geoffrey Rayner-Canham. 1998. Women in Chemistry: 
Their Changing Roles from Alchemical Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century. Philadelphia, 
PA: Chemical Heritage Foundation. 

Schiebinger, Londa. 1999. "Physics and Math." In Has Feminism Changed Science?, 
159 180. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 



164 | American Women of Science since 1900 

Wertheim, Margaret. 1995. Pythagoras' Trousers: God, Physics, and the Gender Wars. 
New York: W.W. Norton. 

"Women in Physics." American Institute of Physics, http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/ 
gendertrends.html. 

"Women in Physics." American Physics Society, http://www.aps.org/programs/women/ 
index. cfm. 

Plant Sciences 

See Botany 



Primatology 

Primatology is the study of the biology, behavior, and evolution of nonhuman pri- 
mates. As the study of animals, primatology is related to zoology, but also often 
overlaps with and directly informs studies of human biology and behavior in fields 
such as anthropology, biomedical research, genetics, psychology, and evolutionary 
biology. Primatology began as a separate field of study inspired by the work of 
Charles Darwin in the mid-nineteenth century and an interest in the behavior, com- 
munication, habitats, and evolution of humankind's closest relatives. This interest 
was combined with the development of anthropology as a scientific discipline, 
and shares many of the same methods and tools. Primatologists work in laborato- 
ries, in zoos or other captive habitat settings, and in the wild or natural habitats in 
Africa, South America, or other locations. There are several major primate research 
centers in the United States, both university-affiliated and privately run. 

Women have featured prominently in primatology since the 1960s, including as 
some of the most famous primatologists of the twentieth century. A trio of women 
were influenced and trained by famed British archaeologists and anthropologists 
Louis and Mary Leakey: British researcher Jane Goodall is perhaps the most well 
known for her work with chimpanzees, German-Canadian Birute Galdikas is an 
authority on orangutans, and American Dian Fossey devoted her life to the study 
and protection of mountain gorillas. These scientists pioneered the study of primates 
as individuals and as members of complex social and familial networks, applying the 
tools of human-based studies in anthropology, psychology, and sociology. 

Since the 1970s, so many women have entered into primatology that it has been 
perceived as a "women's" field. Whereas no women held doctorates in primatol- 
ogy before 1960, by the 1990s, women earned nearly 80% of Ph.D. s in primatol- 
ogy (Schiebinger 1999, 126). One explanation for women's predominance in this 
field is that primatology is a relatively new field and so women did not face 



Disciplines | 165 



Birute Galdikas 

Birute Marija Filomena Galdikas (b. 1946) is a German-born primatologist and 
ecologist who is the world's leading authority on the orangutan, now an endan- 
gered species due to poaching and habitat destruction. She is president of the 
Orangutan Foundation International (http://www.orangutan.org) and since 1971 
has served as head of the orangutan research station at Tanjung Puting Reserve 
in Borneo. Galdikas is one of three pioneering women primatologists of the twen- 
tieth century, along with Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, who worked with 
anthropologist Louis Leakey to study the three major primate groups — the gorilla, 
the chimpanzee, and the orangutan. The work of these women changed the meth- 
ods by which primatologists conduct research by studying animals as individuals, 
with life and family histories. 

Galdikas's family fled Europe after World War II and emigrated to Toronto, 
Canada. She began her studies at the University of British Columbia, but then 
transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles. She met Leakey when 
he spoke to one of her graduate anthropology classes, and she volunteered 
for his project of studying wild orangutans in Borneo and rehabilitating those ille- 
gally held in captivity. Her research on orangutans became a lifetime commitment, 
for the animals have a life span of 50 to 60 years. Galdikas has been profiled in 
numerous articles, books, and television shows. Her autobiography is Reflections 
of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo (1995). 



historical bias in the profession. Another explanation, however, is that primatology 
is closely related to other fields in which women also have significant representa- 
tion, such as anthropology, psychology, or other animal sciences. Finally, it must 
be acknowledged that high-profile women such as Jane Goodall (who has also 
launched a successful global education campaign) provide strong role models for 
young girls and women considering scientific professions, and have interested 
many in primatology (Fedigan 1994). 

The work of primatologists has had a significant influence on our understanding 
of gender roles and biases among humans as well. Primatologists begin by rejecting 
the idea that human assumptions and social roles apply to the animal world, and 
instead look at the ways the lives of the great apes inform our understanding of 
human development and evolution. Female primatologists have also often shifted 
the focus of scientific research to female primates as subjects of study, focusing 
on individual behavior, sexuality, family groups, and care of offspring. They have 
uncovered greater roles for female primates beyond stereotypical submissive child- 
bearers and thus have called into question the idea of a "natural" sexual division of 
labor or submissive sexual or maternal roles among humans as well. For more than 



166 | American Women of Science since 1900 




Anthropologist and primatologist, Meredith Small. (Courtesy of Cornell University) 

40 years, Jeanne Altmann has studied the impact of genetics, demography, and 
behavior on issues such as mate choice and care of offspring among baboons in 
the wild. Meredith Small also studies mating and childrearing among primates, 
and her research has informed her several popular books and articles on human 
behavior and evolutionary biology, especially on the topic of mothering. Sarah 
Blaffer Hrdy is also an evolutionary biologist and primatologist who has written 
several controversial works on infanticide among primates, on gender and evolu- 
tion, and on motherhood. 

See also Anthropology and Archaeology; Biology; Biomedical Sciences; 
Genetics; Paleontology; Psychiatry and Psychology; Zoology 



References 

Fedigan, Linda Marie. 1994. "Science and the Successful Female: Why There Are So Many 
Women Primatologists." American Anthropologist. 96(3): 529 538. (September 1994). 

Haraway, Donna. 1989. Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of 
Modern Science. London and New York: Routledge. 

Schiebinger, Londa. 1999. "Primatology, Archaeology, and Human Origins." In Has Femi- 
nism Changed Science?, 126 144. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 

Schubert, Glendon A. and Roger D. Masters, eds. 1991. Primate Politics. Carbondale: 
Southern Illinois University Press. 



Disciplines | 167 

Strum, Shirley Carol and Linda Marie Fedigan, eds. 2000. Primate Encounters: Models of 
Science, Gender, and Society. University of Chicago Press. 



Psychology and Psychiatry 

Psychology and psychiatry are applied sciences that rely upon both qualitative and 
quantitative tools and methods for the scientific study of the human mind. 
Psychology is the analysis of human behavior, personality, perception, emotions, 
and cognition, and seeks to understand both the conscious and unconscious motiva- 
tions behind responses to social and individual situations and relationships. Psychol- 
ogists may address issues related to family life, child development, sexuality, life 
stages, transitions, choices, and so forth, as well as mental-health issues such as 
depression, anxiety, or fears. A professional psychologist usually holds a Ph.D., 
but some therapists may hold a master's degree or other certification in psychology, 
social work, or counseling. Psychiatry combines the behavioral, social, and medical 
sciences to understand behavior and mental health, including mental disorders and 
diseases. A psychiatrist has completed medical training for the M.D. degree and 
may prescribe drugs to patients; she may also hold a Ph.D. Psychiatric specialties 
include cognitive or developmental psychology, neuroscience and brain research, 
psychometrics (quantitative analyses such as educational, intelligence, or aptitude 
testing), psychopathology, and psychotherapy. Both psychologists and psychiatrists 
may also specialize in a particular subset of patients (such as women, children, ado- 
lescents, or gays and lesbians) or on particular issues, and may be employed in a 
variety of settings, including academic research, private therapy practice, hospitals, 
mental-health facilities, schools, corporations, or other institutions. 

Early studies of human behavior were encompassed within the field of philoso- 
phy. It was not until the mid-nineteenth century that psychology developed as a 
separate scientific field of study; in the United States, William James is often consid- 
ered the founder of modern American psychology. The American Psychiatric Asso- 
ciation (http://www.psych.org) was founded in 1844 and the American 
Psychological Association (http://www.apa.org) in 1892. Mary Whiton Calkins 
was the first female president of the American Psychological Association in 1905, 
and the second was Margaret Floy Washburn in 1921. The gender bias that lim- 
ited women's opportunities throughout the sciences, however, was justified by the 
new psychological science, with male psychologists warning that women were intel- 
lectually inferior and that "mental exertion" was damaging to women's health. 
Psychologist and neurologist Helen Thompson Woolley (who published a book, 
The Mental Traits of Sex, in 1903) voiced the frustrations of a woman scientist at 
that time in her 1910 review of the psychological literature, concluding, "There is 



168 | American Women of Science since 1900 



Dorothea Dix 

Dorothea Lynde Dix (1 802-1 887) was a reformer and nurse who is best-known for 
her work organizing and training volunteer nurses during the American Civil War. 
Dix began her career as a teacher, but her own poor health forced her to give up 
teaching and focus on writing instead. She published a science textbook as well 
as stories for children. She traveled to London and was introduced to the ideas 
of prison and health reformers, convincing her to visit prisons back in the United 
States to examine the terrible conditions under which the "insane" were kept. 
She enlisted the help of other prominent Massachusetts reformers to expose the 
abuse, starvation, and torture of the mentally ill, leading to the establishment of 
the Worcester Insane Asylum (later the Worcester State Hospital), the first institu- 
tion of its kind. Dix then took the campaign to establish mental health hospitals to 
other states and to Canada, Japan, and Europe. In 1 861 , she served in an official 
military role as superintendent of nurses for the Union Army. She spent the final 
years of her life living on the grounds of the New Jersey State Hospital. 



perhaps no field aspiring to be scientific where flagrant personal bias, logic martyred 
in the cause of supporting a prejudice, unfounded assertions, and even sentimental 
rot and drivel, have run riot to such an extent as here" (Benjamin 2007, 178). 

In the twentieth century, the views of thinkers such as Sigmund Freud (who 
defined women's primary mental state as one of jealousy of men) came to define 
psychological theories about women for several more generations. Still, women 
made great inroads into the profession, and early female psychologists created 
new research fields related to women's education, motherhood, and child welfare. 
Leta Hollingworth received her Ph.D. in 1916 and was a pioneer in the psychol- 
ogy and education of women and children; like Woolley, she found that there was 
no differences between the sexes when it came to intellectual ability. June Etta 
Downey (Ph.D., 1907) developed one of the earliest scientific personality tests to 
assess character traits separate from the question of intelligence, and Florence 
Goodenough (Ph.D., 1924) conducted early research on intelligence testing in 
children. In the next generation, Eleanor Gibson (Ph.D., 1938) also focused on 
learning and perception in young children, and Eleanor Maccoby (Ph.D., 1950) 
continued the work on intelligence tests and the developmental and social psychol- 
ogy of young children as related to gender differences. 

Women psychologists in academia have taught in departments of psychology or 
sociology, political science, education, child development, and home economics, 
but psychologists are also employed in schools, childcare centers, government 
and policymaking institutions, industry, and hospitals. By 1940, women made up 



Disciplines | 169 



only 26% of college and university faculty in psychology, but they accounted for 
51% of employed psychologists in schools, clinics, and counseling and mental- 
health centers (APA "Appendix A"). Women received 23% of U.S. doctorates in 
psychology from 1920 to 1974 (APA "Women in Academe"), but there was a strik- 
ing racial difference, as most of these were white women. In roughly that same era 
of growth, between 1920 and 1950, only eight black women earned Ph.D.s in psy- 
chology or Ed.D.s in educational psychology (out of a total of 32 African Ameri- 
cans earning doctorates in psychology) (APA "Appendix A"). The first of these 
was Inez Prosser, who earned an Ed.D. from the University of Cincinnati in 1933, 
but whose career was cut short by her early and tragic death. The following year, 
in 1934, Ruth Howard-Beckham became the first black woman to earn a Ph.D. 
in psychology. Few black women overall earned higher degrees in psychology, 
and few had careers in academia, until after the 1970s. 

Psychology now accounts for the highest numbers of doctorates awarded each 
year in any field, and is the one scientific field in which women, since the 1960s, have 
earned an overwhelming majority of degrees granted. In 2006, women earned 77% of 
bachelor's degrees in psychology (NSF Table C- 14) and an astonishing 7 1 .3% of doc- 
torates (NSF Table F-2). In sheer numbers, only the biological or life sciences 
account for more doctorates to women, 
but in those fields, men still earn about 
half of the degrees awarded. 

Since the 1970s and 1980s, women 
have worked within a variety of 
psychological research fields, over- 
lapping with work in industrial 
psychology (Lillian Gilbreth), 
linguistics (Lila Gleitman and 
Barbara Partee), the anthropology 
and sociology of death (Elizabeth 
Kubler-Ross), addiction (Judianne 
Densen-Gerber), disability (Phyllis 
Harrison-Ross), counseling and 
social work (Carolyn Payton, who 
served as director of the Peace Corps), 
neuroscience (Nancy Kanwisher and 
Elizabeth Spelke), and the human 
relationship to computers (Sherry 
Turkle). Other popular psychologists 
have become well-known media fig- 
ures, such as Joyce Brothers and 




Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, 1970. She 
specialized in the study of the experience of 
dying and death. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



170 | American Women of Science since 1900 

Ruth Westheimer. Both Brothers and Westheimer focused on family, relationships, 
and sexuality, as did Virginia Johnson in her work on sexual behavior and Elaine 
Hatfield in her studies on love, sex, and choices of marital partners. 

Like medical researchers, psychologists and psychiatrists also address the ques- 
tion of women as subjects or patients. Therapists and researchers deal with a range 
of issues of concern to women as patients, and research topics include family life, 
depression, sexuality, domestic violence, sexual abuse, gender identity, parenting, 
marriage, lifespan issues, transitions, career issues, and trauma and grief counsel- 
ing. The Society for the Psychology of Women (a division of the APA, http:// 
www.apa.org/divisions/div35) was founded in 1973 as "a voice of feminist issues 
within organized psychology." The division publishes a newsletter, The Feminist 
Psychologist, and compiles biographical information on important women in psy- 
chology. The Association for Women in Psychology (http://www.awpsych.org) 
was co-founded in 1976 by Phyllis Chesler, not just as a source for professional 
networking, but with an explicitly feminist approach to psychological and psychi- 
atric practice and education. 

Some feminist psychologists, such as Chesler and Naomi Weisstein, have cri- 
tiqued the psychological definition of femininity itself as a form of mental ill- 
ness; that is, the tendency to characterize all women as submissive, docile, and 
overly emotional. Whether it is barrenness, pathological sexual desire (which 
could be anything from lesbianism to too much interest in sex), or pathological 
mothering, women's mental state and stability has often been explicitly con- 
nected with sexuality and reproduction; even the word hysteria is derived from 
the womb. Current research shows that women are more likely than men to suf- 
fer from mental-health disorders, including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, 
and social phobias. Studies in the mid-1990s found that women were twice as 
likely as men to suffer from depression, and that female patients received 70% 
of prescriptions for antidepressant drugs (APA "Briefing"). The question is 
whether women are being misdiagnosed due to gender bias, or whether there 
is, indeed, an epidemic of female depression and other ailments as a response 
to gender role expectations, sexual or physical abuse, the stresses and isolation 
of mothering, or a lack of fulfillment in the lives of modern women (see also 
Caplan and Cosgrove 2004). 

Feminist practitioners and researchers have tried to separate the biological or 
medical issues from the psychosocial causes of women's mental-health concerns. 
For example, research in the late twentieth century found that while the psychological 
effects of stress, role expectation, isolation, and discrimination affect women's men- 
tal health, conditions such as premenstrual syndrome (PMS) or postpartum depres- 
sion have a biological or chemical component that needs to be taken seriously as a 
medical issue. Women are still told that their illnesses and symptoms are "all in their 



Disciplines | 171 

head," leading to misdiagnosis and lack of treatment for diseases that have come to be 
associated with women, such as lupus, chronic fatigue, and even some allergies. 
See also Anthropology and Archaeology; Neuroscience; Sociology 

References 

American Psychological Association (APA). "Briefing Sheet Women and Depression." 
Government Relations. Public Interest Policy, http://www.apa.org/about/gr/issues/ 
women/depression. aspx. 

American Psychological Association (APA). "Women in Academe: Two Steps Forward, 
One Step Back." Public Interest. Women's Programs Office, http://www.apa.org/pi/ 
women/programs/academe/taskforce-report.pdf. 

American Psychological Association (APA). "Appendix A: A Brief History of Women Fac- 
ulty in Psychology, Women in Academe: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back." Public 
Interest. Women's Programs Office, http://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/academe/ 
taskforce-report.pdf. 

Benjamin, Ludy T. 2007. A Brief History of Modern Psychology. Oxford, UK: Blackwell 
Publishing. 

Caplan, Paula J. and Lisa Cosgrove, eds. 2004. Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis. Lanham, 
MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 

Capshew, James H. 1999. "Home Fires: Female Psychologists and the Politics of Gender." 
In Psychologists on the March: Science, Practice and Professional Identity in America, 
1929 1969, 71 90. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 

Guthrie, Robert V. 2004. Even the Rat Was White: A Historical View of Psychology. Boston, 
MA: Allyn and Bacon. 

National Science Foundation. "Table F-2. S&E doctoral degrees awarded to women, by field: 
1999 2006." Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineer- 
ing. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources Statistics, Survey of 
Earned Doctorates, 1999 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabf-2.pdf. 

National Science Foundation. 2006. "Table C-14. Bachelor's degrees, by race/ethnicity, 
citizenship, sex, and field: 2006."Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in 
Science and Engineering. National Science Foundation, Division of Science Resources 
Statistics, special tabulations of U.S. Department of Education, National Center for 
Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, Completions 
Survey, 2006. http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/pdf/tabc-14.pdf. 



Sociology 

Sociology is the scientific study of human interactions and social organization, 
and may be informed by or based in research in other quantitative social science 
fields, such as political science, anthropology, psychology, economics, or 



172 | American Women of Science since 1900 

medicine and public health. Topics of focus for sociologists may include 
gender, sexuality, race or ethnicity, workplace, family, healthcare, the media 
and popular culture, religion, the military, prisons, or schools, to name a few. 
Historically, sociological inquiry was encompassed within philosophy and 
political philosophy, which sought to understand the nature of human interac- 
tions and society. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries brought 
massive social changes in the form of industrialization, migration, urbanization, 
poverty, and the democratization of politics and religion. Like other scientific dis- 
ciplines, sociology was professionalized as a separate field of study in the late nine- 
teenth century; the first sociology courses were taught in the 1890s, and the 
American Journal of Sociology was founded in 1895. The American Socio- 
logical Association was founded in 1905. Sociologists may work in academia, or 
in a variety of positions in social work, nonprofits, politics, business, and media 
or communications. 

The feminist movement of the 1970s and 1980s brought new questions and new 
methods to sociology, similar to the critiques and changes made in anthropology, 
psychology, or other social sciences. By the late 1970s, many colleges and univer- 
sities were offering new courses in the sociology of women and, indeed, sociology 
and sociological theory often serve as the foundation or core of interdisciplinary 
Women's and Gender Studies programs and departments. Professional groups 
specifically for women sociologists or sociologists of women's issues include 
Sociologists for Women in Society (http://www.socwomen.org), which also pub- 
lishes a journal, Gender and Society, and the American Sociological Association's 
(ASA) Committee on the Status of Women in Sociology (http://www.asanet.org/ 
about/statuscommittees/women.cfm). 

As in the field of psychology, women have earned a majority of undergraduate 
degrees in sociology since the mid-1960s and, since the 1980s, women have consis- 
tently earned as high as 70% of sociology bachelor's degrees. The rate at which 
women have earned sociology doctorates, however, has been slower but more dra- 
matic, with women earning only 16% of Ph.D. s in 1966 but 59% of Ph.D. s by the 
year 2000. It is difficult to trace a direct connection between undergraduate and 
graduate study, however, as many students may see a sociology bachelor's degree 
as a terminal degree, or as a foundation for graduate work in other social or natural 
science fields. Those who go on for a doctorate in sociology overwhelmingly work 
in academia; only 17% of new sociology Ph.D.s in the early 2000s were employed 
in nonacademic positions, and 8 out of 10 ASA members in 2001 were employed in 
academic teaching positions (CSWS 2009). 

Feminist sociologists incorporate race, ethnicity, class, and gender into 
research on issues that affect women, such as motherhood, work/life balance, 
the household division of labor, poverty, welfare reform, childcare, gender 



Disciplines | 173 




discrimination in the workplace and 
society, sexual harassment, the law, 
sexuality, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisex- 
ual, and transgender) issues, illness, 
and aging. Maxine Baca Zinn con- 
ducts sociological work on Latino 
families and Mexican American 
women. Jacquelyne Jackson earned 
her Ph.D. in 1960 and has conducted 
research and created a documentary 
film on minority aging and the needs 
of elderly African Americans. Matilda 
Riley was an earlier-generation 
female sociologist (receiving a mas- 
ter's degree from Radcliffe College 
in 1937) and was also an authority on 
aging and on the need for employ- 
ment opportunities and meaningful 
work for the elderly. Other sociolo- 
gists have focused on work and the 
workplace. Rosabeth Kanter studied 
the human aspects of corporate cul- 
ture, management, and job performance. Dorothy Nelkin did not hold an 
advanced degree (she received a B.A. in sociology from Cornell University 
in 1954), but she became a researcher and eventually a faculty member at 
New York University studying workplace safety and risk assessment in a variety 
of occupations. 

Barbara Reskin was inspired by the women's and civil rights movements at 
the time she received her doctorate (in 1973) to study sexual and racial inequality 
in the workplace, including issues of racial and gender segregation, discrimina- 
tion in hiring and promotion, and work/life issues for female professionals 
(including women scientists). Jane Ava Menken received her Ph.D. in 1975 
and combined her background in mathematics and statistics as a demographer 
who interprets numbers and trends related to government policy and reproductive 
rights. Sherry Turkle, also of this generation (receiving her Ph.D. in 1976), com- 
bined interests in sociology and psychology in her pioneering research on human 
interactions with computers and how computer use shapes our identities and 
behavior. 

See also Anthropology and Archaeology; Economics; Geography; Psychol- 
ogy and Psychiatry 



Demographer and sociologist, Jane Ava 
Menken. (Courtesy of the University of 
Colorado) 



174 | American Women of Science since 1900 

References 

Committee on the Status of Women in Sociology (CSWS). "2009 Report of the American 
Sociological Association's Committee on the Status of Women in Sociology." American 
Sociological Association. http://www.asanet.org/about/statuscommittees/DOCS 
- 65911-v2-Council Aug 09 Final Rpt Status Comm on Women.pdf. 

Zoology 

Zoology is the biological study of animals and their physical characteristics, 
behavior, and evolution. Modern zoology is a broad field that overlaps signifi- 
cantly with various subspecialties within biology, and with interdisciplinary stud- 
ies in the ecological, environmental, and evolutionary sciences. Zoologists may 
also focus on specific groups or species of animals, such as invertebrate zoology, 
entomology (insects), ichthyology (fish), herpetology (reptiles), ornithology 
(birds), mammalogy (mammals), primatology (nonhuman primates), and subfields 
or specialties within those groups. Because of the broad term of "zoology" applied 
to this range of fields and research topics, many early women zoologists were 
identified as biologists, naturalists, or specimen collectors and museum curators. 
Modern zoology begins with the classification and naming (taxonomy) of plants 
and animals under Carl Linnaeus 's system in the eighteenth century. Linnaeus, a 
Swedish botanist, introduced the system of assigning a genus and a species name 
to every living organism. In the nineteenth century, naturalist and conservation 
efforts led to the creation of the first zoos and zoological societies. Charles 
Darwin's theories of adaptation and evolution in his On the Origin of Species 
(1859) also had a major impact on zoological research and taxonomy, and techno- 
logical and scientific advances (such as in genetics and cell biology) set the course 
for zoological research in the twentieth century. 

In the twentieth century, zoology became a popular field of study for women in 
the sciences. In 1938, a survey of employed scientists listed more women in zoology 
than any other discipline (followed closely by botany as the second choice). The 
greatest number of these pre- 1940 female zoologists were employed at two wom- 
en's colleges, Wellesley and Mount Holyoke, even though the greatest number of 
women holding doctorates in zoology had been trained in programs at the Univer- 
sity of California, Berkeley and at Columbia University in New York (Rossiter 
1982, 170, 184). Ethel Harvey received her Ph.D. from Columbia in 1913 and 
made significant breakthroughs in cell biology with her research on sea urchins. 
Libbie Hyman received her Ph.D. in 1915 from the University of Chicago and pub- 
lished several zoology textbooks and a multivolume work on invertebrates; she was 
elected president of the Society for Systematic Zoology in 1959. Alice Boring 
(Ph.D., Bryn Mawr, 1910) was a zoologist who spent most of her career in China 



Disciplines | 175 



Maria Sibylla Merian 

German-bom Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was a naturalist and scientific 
illustrator who became well-known for her detailed studies and drawings of plants, 
flowers, and insects. One of the first naturalists to study insects firsthand, she 
made important early contributions to the field of entomology, informing the later 
classification efforts of Carl Linnaeus. She published several books of nature 
and plant drawings, and, in 1679, already the mother of two daughters, she pub- 
lished her work on The Caterpillar, Marvelous Transformation and Strange Floral 
Food. This was the first work to trace the development of caterpillars into butter- 
flies, with detailed information on their plant food needs at each stage. Living pri- 
marily in Amsterdam, in the early 1700s, Merian traveled to the Dutch colony of 
Suriname with her daughter, where she recorded notes and sketches of local 
plant, animal, and insect life, and collected specimens to study and sell back in 
The Netherlands. 

Although Merian's work was groundbreaking, and her books were popular and 
sold well, she was not always acknowledged by the male scientific community 
because she did not publish in Latin. Still, several species of plants and insects 
were named in her honor, and her beautiful botanical illustrations and engravings 
have been enjoyed by students of science as well as art. 



and made significant contributions to the literature on the taxonomy of Chinese 
amphibians and reptiles. Hope Hibbard also earned a doctorate from Bryn Mawr 
(1921) and was a cell biologist who conducted early tissue studies of marine inver- 
tebrates. Roger Arliner Young researched sea urchin eggs and other organisms, 
and was the first African American woman to earn a degree in zoology (from the 
University of Pennsylvania in 1940). 

Ornithology, especially, seemed to be an outgrowth of women's early interest in 
nature observation and wildlife preservation. Florence Bailey did not hold an 
advanced degree, but published several books on natural history, wildlife, and 
birds in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Frances Hamerstrom 
held a master's degree in wildlife biology and wrote several popular books, child- 
ren's books, and autobiographies about her work observing the habitats of ground 
birds and birds of prey. Margaret Nice was trained in psychology and extended 
her work to the study of the behavior of birds. Other zoologists also combined 
their research on animals with not only species-preservation efforts but also envi- 
ronmental and ecological messages about the interrelationship between human 
and animal species and habitats. Ann Haven Morgan (Ph.D., 1911) studied the 
biology and ecology of freshwater animals and insects. Renowned ecologist 



176 | American Women of Science since 1900 




Ornithologist, Margaret Morse Nice, 1944. She adapted the scientific techniques of 
psychology to new research on bird behavior. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Rachel Carson held a master's degree in zoology (from Johns Hopkins in 1932) 
and began her career as an aquatic biologist. Lucille Stickel earned her Ph.D. in 
zoology in 1949 and was a pioneer in the study of pesticides and chemical residues 
found in animal brain tissue. 

Women were also prominent in entomology in the early twentieth century. 
Isabel McCracken was an entomologist and zoologist (Ph.D., Stanford, 1908) 
who conducted research and published scientific papers on the genetics of beetles 
and on birds of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Entomologist Annette Braun 
(Ph.D., University of Cincinnati, 1911) and her sister, botanist Lucy Braun, com- 
bined their scientific interests on joint research expeditions and preservation 
efforts. Edith Patch (Ph.D., Cornell, 1911) studied the life histories and ecology 
of migratory aphids, and in 1936 was elected the first female president of the Ento- 
mological Society of America. Elizabeth Peckham was an early entomologist 



Disciplines | 177 

who, in collaboration with her husband, had a significant career researching the 
social lives of wasps before returning to earn her doctorate later in life; she earned 
a Ph.D. from Cornell in 1916 at the age of 62. Bertha Cady also earned her Ph.D. 
later in life, receiving a doctorate from Stanford University in 1923 at the age of 50; 
Cady was trained as an entomologist, but her research and teaching interests 
included natural history and psychology. 

In the later twentieth century, women entomologists continued to contribute to 
scientific research and to apply their studies to problems in agriculture and other 
industries. Mary Jane West-Eberhard is a renowned entomologist who has stud- 
ied the evolution of social behavior of paper-wasps and other insects, primarily in 
Central and South America. Entomologist May Berenbaum has focused on the 
unexplained reductions in the honey bee population in the early twenty-first cen- 
tury, launching a public campaign to highlight the importance of bees not only 
for supplies of honey and wax, but for pollination of other plants, flowers, and food 
crops. Marjorie Hoy is an entomologist who pioneered the development of new 
methods for insect control in food crop plants. 

Other zoologists focus on specific large animal species. Francesca La Monte 
did not hold an advanced degree, but spent her entire career as an ichthyologist 
at the American Museum of Natural History researching and developing exhibits 
on marlin, swordfish, and other species. Eugenie Clark holds a Ph.D. in zoology 
and has specialized in sharks. Cynthia Moss is a renowned wildlife biologist 
who is an expert on the African elephant; with colleague Joyce Poole (who holds a 
Ph.D. in animal behavior) she has also led the fight to stop the world trade in ivory. 
Primatologists may be trained in zoology or in specialized fields, such as animal 
behavior and development. Jeanne Altmann and Dian Fossey are both primatol- 
ogists who have also combined scientific research with public education and pres- 
ervation efforts to protect the large primates from poaching and habitat 
destruction. 

Finally, the work of many zoologists and animal biologists has informed medi- 
cal research on human health and disease. Florence Peebles was one of the ear- 
liest cell biologists and zoologists (Ph.D., Bryn Mawr, 1900); her work on the 
embryology of chicks informed tissue-regeneration research in both plants and 
animals. Early zoologist Elizabeth Adams received her Ph.D. in 1926 and taught 
some of the first courses in heredity and in human embryology and the reproduc- 
tive system. Margaret Lewis was an embryologist and zoologist who worked in 
the early decades of the twentieth century on in vitro mammalian tissue cultures 
to study tumor growth. Mary Jane Guthrie was also a cell biologist and mamma- 
lian zoologist who created in vitro ovaries to understand how tumors begin. 
Salome Waelsch earned a Ph.D. in Germany in 1932 and was another early mam- 
malian geneticist who focused on genetic mutations of mice spines and tails; she 



178 | American Women of Science since 1900 

later researched the hereditary nature of blood cells and chromosomal defects that 
affect liver function. Also trained in Germany, Berta Scharrer studied inverte- 
brate zoology and with her scientist husband pioneered a new field of neuroendo- 
crinology. In the 1940s and 1950s, zoologist Dorothy Pitelka was one of the 
earliest cell researchers to use the electron microscope, and her research on simple 
organisms contributed to the understanding of cancer-causing viruses. In the late 
twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, there is not always a clear distinction 
between zoology and research that is now regularly conducted (using animal 
experiments, tissues, and cultures) in departments of microbiology, cell biology, 
genetics, and other biomedical specialties. 

See also Animal Sciences; Biology; Biomedical Sciences; Environmental 
Sciences and Ecology; Genetics; Ocean Sciences; Primatology 

References 

Norwood, Vera. 1993. Made From This Earth: American Women and Nature. Chapel Hill: 
University of North Carolina Press. 

Riley, Glenda. 1999. Women and Nature: Saving the "Wild" West. Lincoln: University of 
Nebraska Press. 

Rossiter, Margaret. 1982. Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940. 
Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 



A 



Aberle, Sophie Bledsoe 



1896 1996 

Nutritionist, Anthropologist 

Education: A.B., Stanford University, 1923, M.S., 1925, Ph.D., genetics, 1927; 
M.D., Yale University, 1930 

Professional Experience: assistant histologist, Stanford University, 1924-1925, 
assistant embryologist and neurologist, 1925-1926; instructor, anthropology, 
Institute of Human Relations, Yale University, 1927-1930, Sterling Fellow, School 
of Medicine, 1930-1931, instructor, 1930-1934; research associate, Carnegie 
Institute, 1934-1935; superintendent of Pueblo Indians, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 
and secretary, Southwest Superintendents Council, 1935-1944; division of medical 
science, National Research Council, 1944-1949; special research director, University 
of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 1949-1954; chief nutritionist, Bernalillo County 
Indian Hospital, 1953-1966; staff member, psychiatry, medical school, University 
of New Mexico, 1966-1970 

Sophie Aberle enjoyed a remarkable career that included working as an anthropolo- 
gist, a physician, a nutritionist, and a psychiatrist. Starting about 1935, when she 
held a position with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Aberle became visible as an 
advocate for the Pueblo people in all areas of their lives, including health, educa- 
tion, culture, and living conditions. Her book, The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, 
Their Land, Economy and Civil Organization, was published by the American 
Anthropological Association in 1948, and argued that retaining rights to their land 
was essential for Pueblo economic survival, as livestock farming was their primary 
source of financial, cultural, and tribal stability. She was married to William A. 
Brophy, who was a lawyer for the Pueblo Indians and served as U.S. Commissioner 
of Indian Affairs between 1945 and 1948. Together, Brophy and Aberle published a 
collection of reports on The Indian: America's Unfinished Business (1966; 
reprinted, 2001). 

Aberle worked at both the local and national levels on such projects as the upper 
Rio Grande drainage basin committee; consultant for the health committee of the 



179 



180 | Aberle, Sophie Bledsoe 




Sophie Aberle, anthropologist, nutritionist, and physician. (Harry S. Truman Presidential 
Library) 



All Indian Pueblo Council; member of New Mexico Nutrition Committee; member 
of the Committee of Maternal and Infant Mortality; member of White House 
Conference on Children in Democracy; chair of the board of directors for the South- 
west Field Training School for Federal Service; member and later executive director 
of the Commission on Rights, Liberties, and Responsibilities of American Indians; 
director of a survey of Indian Education for the Bureau of Indian Affairs; consul- 
tant to the All Indian Pueblo Council on computer-assisted instruction programs; 
consultant for Stanford University's study of Indian education; and consultant 
for the bilingual/bicultural project of the Bernalillo School District. She served 
on the board of directors of numerous organizations such as Planned Parenthood, 
the county YWCA, and the Bernalillo County Indian Hospital. 

Aberle was the first woman member of the National Science Board (the policy- 
making body for the National Science Foundation), serving on the board from 
1950 to 1957. She was a member of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science, American Anthropological Association, and the American Medical 
Association. 



Abriola, Linda M. | 181 



Abriola, Linda M. 



b. 1954 

Civil Engineer 

Education: B.S., civil engineering, Drexel University, 1976; M.S., civil engineer- 
ing, Princeton University, 1979, M.A., 1980, Ph.D., civil engineering, 1983 

Professional Experience: project engineer, Procter and Gamble Manufacturing 
Co., New York, 1976-1978; research and teaching assistant, Princeton University, 
1979-1983, postdoctoral researcher, civil engineering, 1983; assistant to associate 
professor, civil and environmental engineering, University of Michigan, Ann 
Arbor, 1984-1996, director, Environmental and Water Resources Engineering Pro- 
gram, 1996-2001, professor, 1996-2003, Horace Williams King Collegiate Profes- 
sorship, 2001-2003; dean and professor, civil and environmental engineering, and 
adjunct professor, chemical and biological engineering, Tufts University, 2003- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting associate professor, petroleum engineering, 
University of Texas, Austin, 1991; 
visiting scientist, geotechnical engi- 
neering, Universitat Politecnica de 
Cataluna, Barcelona, Spain, 1992 

Linda Abriola is a civil engineer whose 
research combines laboratory experi- 
ments and mathematical modeling of 
organic chemical liquid contaminants. 
She is one of the leaders of the Inte- 
grated Multiphase Environmental 
Systems (IMPES) laboratory at Tufts 
University, where she has been on the 
faculty and has been dean of engineer- 
ing since 2003. She received her doc- 
torate from Princeton in 1979 and, 
before her affiliation with Tufts, was 
professor and director of the Environ- 
mental and Water Resources Engineer- 
ing Program at the University of 
Michigan, Ann Arbor. 

Abriola was elected to the National 
Academy of Engineering in 2003. Her CM engineer, Linda Abriola. (Courtesy of 
numerous awards include a National Tufts University) 




182 | Ackerman, Bernice 

Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award (1985), the Associa- 
tion for Women Geoscientist's Outstanding Educator Award (1996), the National 
Ground Water Association's Distinguished Darcy Lectureship (1996), and the 
SERDP Project of the Year Award in Environmental Restoration (2006). She is 
a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and has been a member and invited 
participant of committees for the National Academy of Engineering, U.S. Envi- 
ronmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Department of Energy, and the National 
Research Council, including the NRC Committee on Gender Differences in 
Careers of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Faculty. 

Further Resources 

Tufts University. Faculty website, http://engineering.tufts.edu/cee/people/abriola/. 

Tufts University. Integrated Multiphase Environmental Systems Laboratory (IMPES). 
http://engineering.tufts.edu/cee/impes/. 



Ackerman, Bernice 

1924 1995 
Meteorologist 

Education: B.S., meteorology, University of Chicago, 1948, M.S., meteorology, 
1955, Ph.D., geophysical science, 1965 

Professional Experience: meteorologist and hydrologist, U.S. Weather Bureau, 
1948-1953; research associate, Cloud Physics Laboratory, University of Chicago, 
1953-1965, assistant professor, meteorology, 1965-1967; associate professor, 
meteorology, Texas A&M University, 1967-1970; associate meteorologist, 
Atmospheric Sciences Section, Argonne National Laboratory, 1970-1972; senior 
meteorologist, Illinois State Water Survey, University of Illinois, 1972-1978, prin- 
cipal scientist, 1978-1989, head of meteorology section, 1980-1989 

Bernice Ackerman was a meteorologist at a time when the field was almost exclu- 
sively the domain of male scientists. During World War II, the U.S. government 
began to train women as meteorologists and hydrologists to make more men avail- 
able for military service. Some of the female meteorologists, such as Ackerman, 
were members of the U.S. Navy's Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency 
Services (WAVES), while others were civilian employees. Ackerman was the first 
woman weather forecaster in the United States, the only woman research meteor- 
ologist in the Cloud Physics Laboratory at the University of Chicago, and the first 
woman meteorologist at Argonne National Laboratory. After her wartime service 



Adams, (Amy) Elizabeth | 183 

as a weather observer and flight briefer with WAVES, she attended the University 
of Chicago, where she received a bachelor's degree in meteorology with a minor in 
mathematics. She worked for the U.S. Weather Bureau for several years before 
returning to the University of Chicago to complete her master's degree. She stayed 
at Chicago as a research associate while completing her doctorate in geophysical 
sciences, which she received in 1965. She went on to teach boundary layer mete- 
orology and cloud physics at Texas A&M University. She then joined the staff of 
Argonne National Laboratory, where she stayed two years before moving to the 
Illinois State Water Survey. 

Ackerman was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science and a fellow of the American Meteorological Society. She was also a 
member of the American Geophysical Union. 



Adams, (Amy) Elizabeth 

1892 1962 
Zoologist 

Education: A.B., zoology, Mount Holyoke College, 1914; University of Chicago, 
1916; A.M., Columbia University, 1919; Ph.D., zoology, Yale University, 1926; 
University of Edinburgh, 1930-1931 

Professional Experience: laboratory assistant, zoology, Mount Holyoke College, 
1914-1915, instructor to associate professor, 1915-1928, professor, 1928-1957 

Concurrent Positions: honorary fellow, Yale University, 1922-1923 

Elizabeth Adams was a zoologist who spent her entire career at Mount Holyoke 
College, where many female zoologists of the early twentieth century received their 
degrees. Her areas of research were experimental embryology and endocrinology, 
and she taught some of the first courses in heredity and in human embryology at 
Mount Holyoke as well as some of the first studies of the reproductive system. Her 
brother-in-law was a physician in Pennsylvania who helped collect fetal specimens 
for the college laboratories, including those used in Adams's courses. She was one 
of the most renowned women zoologists of her generation and obtained grants, even 
during the Depression Era of the 1930s, from sources such as the Bache Fund of the 
National Academy of Sciences, Sigma Xi, the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, several committees of the National Research Council, 
and the Rockefeller Foundation. Particularly in women's colleges at that time, 
research funds, facilities, and faculty leave time were scarce or nonexistent. 



184 | Adelman, Irma Glicman 

Adams and her sister, Katherine Mary, both attended Mount Holyoke College as 
undergraduates. She went on to earn a master's degree from Columbia University 
and a doctorate in zoology from Yale University. She also took courses at the Uni- 
versity of Chicago and University of Edinburg, but spent her entire teaching career 
at Mount Holyoke College. On several occasions, she served as acting head of the 
zoology department, and in 1926 served one semester as acting dean of the college. 
She retired in 1957. Adams was a member of several scientific societies, including 
the Endocrine Society and the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine. She 
was also an elected fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. 

Further Resources 

Levin, Miriam R. 2005. Defining Women's Scientific Enterprise: Mount Holyoke Faculty 
and the Rise of American Science. Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England. 

Morgan, Lynn Marie. 2006. "The Rise and the Demise of a Collection of Human Fetuses 
at Mount Holyoke College." Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. 49(3): 435 451. 
(Summer 2006). 



Adelman, Irma Glicman 

b. 1930 
Economist 

Education: B.S., University of California, Berkeley, 1950, M.A., 1951, Ph.D., 
economics, 1955 

Professional Experience: instructor, University of California, Berkeley, 1956— 
1957, assistant professor, 1957-1958; visiting assistant professor, Mills College, 
1958-1959; assistant professor, Stanford University, 1959-1962; associate profes- 
sor, Johns Hopkins University, 1962-1965; professor, economics, Northwestern 
University, 1966-1972; professor, economics, University of Maryland, 1972- 
1978; professor, economics and agricultural economics, University of California, 
Berkeley, 1979-1994, emeritus 

Concurrent Positions: consultant, Division of Industrial Development, United 
Nations, 1962-1963; consultant, Agency for International Development, U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, 1963-1972; consultant, World Bank, 1968— 

Irma Adelman is an internationally renowned economist whose research focuses on 
how the economic growth of nations is affected by and, in turn, affects economics 
and political institutions; how institutions and economic structure and choices affect 
the diffusion of benefits from economic and institutional change; and examining 



Agogino, Alice M. | 185 

income distribution and poverty, both descriptively and from a policy viewpoint. 
Adelman was born in Romania and emigrated to the United States with her family 
in 1949, her family escaping the fate of many Jews during that period. She attended 
Berkeley and, after completing her graduate work, was unable to find a permanent 
position. She held a series of short appointments at several schools, and when her 
physicist husband, Frank Adelman, accepted an appointment in the Washington, 
D.C., area, she obtained a position at Johns Hopkins University and began working 
on summer research projects at the Brookings Institution. She was invited to join the 
faculty at Northwestern University in 1966, and her husband followed her to the 
Chicago area. She went on to teach at the University of Maryland before returning 
to Berkeley as a professor. She has also served as a consultant to the United Nations 
Division of Industrial Development and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Adelman has received numerous appointments and awards for her work interna- 
tionally, including awards in Korea and Vietnam. In 1977, she was invited to hold 
the Cleringa Chair at Leiden University in The Netherlands, a one-year appoint- 
ment that rotates between a Dutch professor and a foreign professor. She was the 
fourth holder of the chair and the second economist. She has published more than 
130 papers and books, was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences, and is a member of the Econometric Society and the American Eco- 
nomic Association. 



Agogino, Alice M. 

b. 1952 

Mechanical Engineer 

Education B.S., mechanical engineering, University of New Mexico, 1975; M.S., 
mechanical engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1978; Ph.D., 
engineering-economic systems, Stanford University, 1984 

Professional Experience: project engineer, Dow Chemical, Texas, 1972-1973; 
mechanical engineer, General Electric, 1975-1978, commercial specialist, 1978- 
1979; systems analyst, SRI, 1980; director, Women-in-Engineering Program, 
University of Santa Clara, California, 1980-1981; principal, Agogino Engineering, 
1979-; assistant professor to professor, mechanical engineering, University of 
California, Berkeley, 1984- 

Concurrent Positions: associate dean, College of Engineering, University of 
California, Berkeley, 1995-1999; director, Instructional Technology Program, 
University of California, Berkeley, 1999-2001 



186 | Agogino, Alice M. 

Alice Agogino is a mechanical engineer whose research interests include intel- 
ligent learning systems, wireless sensor networks, design theory and methods, 
multimedia and computer-aided design (CAD), artificial intelligence, and gender 
equity. She has strong ties in both academia and industry and has played a 
prominent role in developing and reforming technology education, including 
bringing more women and minorities into science and engineering careers. She 
is director of the Berkeley Expert Systems Technology (BEST) Laboratory and 
the Berkeley Instructional Technology Studio (BITS), and director of Synthesis, 
a National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored project committed to under- 
graduate engineering education. 

Dr. Agogino has authored numerous articles and publications and received 
prizes for best papers at engineering conferences. She has served on the edito- 
rial board of professional journals. Beyond her role in the university, she has 
been involved in collaborative projects with industry and has been a member 
or advisor for governmental and industry organizations and committees such 
as the National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for Engineering 
(1991-96, chair 1996-97), the National Research Council (NRC) Government- 
University-Industry Roundtable (1997-98), the NRC Committee on "Standards 
for Technology Education" (1997-98), the National Academy of Engineering 
(NAE) Academic Advisory Board (1998-2002), and the National Academies 
Board on Science Education (2005-2007), and is co-chair of the NAE Mechanical 
Engineering Nominating Committee (2007-2010). She also served on the 
National Academies Women in Academic Science Engineering Committee 
(2005-2006), the goal of which was to "report on maximizing the potential of 
women in academic science and engineering, including findings and recommen- 
dations for recruiting, hiring, promoting, and retaining women scientists and 
engineers." 

Agogino was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 1997, 
and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
(engineering chair, 2001-2002), the European Academy of Science, the Associ- 
ation of Women in Science, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 
She is also a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and 
the Society of Women Engineers. Some of her earliest awards and honors 
include a NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award (1985) and the Young 
Manufacturing Engineer of the Year Award of the Society of Manufacturing 
Engineers (1987). 

Further Resources 

University of California. Faculty website, http://www.me.berkeley.edu/faculty/ 
aagogino.html. 



Ajzenberg-Selove, Fay | 187 

Ajzenberg-Selove, Fay 

b. 1926 
Nuclear Physicist 

Education: B.S.E., University of Michigan, 1946; M.S., University ofWisconsin, 
1949, Ph.D., physics, 1952 

Professional Experience: assistant to associate professor, physics, Boston 
University, 1952-1957; associate professor to professor, Haverford College, 
1957-1970; professor, physics, University of Pennsylvania, 1970- 

Concurrent Positions: Smith-Mundt Fellow, U.S. State Department, 1955; visiting 
assistant professor, Columbia University, 1955; visiting professor, National Univer- 
sity of Mexico, 1955; visiting associate physicist, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 
1956; lecturer, University of Pennsylvania, 1957; Guggenheim Fellow, Lawrence 
Radiation Laboratory, 1965-1966; consultant, California Institute of Technology, 
1970-1972 

Fay Ajzenberg-Selove is an internationally recognized authority on nuclear structure. 
She was born in Berlin of Russian parents, but because of financial problems the 
family moved to Paris in 1930. The family was forced to flee that city in 1940 
because some family members were Russian Jews who had supported the Commu- 
nist Party. Fortunately, her family believed in education for women, and they allowed 
her to study any subjects she chose. She completed her high school education after 
arriving in the United States in 1941 and enrolled in the Engineering School at the 
University of Michigan, the only woman in a class of 100. After spending a year in 
the graduate school at Columbia University, she taught college-level mathematics 
at the University of Illinois, Chicago. She then entered the graduate school at the 
University ofWisconsin and received her degree in physics in 1952. 

She was a joint editor of Energy Levels of Light Nuclei for the fourth edition 
(1952) and the fifth edition (1955); she has been solely responsible for the sixth 
edition (1973) and all subsequent editions. In addition to numerous other scientific 
publications, she has been active in encouraging women to pursue careers in phys- 
ics. Her autobiography, A Matter of Choices: Memoirs of a Female Physicist 
(1994), describes many of the professional problems she faced, problems that still, 
unfortunately, plague women scientists today. 

Ajzenberg-Selove is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science and of the American Physical Society, serving as chair of the Division 
of Nuclear Physics (1973-74). She was also a member of the Nuclear Science Advi- 
sory Committee of the Department of Energy (1977-80). Her numerous awards 
include the Christian and Mary Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished 



188 | Altmann, Jeanne 

Teaching (1991), the Nicholson Medal for Humanitarian Service, American Physical 
Society (1999), the Distinguished Alumni Fellow Award, Department of Physics, 
University of Wisconsin (2001), and several honorary doctorates. In March 2006, 
the University of Pennsylvania held a special symposium in honor of the work of 
Fay Ajzenberg-Selove and her husband, Walter Selove, also a physicist. 

Further Resources 

University of Pennsylvania. Faculty website, http://www.physics.upenn.edu/people/ 
f.ajzenberg.html. 

Ajzenberg-Selove, Fay. 1994. A Matter of Choices: Memoirs of a Female Physicist. New 
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 



Altmann, Jeanne 

Primatologist, Anthropologist 

Education: B.A., mathematics, University of Alberta, 1962; M.A.T., mathematics 
and teaching, Emory University, 1970; Ph.D., behavioral sciences/human develop- 
ment, University of Chicago, 1979 

Professional Experience: statistical clerk, Laboratory of Human Development, Har- 
vard University and Office of Mathematical Research, National Institutes of Health, 
1959-1960; research associate and co-investigator in primate field studies, zoology, 
University of Alberta, 1963-1965; research associate and co-investigator, Yerkes 
National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, 1965-1967 
and 1969-1970; research associate, biology, University of Chicago, 1970-1985, 
associate professor, ecology and evolution, 1985-1989, professor, 1989-1998; 
professor, ecology and evolutionary biology, Princeton University, 1998, faculty 
associate, Office of Population Research, 1999-, faculty associate, Princeton Envi- 
ronmental Institute, 2005-, Eugene Higgins Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary 
Biology, 2007- 

Concurrent Positions: research curator and associate curator of primates, 
Chicago Zoological Society, 1985-; honorary lecturer, zoology, University of 
Nairobi, 1989-, visiting professor, animal physiology, 2003-2008 

Jeanne Altmann is a primatologist and anthropologist who studies the demography, 
genetics, behavior, and life histories of wild primates. She has been involved in 
long-term full-time studies of baboon family units since founding the Amboseli 
Baboon Research Project in Kenya, Africa, in 1963 with her husband, primatologist 
Stuart Altmann. The Altmanns have organized the work of dozens of scientists and 



Altmann, Margaret | 189 



researchers at Amboseli while serving 
as professors of primatology and evo- 
lutionary biology at the University of 
Chicago and, since 1998, at Princeton 
University. Jeanne Altmann became 
the primary director of the project; her 
work focuses on group social behavior 
and on the effects of genetics and envi- 
ronment on individual behavior, such 
as mate choice and parental care. Her 
1980 book, Baboon Mothers and 
Infants, was one of the first studies of 
primate maternal roles and changed 
the course of primate research; a new 
edition was published in 2001. 

Altmann was elected to the National 
Academy of Sciences in 2003. She is 
the recipient of an Animal Behavior 
Society Exemplar Award (1996), and a 
fellow of the American Association of 
Zoological Parks and Aquariums, Ani- 
mal Behavior Society, and American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences. 




Primatologist and anthropologist Jeanne 
Altmann. (Princeton University, Office of 
Communications, Brian Wilson) 



Further Resources 

Princeton University. "Altmann Laboratory." http://www.princeton.edu/~altlab/. 
"Amboseli Baboon Research Project." http://www.princeton.edu/~baboon/people.html. 



Altmann, Margaret 



1900 1984 

Animal Science, Biologist 

Education: Ph.D., rural economics, University of Bonn, 1928; Ph.D., animal 
breeding, Cornell University, 1938 

Professional Experience: farm manager, Germany, 1921-1930; dairy researcher, 
German government, 1928-1929; lecturer, German Agriculture Ministry, 1929- 
1931; Agricultural Council specialist, 1932-1933; assistant in animal breeding, 



190 | Ancker-Johnson, Betsy 

Cornell University, 1933-1938, research associate, psychobiology, 1938-1941; 
associate professor, biology and animal husbandry and department chair, Hampton 
Institute, 1941, professor, animal husbandry and genetics, 1941-1956; visiting 
lecturer, psychology, University of Colorado, 1958; visiting professor, psychology 
and biology, Kenyon College, 1959; professor, psychology, University of Colorado, 
1959-1969; emerita, 1969-1984 

Concurrent Positions: big game researcher, Biology Research Station, 1948-1956 

Margaret Altmann was a researcher in psychobiology and animal husbandry and 
one of the first women who worked in the area of agricultural animal sciences, a field 
nearly the exclusive domain of male scientists at the time she was employed. Born 
in Berlin, she worked for several German government agricultural agencies and 
received a doctorate in rural economics from the University of Bonn in 1928. She 
then moved to the United States, where she earned a second doctorate in animal 
breeding from Cornell University in New York. She worked at Cornell as a psychobi- 
ologist before moving to the Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in Virginia 
as professor of animal husbandry and genetics. She spent another 10 years as a pro- 
fessor of psychology, combining her interests in biology and psychology, at the Uni- 
versity of Colorado, retiring in 1 969 . Earlier she was also a big game researcher at the 
Biology Research Station, where she studied and eventually published several papers 
on the maternal behavior of large mammals, such as moose and elk. Even today, this 
typically is considered a male profession, and it is a credit to Altmann's expertise and 
persistence that she succeeded in two male-dominated areas of research. 

Altmann was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, Genetics Society of America, and American Society of Mammalogists. 

Further Resources 

Chiszar, David and Michael Wertheimer. 2006. "Margaret Altmann: A Rugged Pioneer in 
Rugged Fields." Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences. 24(1): 102 106. 



Ancker-Johnson, Betsy 

b. 1929 
Solid-state Physicist 

Education: B.A., Wellesley College, 1949; Ph.D., physics, Tubingen University, 
1953 

Professional Experience: junior research physicist and lecturer in physics, Univer- 
sity of California, Berkeley, 1953-1954; staff member, Inter- Varsity Christian 



Ancker-Johnson, Betsy | 191 

Fellowship, Chicago, 1954-1956; senior research physicist, Microwave Physics 
Laboratory, Sylvania Electric Products, Inc., 1956-1958; member of technical 
staff, David Sarnoff Research Center, Radio Corporation of America (RCA), 
1958-1961; research specialist, Plasma Physics Laboratory, Boeing Scientific 
Research Laboratories, 1961-1970; supervisor, solid-state and plasma electronics, 
Boeing Aerospace Company, 1970-1971, manager, advanced energy systems, 
1971-1973; assistant secretary for science and technology, U.S. Department of 
Commerce, 1973-1977; associate laboratory director, physics research, Argonne 
National Laboratory, 1977-1979; vice president, Environmental Activity Staff, 
GM Technical Center, General Motors Corporation, 1979-1992 

Concurrent Positions: affiliate professor, electrical engineering, University of 
Washington, 1961-1973; visiting scientist, Bell Laboratories, 1967-1968; Regents 
Lecturer, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University 
of California, Berkeley, 1988-1989 

Betsy Ancker-Johnson is an internationally known solid-state physicist who had a 
distinguished career working for several corporations, reaching the level of a vice 
president at General Motors Corporation. In 1973, she was the first woman scien- 
tist to be appointed assistant secretary for science and technology at the U.S. 
Department of Commerce. She began her career as a lecturer at the University of 
California, Berkeley, where she met her future husband, Harold Johnson, a math- 
ematics professor. When her husband accepted a position at Princeton University, 
she found a job at Boeing Corporation. After working several years in research, 
she requested that she be transferred to a management position. 

While employed at Boeing, Ancker-Johnson received at least four electrical or 
related patents, of which she was the sole inventor of three. Other patents were for a 
solid density probe, a solid signal generator, and a solid-state amplifier and phase 
detector. She then spent four years at the Department of Commerce and, after leaving 
her position there, worked as associate laboratory director for physics research at 
Argonne National Laboratory. She then moved to General Motors as vice president 
in charge of environmental policy, the first woman vice president in the auto industry. 
In this capacity, she headed a staff of over 200 and was responsible for automobile 
safety, fuel economy, and noise and auto emissions, as well as for all waste from 
GM plants worldwide. In the 1980s, she became concerned about the automotive 
industry's role in global climate change, but the GM leadership did not yet heed her 
warnings. She retired from GM in 1992, but she went on to serve on the National 
Research Council to address the issue of global warming. 

Ancker-Johnson was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engi- 
neering in 1975. She has been very active in promoting the role of women scientists, 
especially through her memberships in professional organizations. She served as 



192 | Anderson, Gloria (Long) 

chair of the Energy Policy Committee (1981-84) and later Director of the Motor 
Vehicle Manufacturers Association (1982-92). Her concern about the environment 
led to her position as chair (1988-94) and later Director of the World Environment 
Center (1988-1994). She was also a councilor for the National Academy of Engi- 
neering beginning in 1995. She wrote the book Nobel Prize Women in Science: 
Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries (1993). She received honorary 
doctorates from New York Polytechnic Institute (1979), Bates College (1980), and 
the University of Southern California (1984), and is a fellow of the American 
Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and 
a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers. In some sources, her name is 
spelled as "Anker." 



Anderson, Gloria (Long) 

b. 1938 
Chemist 

Education: B.S., Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal College (now 
the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff), 1958; M.S., Atlanta University, 1961; 
Ph.D., organic chemistry, University of Chicago, 1968 

Professional Experience: instructor, chemistry, South Carolina State College, 
1961-1962; instructor, chemistry, Morehouse College, 1962-1964; summer 
school professor, South Carolina State College, 1967; Calloway Associate Profes- 
sor and chair, chemistry, Morris Brown College, 1968-1973, professor and chair, 
chemistry, 1973-1984, acting Vice President of Academic Affairs, 1984-1985, 
Dean of Academic Affairs, 1985-1989; Distinguished Scholar, United Negro 
College Fund UNCF, 1989-1990; professor, chemistry, Morris Brown College, 
1990-, Interim President, 1992-1993, Dean of Science and Technology, 1996- 

Concurrent Positions: vice chair, Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), 
1977-1979; research consultant, BioSPECS, Hague, Netherlands, 1990-; Certified 
Professional Chemist, American Institute of Chemists, 1992- 

Gloria Anderson is an authority on the industrial, medical, and military applica- 
tions of fluorine- 19 chemistry. Fluorine- 19 chemistry began to be an important field 
of research prior to World War II, when many commercial applications were dis- 
covered. Anderson chose fluorine- 19 as her thesis topic and has retained it as her 
major interest in research. Her research has involved the use of nuclear magnetic 
resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, a procedure that enables an extremely sophisti- 
cated analysis of the molecular structures and interactions of various materials. 



Anderson, Mary P. | 193 

Anderson has conducted research in a variety of fields, and starting in 1971, the 
National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of 
Naval Research have funded her investigation of fluorine- 19. She conducted 
research on amantadines, a drug used to prevent viral infection, under the sponsor- 
ship of the National Institutes of Health, and she held a faculty industrial research 
fellowship with the National Science Foundation in 1981 and with the Air Force 
Office of Scientific Research in 1984. In 1985, she conducted research on the 
synthesis of solid rocket propellants under the auspices of the Air Force Office of 
Scientific Research. She has been a research consultant for BioSPECS of the Hague, 
Netherlands, since 1990. 

Anderson has been very much involved in education on the national level. She 
was appointed to the board for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 1972 
for a six-year term, and while there, she chaired committees on minority training, 
minorities and women, and human resources development, and served as vice chair 
of the board from 1977 to 1979. She has also served on the review panel for the 
National Science Foundation's Women in Science Program. She is a member of 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Chemical 
Society, the National Institute of Science, the National Science Teachers Associa- 
tion, and the Georgia Academy of Science. In addition to teaching, she has held 
numerous academic and administrative positions, including department chair, dean, 
and interim president, at Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia. 



Anderson, Mary P. 

b. 1948 

Geologist, Hydrologist 

Education: B.A., geology, State University of New York, Buffalo, 1970; M.S., 
geology, Stanford University, 1971; Ph.D., hydrology, Stanford University, 1973 

Professional Experience: adjunct assistant professor, geology, Southampton 
College of Long Island University, 1973-1975; assistant to associate professor, 
geology and geophysics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1975-1985, professor, 
1985- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting lecturer, geology, State University of New York, 
Stony Brook, 1974 

Mary P. Anderson is a professor of hydrogeology, which is the study of the Earth's 
groundwater and lake systems. Her research is focused in Wisconsin, where she is 
professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She 



194 | Angier, Natalie 

has been involved in ongoing studies of how global climate change impacts 
groundwater and lake water levels as part of the National Science Foundation's 
Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) project in northern Wisconsin. This 
research also contributes to questions of environmental and ecological importance, 
such as restoration of wetlands and detection of groundwater contamination. She 
has published numerous articles and book chapters, and her books have been 
through multiple editions, including the textbooks Introduction to Groundwater 
Modeling (originally published 1982; co-authored with H. F. Wang) and Applied 
Groundwater Modeling (originally published 1992; co-authored with W. W. 
Woessner), which has been printed in Japanese and Chinese editions as well. 

Anderson was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006. She is a 
fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the Geological Society of America, 
which awarded her the O. E. Meinzer Award (1998) for her work in hydrogeology. 
She also received the Hubbert Award of the Association of Ground Water Scientists 
and Engineers and the National Ground Water Association (1992). She has been 
editor or editorial board member for numerous professional journals, most recently 
as editor-in-chief of Ground Water (2002-2007), the journal of the National Ground 
Water Association. Anderson has been sought out as a member of professional, 
regulatory, and government research committees such as the National Research 
Council Committee on Ground- Water in Relation to Coal Mining (1978-80), the 
Panel on Groundwater Contamination of the Geophysics Study Committee 
(1981-83), the Water Science and Technology Board (1984-87), an ad hoc 
Committee to advise the U.S. Army on groundwater modeling needs (1992), and 
the Committee on Hydrologic Science (1999-2003). She has been especially 
active with the American Geophysical Union, serving on its award selection and 
executive committees and as President of the Hydrology Section (1996-1998). 

Further Resources 

University of Wisconsin. Faculty website, http://www.geology.wisc.edu/~andy/ 
HOMEPAGE.htm. 



Angier, Natalie 

b. 1958 
Science Writer 

Education: student, University of Michigan, 1974-1976; B.A., Barnard College, 1978 

Professional Experience: technical writer, Texas Instruments, 1979; researcher to 
staff writer, Discover magazine, 1980-1983; editor, Savvy magazine, 1983-1984; 



Angier, Natalie | 195 

staff writer, Time magazine, 1984-1986; instructor, journalism, New York University, 
1987-1989; reporter to science correspondent, New York Times, Washington, D.C., 
bureau, 1990- 

Concurrent Positions: Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large, Cornell University, 
2007-2012 

Natalie Angier is a journalist who writes on scientific topics and has been 
acknowledged and praised for making the latest scientific research accessible to 
a wider audience. She has been a longtime science correspondent for the New York 
Times and a prolific contributor to essay anthologies, popular newspapers, and 
magazines. Her books include Natural Obsessions: The Search for the Oncogene 
(1988; reissued 1999), The Beauty of the Beastly: New Views on the Nature of Life 
(1995), Woman: An Intimate Geography (1999), and The Canon: A Whirligig Tour 
of the Beautiful Basics of Science (2007). She also co-edited the 2002 edition of 
The Best American Science and Nature Writing. In 1991, she received the presti- 
gious Pulitzer Prize for reporting. 

Angier's first book, Natural Obsessions, was based on time spent in a cancer 
research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The book 
provided what one reviewer described as an important look at "the brutal intellectual 
Darwinism that dominates the high-stakes world of molecular genetics research." For 
the essay collection The Beauty of the Beastly, she examined various life forms in her 
characteristically technical but amusing writing style. Her book Woman: An Intimate 
Geography was a sweeping overview of scientific research on the female body, from 
the cellular to the anatomical and psychological. In The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of 
the Beautiful Basics of Science, Angier took an even wider view in an effort to get 
at the big issues in various scientific disciplines. She read the research and talked to 
active scientists from a variety of disciplines — biology, chemistry, physics, 
astronomy, evolutionary biology, environmental sciences, and others — bringing 
together the latest findings and presenting complex ideas to the lay reader. Angier 
has been praised in all of these works for advocating scientific literacy among the gen- 
eral public and for helping readers understand how science works in our daily lives. 

Angier is a member of the National Association of Science Writers and, in addi- 
tion to the Pulitzer Prize, she has been awarded the Lewis Thomas Prize from 
Rockefeller University (1990), an excellence in journalism award from the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science (1992), a Distinguished Alumnae 
Award from Barnard College (1993), and the Maggie Award of Planned Parenthood 
Federation (1999). 

Further Resources 

"Natalie Angier." http://www.natalieangier.com. 



196 | Anslow, Gladys Amelia 
Anslow, Gladys Amelia 



1892 1969 
Physicist 

Education: A.B., Smith College, 1914, A.M., 1917; Ph.D., physics, Yale University, 
1924 

Professional Experience: demonstrator, physics department, Smith College, 
1914-1915, assistant, 1915-1917, instructor, 1917-1924, assistant professor to 
professor, 1924-1958 

Concurrent Positions: chair, graduate school, Smith College, 1941-1958; chief, 
communications and information, Office of Scientific Research and Development 
(OSRD), 1944-1945 

Gladys Anslow was physicist who studied spectroscopy of biological materials, 
ultraviolet vacuum spectroscopy, and nuclear structure problems. She was an 
outstanding teacher and researcher in the early twentieth century, when many 
women's colleges did not have adequate facilities for research in physics. At Smith 
College, Anslow took a course in spectroscopy with Janet T. Howell, with whom 
she researched the emission spectra of radium. After receiving her master's degree, 
Anslow completed some graduate coursework at the University of Chicago before 
entering the doctoral program at Yale. While working toward her Ph.D. in high- 
energy physics, she also taught courses at Smith and collaborated on research proj- 
ects and joint publications in physics journals. After receiving her doctorate from 
Yale, Anslow spent her entire academic career at Smith College. She was invited 
to Berkeley in the summer of 1939 to work in the laboratory of E. O. Lawrence, 
who won the Nobel Prize in Physics that year. She returned to Smith to implement 
some of the methods she learned at Berkeley, but her projects were interrupted by 
the onset of World War II. Anslow was recruited by one of her Yale professors as 
a special assistant for the OSRD during the war. The OSRD was created to support 
research on wartime applications for scientific research, including radar, explo- 
sives, drug research, and the atomic bomb. Although many male scientists found 
employment with the OSRD during the war, Anslow was one of the few, and 
appears to have been one of the highest-ranking, women working in the organiza- 
tion. She became chief of communications, in liaison with civilian scientists work- 
ing on military projects, and also retained her position at Smith throughout the war. 
She received a Presidential Certificate of Merit in 1948 from Harry Truman. 

The postwar United States maintained a new level of commitment to and sup- 
port for scientific research, and in the 1950s, Anslow was able to fund her work 
with government grants. While unable to secure enough funding for a new science 



Apgar, Virginia | 197 

building at Smith as originally hoped, Anslow and her colleagues were able to 
upgrade facilities and buy new equipment, such as spectrophotometers, to support 
"physical and chemical studies of biologically important molecules" for medical 
applications. The women at Smith struggled with additional funding, however, 
when their findings did not corroborate those of leading male scientists, such as 
Linus Pauling. In the 1960s, however, their work was supported by the National 
Science Foundation, and Anslow was awarded an emeritus Sophia Smith Fellow- 
ship in 1966 to continue her research even after retirement. 

Anslow was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi, and she was a fellow of 
the American Physical Society and a member of the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences, the American Association of Physics Teachers, the Optical Society 
of America, and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. 



Apgar, Virginia 

1909 1974 
Pediatrician 

Education: B.S., zoology, Mount Holyoke, 1929; M.D., Columbia University, 1933; 
M.S., public health, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, 1959 

Professional Experience: resident and intern, surgery, Columbia Presbyterian 
Hospital, 1933-1937, director, anesthesia division, 1938-1959, professor, anesthe- 
siology, 1949-1959; director, division of congenital malformations, National Foun- 
dation for Infantile Paralysis, 1959-1967, director, basic research, 1967-1968, vice 
president, medical affairs, 1971-1974 

Concurrent Positions: honorary lecturer, medicine, Johns Hopkins School of 
Public Health, 1959, lecturer, genetics, 1973; lecturer, pediatrics, Cornell Univer- 
sity, 1965-1971, clinical professor, pediatrics, 1971-1974 

Virginia Apgar was a pioneer anesthesiologist, neonatologist, and pediatrician best 
known for developing the "Apgar score," a scale for assessing the physical and men- 
tal health of newborn babies immediately after birth. Apgar had an early interest in 
science and medicine and graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1929 with a 
major in zoology. She went on to receive her medical training from the Columbia 
University College of Physicians and Surgeons, receiving the M.D. in 1933. She 
completed a surgical residency at Columbia, but was discouraged from becoming a 
surgeon and sought training instead in the relatively new field of anesthesiology at 
both the University of Wisconsin, Madison and New York's Bellevue Hospital in 
New York. She was only the second woman to be board-certified in anesthesiology 



198 | Apgar, Virginia 

and returned to Columbia as director of the new anesthesia department in 1938. 
In 1949, she became the first female full professor at the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons. Apgar was interested in the effects on the baby of labor and delivery, 
including the effects of any anesthesia given to laboring women. She developed the 
"Apgar score," assigning a 0- to 2-point rating to five measurements of newborn 
health assessed at 1 minute and 5 minutes after birth: heart rate, respiratory effort, 
muscle tone, reflex response, and color. The letters of her last name were later 
used to create an acronym for the five measurements: Appearance, Pulse, Grimace 
(reaction and irritability), Activity, and Respiration. 

Apgar first published her method in 1953, and the score was accepted as a 
worldwide obstetrical standard for assessing newborn neurological health and sur- 
vival rates. The test has been used by neonatologists for more than 50 years now 
and has been credited with contributing to a decline in infant mortality worldwide 
by changing birthing practices and alerting physicians to potential problems, 
allowing for early interventions. Apgar authored dozens of scientific papers and 
articles for magazines and newspapers, as well as co-authored the book Is My 
Baby All Right? (1972). She went on to earn a master's degree in public health 
from Johns Hopkins University in 1959 and, after that time, left teaching to focus 
on public education and research funding, including an affiliation with the 
National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (now the March of Dimes) as director 
of the division on birth defects and vice president of medical affairs. 

Apgar was a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American 
College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and a member of the American Society 
of Anesthesiologists (treasurer, 1941-1945). She received honorary doctorates 
from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania (1964), from her alma mater, 
Mount Holyoke College (1965), and from the New Jersey College of Medicine 
and Dentistry (1967). Her other awards and honors include a Distinguished 
Service Award from the American Society of Anesthesiologists (1961), Elizabeth 
Blackwell Award of the American Women's Medical Association (1966), Alumni 
Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement from Columbia University College of 
Physicians and Surgeons (1973), and the Ralph M. Waters Award of the American 
Society of Anesthesiologists (1973). In 1973, she was also named Woman of the 
Year in Science by the Ladies' Home Journal, and she has been honored post- 
humously with a U.S. postage stamp (1994) and with induction into the National 
Women's Hall of Fame (1995). The American Academy of Pediatrics named its 
Virginia Apgar Award in Perinatal Pediatrics in her honor. 

Further Resources 

March of Dimes. "Virginia Apgar: Her Score Was a Win for Babies." (28 May 2009). 
http://www.marchofdimes.com/789 5973 1 .asp. 



Archambault, JoAllyn I 199 



Archambault, JoAllyn 



b. 1942 

Anthropologist, Museum Program Director 

Education: B.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1970, M.A., 1974, Ph.D., 
anthropology, 1984 

Professional Experience: lecturer, Native American studies, University of 
California, Berkeley, 1976-1979; chair, Ethnic Studies Department, California 
College of Arts and Crafts, 1979-1980; part-time research associate, Center for 
the Study of Race, Crime and Social Policy, Cornell University, 1980-1982; assis- 
tant professor, anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 1983-1986; 
director, American Indian Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smith- 
sonian Institution, 1986- 

JoAllyn Archambault is a prominent anthropologist and director of the American 
Indian program at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. She was born 
into a mixed-blood Standing Rock 
Dakota, Creek, Irish, and French 
family in Claremore, Oklahoma. Her 
responsibilities at the museum consist 
of preserving and promoting Native 
American art, culture, and political 
anthropology. She functions as an 
ethnic liaison, supervises Native 
American fellowship interns, and 
manages a $110,000 annual program 
budget. She was responsible for the 
redesign of the North American 
Indian Ethnology Halls for the 
"Changing Culture in a Changing 
World" exhibit. She has curated and 
implemented four major exhibits: 
"Plains Indian Arts: Change and Con- 
tinuity" (1987), "100 Years of Plains 
Indian Painting" (1989), "Indian Bas- 
ketry and Their Makers" (1990), and 
"Seminole!" (1990). She contributed 
to the Los Angeles Southwest Muse- 
um's quincentennial exhibit "Grand- 
father, Hear Our Voices" in 1992. 




Anthropologist JoAllyn Archambault, director 
of the American Indian program at the 
Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. 
(Peter Turnley/Corbis) 



200 | Attneave, Carolyn (Lewis) 

Her research for her doctorate centered on the Gallup ceremonial, an annual 
tourist event held in Gallup, New Mexico, to display Native American arts of that 
region. Originally, the ceremonial was sponsored by white people as a business 
venture, but by the 1980s, the Native Americans had established their own dealer 
contacts. Since that time, her interests have included research in several urban 
and reservation communities, including reservation land use, health evaluation, 
expressive art, material culture, contemporary native culture, and the sun dance 
ceremony of eight different Plains groups. She has provided a great deal of assis- 
tance with respect to conservation, architecture, public programming, and research 
projects to tribes and to Native American-controlled museums, archives, and other 
types of cultural projects. She has lectured at several colleges both before and after 
joining the Smithsonian. 

One of the controversies in Native American anthropology involves the number 
of skeletal remains that are housed in museums and laboratories across the United 
States. The problem continues to escalate because federal regulations require an 
anthropological analysis of any potentially historical material that is discovered. 
Although many people agree that the Native American skeletal remains should 
be returned to the tribes, it is often difficult to establish which tribe is involved 
or whether an established tribe still exists. Archambault has served on the 
Commission on Native American Reburial of the American Anthropological 
Association as well as on the University of California Joint Academic-Senate- 
Administration Committee on Human Skeletal Remains. She is a member of 
the American Ethnological Society as well as of several similar associations. Her 
work can be found in the permanent collections of several museums that specialize 
in Native American art. She published An Annotated Bibliography of Sources on 
Plains Indian Art (ca. 1995). 



Attneave, Carolyn (Lewis) 

1920 1992 
Psychologist 

Education: A.A., Yuba College, 1939; B.A., Chico State College (now California 
State University, Chico), 1940; M.A., Stanford University, 1947, Ph.D., psychology, 
1952 

Professional Experience: elementary school teacher, 1940-1942; director of 
student personnel, Texas Woman's University, 1956-1957; assistant professor, 
psychology and human development, Texas Technological College (now Texas 



Attneave, Carolyn (Lewis) | 201 

Tech University), 1957-1961; coordinator, Oklahoma State Department of Health, 
1962-1969; senior psychologist, Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, 1969-1971; 
assistant professor, clinical psychology, Tufts University School of Medicine, 
1971; coordinator of public service careers programs, Massachusetts Department 
of Mental Health, 1971-1972; supervisor of family therapy, Boston University, 
1972-1975; research associate and lecturer, Harvard University School of Public 
Health, 1973-1975; professor, psychology and adjunct professor, behavioral sci- 
ences, University of Washington, Seattle, 1975-1987, director of American Indian 
studies, 1975-1977 

Concurrent Positions: consulting psychologist and family therapist, private prac- 
tice; U.S. Coast Guard Women's Auxiliary (SPARS), 1942-1946 

Carolyn Attneave was the founder of network therapy and probably the best- 
known Native American psychologist. She was internationally renowned for her 
expertise in cross-cultural topics in counseling and psychotherapy and for 
her pioneering work to extend family therapy to include the social network of 
the client. Her book Family Networks: Retribalization and Healing (1973) is con- 
sidered the most comprehensive and significant presentation of social 
network therapy for families. Instead of merely assisting the client and family to 
solve an immediate problem, the therapist convenes a group as large as 40 people 
who are related to the identified client by blood, friendship, need, or physical 
proximity. The members of this large, diverse group bring their strengths to help 
the client cope with the problem and to prepare the client to handle the next crisis 
of living. 

After receiving her Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University in 1952, 
Attneave completed postdoctoral studies at the University of Chicago and the 
University of Oklahoma Medical School. Attneave's theory of network therapy 
developed out of her work as an elementary school teacher working with troubled 
children within the larger context of family and community. However, her own 
experiences as a child visiting her grandparents during the summer on the Dela- 
ware Indian tribal lands in Oklahoma impressed on her the need to retain contact 
with her Indian heritage. Her mother was descended from the Delaware Indian 
tribes but had grown up with little knowledge of the customs and traditions of 
the community. While working for the Oklahoma State Department of Health, 
Attneave was able to develop the idea further. There, she collaborated with physi- 
cians, civic organizations, tribal and federal agencies, tribal leaders, and medicine 
men in providing mental-health services to the seven Native American tribes in 
the region. 

Attneave became a founding member of the Boston Indian Council, one of the 
largest Native American centers in the country, and she started a newsletter, 



202 | Austin, Pauline Morrow 

Network of Indian Psychologists, to exchange information about services available 
to the American Indian community. The subscribers to the newsletter eventually 
evolved into a formal organization, the Society of Indian Psychologists. In 1981, 
she directed a project sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health to com- 
pile a computerized bibliography of American Indian mental-health research. The 
bibliography is housed at the National Center for American Indian and Alaska 
Native Mental Health Research at the University of Colorado, Denver. 



Austin, Pauline Morrow 

b. 1916 
Meteorologist 

Education: B.A., Wilson College, 1938; M.A., Smith College, 1939; Ph.D., physics, 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1942 

Professional Experience: computer, Radiation Laboratory, Massachusetts Insti- 
tute of Technology (MIT), 1941-1942, staff member, 1942-1945, research staff, 
1946-1953; lecturer, Wellesley College, 1953-1955; senior research associate, 
MIT, 1956-1979 

Pauline Austin was a meteorologist and at one time was the director of weather 
radar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her areas of research were radar- 
scattering cross sections, propagation of electromagnetic waves in the atmosphere, 
storm tracking, and precipitation physics. She was a major participant in a profes- 
sion that until World War II was almost exclusively a male domain. Austin was 
one of the first women identified as a meteorologist in the new era of radar tech- 
nology. Her association with MIT started with the position of "computer" in the 
Radiation Laboratory in 1941, the year she was married to James Murdoch Austin, 
a meteorologist who specialized in air pollution and a pioneer weather broad- 
caster. At that time, several women, both civilians and military personnel, were 
trained under government auspices at the Radiation Laboratory to perform the 
work men formerly had handled. She studied both mathematics and physics as 
an undergraduate, earned a master's degree at Smith, and received her doctorate 
in physics from MIT in 1942, in a program that included only four female students. 
She continued as a member of the MIT Radiation Laboratory research staff until 
1979, except from 1953 to 1955, when she was a lecturer at Wellesley College. 
She became director of MIT's Weather Radar Project. Even after her formal retire- 
ment, she has remained involved in scientific research, and volunteers with the 
Florida Museum of Natural History. 



Avery, Mary Ellen | 203 

Austin received several honors, including an honorary doctorate from Wilson 
College in 1964 and election as a fellow of the American Meteorological Society. 
She served as associate editor of the Journal of Applied Meteorology. 

Further Resources 

Wilson College. Profile. http://www.wilson.edu/wilson/asp/content.asp?id=3431. 



Avery, Mary Ellen 

b. 1927 
Pediatrician 

Education: B.A., Wheaton College, 1948; M.D., Johns Hopkins University, 1952 

Professional Experience: pediatrics staff, Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1952-1957; 
research fellow, pediatrics, Harvard University Medical School, 1957-1959; fellow 
in medicine, Johns Hopkins University, 1959-1960, assistant to associate professor, 
pediatrics, 1961-1969, pediatrician, Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1962-1969; professor, 
pediatrics, McGill University Children's Hospital, 1969-1974; Thomas Morgan 
Rotch Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard University Medical School, and physician- 
in-chief, Children's Hospital, Boston, 1974-1985, physician-in-chief emeritus, 
1985- 

Mary Ellen Avery is a neonatologist who discovered the medical condition called 
infant respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) and participated in developing treatments 
for the condition. She became interested in diseases of the lungs when she developed 
tuberculosis soon after completing medical school in 1952. The standard treatment at 
the time was simply bed rest, and medications to treat the disease were just being 
developed. In her research on infants, she found that RDS resulted from the lack of 
a fluid called pulmonary surfactant, which normally coats the internal surface of 
the lungs. Prior to her studies, it was thought that the hyaline membranes were the 
cause of the infant deaths. She also pioneered the discipline of the metabolism of 
the lung as her work on the surfactant led to the study of the nature of lung tissue. 
In addition to numerous journal publications, Avery has written several books: The 
Lung and Its Disorders in the Newborn Infant (first published in 1964 and considered 
a classic in the field; 4th ed., 1981), Diseases of the Newborn (6th ed., 1991), Born 
Early (1984), and Pediatric Medicine (2nd ed., 1994). 

Avery was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1994. In addition to honorary degrees, she has received numerous awards, includ- 
ing the Trudeau Medal from the American Lung Association (1984), the National 



204 | Avery, Susan K. 

Medal of Science (1991), the Virginia Apgar Award from the American Academy 
of Pediatrics (1991), a Medical Alumnus Award from Johns Hopkins Medical 
School (1997), the Alfred I. duPont Award for Excellence in Children's Health 
Care (2005), and the John Howland Medal of the American Pediatric Society 
(2005). She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence (president, 2003), and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sci- 
ences, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Physiological Society, 
the Society of Pediatric Research (president, 1972-1973), and the American Pedi- 
atric Society (president, 1990). 

Further Resources 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 

"Dr. Mary Ellen Avery." Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women 
Physicians. National Library of Medicine. National Institutes of Health, http:// 
www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography 17.html. 



Avery, Susan K. 



b. 1950 

Oceanographer, Atmospheric Scientist 

Education: B.S., physics, Michigan State University, 1972; M.S., physics, 
University of Illinois, 1974, Ph.D., atmospheric science, 1978 

Professional Experience: research associate, Aeronomy Laboratory, University 
of Illinois, Urbana, 1978, assistant professor, electrical engineering, Aeronomy 
Laboratory, 1978-1982; associate professor, electrical and computer engineering, 
University of Colorado, Boulder, 1985-1992, professor, 1992-2008; director and 
president, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Massachusetts, 2008- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting fellow, Cooperative Institute for Research in Envi- 
ronmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado, Boulder, 1982-1983, fellow, 
1983-, director, CIRES, 1994-2004; director, Center for Limb Atmospheric 
Sounding (CLAS), University of Colorado, Boulder, 1996-2004 

Susan Avery is an oceanographer and atmospheric researcher who became the first 
female director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 2008. As the head 
of Woods Hole (one of the oldest and most prestigious oceanographic research cen- 
ters in the United States), Avery presents ocean and earth sciences research and 



Avery, Susan K. | 205 

perspectives to the U.S. government and to international organizations and confer- 
ences that inform policy and educational agendas. Before joining Woods Hole, 
Avery was a professor of atmospheric engineering at the University of Colorado 
and, previously, the University of Illinois. Her own research has focused on the 
development of radar techniques and remote sensing for studying precipitation, 
climate, and other geophysical and atmospheric data. Avery also held a number 
of high-level administrative posts at Colorado, including associate dean of the 
College of Engineering and Interim Vice Chancellor. She served for 10 years as 
director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, a 
research and policy organization for which she also coordinated K-12 education 
efforts. 

Avery earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Michigan State University 
and a master's degree in physics and a doctorate in atmospheric science from the 
University of Illinois in 1978. She has consulted for or served on the boards or 
advisory panels of numerous educational, policy, and government organizations, 
including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the 
national Climate Change Science Program, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the 
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, the National Science Founda- 
tion, and the National Research Council. 

Avery was acknowledged for her service, teaching, and scholarship by several 
awards of the University of Colorado, including the Margaret Willard Award of the 
University Women's Club (1995), Elizabeth Gee Memorial Lectureship Award 
(1998), and Robert L. Stearns Award (1999). She was also honored with a National 
Science Foundation Faculty Award for Women (1991) and an Outstanding Publica- 
tion Award of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (1990), and was a 
Charter Member of the National Associates Program of the National Academies of 
Science (2001). She is also a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engi- 
neers, American Meteorological Society (president, 2004), American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, and a member of the American Geophysical Union. 

Further Resources 

"Biography: Susan K. Avery, PhD." http://www.whoi.edu/page. do ?pid= 19538. 



B 



Baber, Mary Arizona "Zonia" 



1862 1956 
Geographer 

Education: B.S., University of Chicago, 1904 

Professional Experience: principal, private school, 1886-1888; teacher, Cook 
County Normal School, 1888-1890, head, department of geography, 1890-1899; 
associate professor and head, geography and geology department, School of Edu- 
cation, University of Chicago, 1901-1921, principal, Elementary School, School 
of Education, University of Chicago, 1901-1921 

Zonia Baber was one of the earliest women geographers and was recognized as a 
pioneer in developing a rational basis for teaching geography. Her career paral- 
leled the pattern of many women of her age, that of teaching school for a number 
of years before obtaining an undergraduate degree; in fact, she was already teach- 
ing geography and geology at the University of Chicago at the time she received 
her degree in 1904, another practice common at that time. She was noted for the 
quality of the curriculum of her geology department at the university. She was a 
member of several professional societies and was one of the founding members 
of the Chicago Geographic Society. At the fiftieth anniversary meeting of the society 
in 1848, Baber was presented with a Gold Medal in recognition of her role in its 
founding and her service as President of the Society. 

Baber authored Stony Island: A Plea for its Conservation (1917), a publication 
of the Geographic Society of Chicago. Later, she was involved in the peace move- 
ment and published a pamphlet of the Women's International League of Peace and 
Freedom (WILPF) entitled Peace Symbols (1948). A member of the National 
Society for the Scientific Study of Education, she wrote several journal articles 
on the topic of teaching geography. Some sources erroneously identify her name 
as "Barber." 

Further Resources 

Monk, Janice. 2004. "Women, Gender, and the Histories of American Geography." Annals 
of the Association of American Geographers. 94(1): 1 22. (March 2004). 



207 



208 | Baca Zinn, Maxine 
Baca Zinn, Maxine 



b. 1942 
Sociologist 

Education: B.A., California State College, Long Beach (now California State 
University, Long Beach), 1966; M.A., University of New Mexico, 1970; Ph.D., 
sociology, University of Oregon, 1978 

Professional Experience: instructor, New Careers Program, University of New 
Mexico, 1969-1971; instructor, sociology, University of New Mexico, 1970-1971; 
instructor, sociology and Chicano Studies, University of Michigan, Flint, 1975- 
1978, assistant professor to professor, sociology, 1978-1990; professor and Senior 
Research Associate, Julian Samora Research Institute, Michigan State University, 
1990- 

Concurrent Positions: program faculty, Master of Liberal Studies in American 
Culture, University of Michigan, Flint, 1978-1990; faculty associate, Survey 
Research Center, University of Michigan, 1979-1981; visiting scholar, Center 
for Research on Women, Memphis State University, 1984; visiting professor, soci- 
ology, University of California, Berkeley, 1986; Research Professor in Residence, 
Center for Research on Women, Memphis State University, 1987; Distinguished 
Visiting Professor, Women's Studies, University of Delaware, 1988-1989; guest 
professor, sociology, University of Connecticut, 1988; visiting scholar, Henry A. 
Murray Research Center, Radcliffe College, 1997 

Maxine Baca Zinn was one of the first people to conduct sociological work on Latino 
families and Mexican American women. She is a pioneer in the field of family, race, 
and ethnic relations, and some of her colleagues refer to her as one of the mothers of 
Chicana feminism. As an undergraduate sociology student, she could not identify 
with what her professors were saying when they were discussing minorities, for the 
discussions in no way reflected the Chicana life she knew. 

Baca Zinn argues that Mexican American women have been especially 
maligned because of erroneous assumptions and limited empirical research. In 
an 1982 essay in the journal Signs, she explained that Chicanas "have been por- 
trayed as long-suffering mothers who are subject to the brutality of insecure hus- 
bands and whose only function is to produce children — as women who 
themselves are childlike, simple, and completely dependent on fathers, brothers, 
and husbands. Machismo and its counterpart of female submissiveness are 
assumed to be rooted in a native cultural heritage." Her research has focused on 
examining the more complex roles of the Chicana in society, highlighting the simi- 
larities between all minority women — Chicana, black, Asian, and so forth — and 



Baetjer, Anna Medora | 209 

arguing that minority women's subordination lies, in part, in their exclusion from 
American public life. In her book, Women of Color in U.S. Society (1995), she 
and other scholars explore race, class, and gender as systems of oppression against 
women of color in the United States. She has published numerous articles and 
books chapters on Chicana women and minority family structure. 

Baca Zinn has received several awards for her research, including Outstanding 
Alumnus Awards from both California State University, Long Beach (1990) and 
the University of New Mexico (1993), the Cheryl Miller Lecturer Award on 
Women and Social Change (1989), the Meyers Center Book Award for the Study 
of Human Rights in North America (1997), and two separate prestigious awards 
from the American Sociological Association in 2000. She has also received a spe- 
cial recognition award for contributions to the Western Social Science Associa- 
tion, of which she was president in 1985-1986. 

Further Resources 

Michigan State University. Faculty website, http://www.jsri.msu.edu/bacazinn/. 



Baetjer, Anna Medora 

1899 1984 

Physiologist, Toxicologist 

Education: A.B., Wellesley College, 1920; Sc.D., physiology, physiological 
hygiene, and industrial health, Johns Hopkins University, 1924 

Professional Experience: assistant, School of Hygiene and Public Health, Johns 
Hopkins University, 1923-1924, instructor, 1924-1927, associate, 1927-1945, 
assistant to associate professor, environmental medicine, 1945-1961, professor, 
1962-1970 

Anna Baetjer was a physiologist and toxicologist who studied the relationship 
between chromium and cancer as a pioneer in the field of occupational health. 
Among her many publications was the wartime report on Women in Industry: 
Their Health and Efficiency (1946), which made recommendations on workplace 
accommodations for women workers. She spent most of her career in the School 
of Hygiene and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, where, in 1963, she 
helped establish one of the first environmental toxicology programs and helped 
set global standards for worker health. She was a frequent advisor and consultant 
to associations and government committees concerning occupational health and 
toxicology, such as the National Research Council, the Environmental Protection 



210 I Bahcall, Neta 

Agency, and the U.S. Army Environment Hygiene Agency. Her earliest studies in 
the 1920s examined the effects of temperature and humidity on workers. By the 
1950s and 1960s, she was warning about the effects of air pollution and calling 
for further studies on workplace chemical exposure. Even after her retirement in 
1970, she remained active as a researcher and public health advocate, and her find- 
ings had an impact on studies related to environmental toxins, cancer, and lead 
poisoning, among other issues. 

Baetjer was a member of numerous commissions and committees, including a 
consultant for the preventive medicine division of the Office of Surgeon General 
of the Army (beginning in 1947), a member of the board of trustees of the Mellon 
Institute (beginning in 1958), and a member of the advisory committee on safety 
of pesticide residues in foods to the Food and Drug Administration (1966-1970). 
She was elected president of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (1951), 
and she received the Cummings Memorial Award (1964), the Kehoe Award of 
the American Academy of Occupational Medicine (1976), the Stokinger Award of 
the American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists (1980), and the Alice 
Hamilton Award (1997). She received honorary degrees from Woman's Medical 
College of Pennsylvania (1953), Wheaton College (1966), and Johns Hopkins 
University (1979). Johns Hopkins also established a chair in her name, the Anna M. 
Baetjer Chair in Environmental Health Sciences. Baetjer was a member of the 
American Physiological Society and the American Public Health Association. 

Further Resources 

"Occupational Health's Dynamo." Prologues. Johns Hopkins Public Health Magazine. 
(Fall 2001). http://www.jhsph.edu/magazineFall01/Prologues.htm. 



Bahcall, Neta 

b. 1942 
Astrophysicist 

Education: B.S., physics and mathematics, Hebrew University, Israel, 1963; M.S., 
physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, 1965; Ph.D., astrophysics, Tel Aviv 
University, Israel, 1970 

Professional Experience: research fellow, physics, California Institute of Technol- 
ogy, 1970-1971; research associate to senior research astronomer, astrophysical sci- 
ences, Princeton University, 1971-1983; chief, General Observer Support Branch, 
and head, Science Program Selection Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 



Bahcall, Neta | 211 







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1983-1989; professor, astrophysical 
sciences, Princeton University, 1989-; 
director, Council on Science and Tech- 
nology of Princeton University, 2000- 
2008 

Neta Bahcall is an astrophysicist and 
cosmologist whose research focuses 
on dark matter, the formation and evo- 
lution of galaxies, quasars, and the 
large-scale structure of the universe. 
She has mapped the structure and loca- 
tion of galaxies within the universe 
using the Hubble Space Telescope and 
other survey tools. Her most significant 
contribution to the field of astrophysics 
is her calculations of the total mass of 
the universe, which helps scientists 
understand both the origins and fate of 
the universe. She received her Ph.D. 
in astrophysics at Tel Aviv University 
in Israel and that same year became 

affiliated with Princeton University. She has spent her entire teaching career at 
Princeton University and has been a full professor since 1989. During the 
1980s, she spent time at the Space Telescope Science Institute and was in charge 
of selecting science programs that would use the Hubble Space Telescope. She 
collaborated for many years with her late husband, John Bahcall, also a renowned 
astrophysicist who worked on the development of the Hubble Space Telescope. 
She has authored or co-authored (with John Bahcall and others) hundreds of 
scientific papers and articles. 

Neta Bahcall was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 
1997. She has been an invited lecturer for professional organizations and univer- 
sities across the United States and internationally, including as lecturer at the 
Nobel Symposium in Stockholm (1998). She is a member of the American Astro- 
nomical Society (vice president, 1995-1998) and has served on numerous profes- 
sional and governmental committees including the National Astronomy and 
Astrophysics Advisory Committee (2003-present), Space Telescope Institute 
Council (1993-1997), U.S. National Committee to IAU (1998-2004), Scientific 
Advisory Committee, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (1990-1995), and the American 
Institute of Physics Committee on International Relations (1990-1993), and as 



Astrophysicist Neta Bahcall. (Princeton 
University, Office of Communications, 
Denise Applewhite) 



212 | Bailey, Florence Augusta Merriam 

chair of the AAS Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy (1983). She 
has received an honorary doctorate from Ohio State University (2006). She has 
three children, all of whom have earned doctorates in the sciences. 

Further Resources 

Princeton University. Faculty website, http://www.astro.princeton.edu/people/bahcall 
neta.html. 

Schultz, Steven. "Astrophysicist Reaches for the Stars and More." Princeton Weekly 
Bulletin 92(15). (10 February 2003). http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pwb/03/0210/lb 
.shtml. 



Bailey, Florence Augusta Merriam 

1863 1948 
Ornithologist 

Education: A.B., Smith College, 1921 

Professional Experience: independent author 

Florence Bailey was a popularizer of natural history who specialized in ornithology. 
Her first book was Birds through an Opera Glass (1889), which was comprised 
of revised versions of articles she had contributed as a student to Audubon 
Magazine. In 1894, she published My Summer in a Mormon Village, in 1896, 
A-Birding on a Bronco, and in 1 898, Birds of Village and Field. The latter is a book 
for beginners in ornithology and one of the first popular American bird guides. Her 
brother, Clinton Hart Merriam, was the first chief of the U.S. Biological Survey, 
and her husband, Vernon Bailey, was its chief naturalist. She joined her husband 
on the majority of his field research trips, observing the birds about which she 
wrote. She also wrote chapters on birds in some of her husband's books, notably 
Wild Animals of Glacier National Park (1918) and Cave Life of Kentucky (1933). 
Her Handbook of Birds of the Western United States (1902) was a standard work 
for many years. She wrote the first comprehensive report on the bird life of the 
Southwest in Birds of New Mexico (1928), published by the New Mexico Depart- 
ment of Game and Fish. 

Bailey was the first woman member of the American Ornithologists' Union in 
1885 and, in 1929, was elected the first woman fellow. In 1931, she was the first 
woman to receive the Brewster Award of the American Ornithologists' Union. In 
1933, the University of New Mexico awarded her an honorary LL.D. degree. In 
some sources, she is listed as "Mrs. Vernon Bailey." 



Banfield, Jillian F. | 213 

Further Resources 

Bonta, MarciaM. 1995. American Women Afield: Writings by Pioneering Women Naturalists. 
College Station: Texas A&M University Press. 

Kofalk, Harriet. 1989. No Woman Tenderfoot: Florence Merriam Bailey, Pioneer Naturalist. 
College Station: Texas A&M University Press. 

Holmes, Madelyn. 2004. American Women Conservationists: Twelve Profiles. Jefferson, 
NC: McFarland. 



Banfield, Jillian F. 

b. 1959 
Geochemist 

Education: B.Sc, Australian National University, Canberra City, 1981, M.Sc., 
1985; Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, 1990 

Professional Experience: exploration geologist, Western Mining Corporation, 
1982-1983; research assistant, electron microscopy, Australian National Univer- 
sity, 1985-1986; assistant to associate professor, geology and geophysics and 
Materials Science Program, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1990-1999, pro- 
fessor, 1999-2001; professor, earth and planetary science and environmental sci- 
ence, policy, and management, University of California, Berkeley, 2001- 

Concurrent Positions: associate professor, Mineralogical Institute, University of 
Tokyo, 1996-1997, professor, 1998; visiting research fellow, Australian National 
University, 1998-2000; affiliate faculty, chemistry, University of Wisconsin, 
Madison, 1998-2001; researcher, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2001- 

Jillian Banfield is an earth scientist who specializes in mineralogy and geochemis- 
try. Her research focuses on the effect of microorganisms and biochemical pro- 
cesses on minerals, metals, and crystal growth. Banfield was born in Australia 
and received her bachelor's and master's degrees from Australian National Univer- 
sity. She moved to the United States to conduct doctoral research at Johns Hopkins 
University in Baltimore, Maryland. She received her Ph.D. in 1990 and joined the 
faculty at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she taught for 1 1 years. 
During that time, she took a leave of absence to teach for two years at the Mineral- 
ogical Institute at the University of Tokyo. In 2002, she moved to the University of 
California, Berkeley as professor of earth, planetary, and environmental sciences. 
She is also affiliated with the geochemistry group at Lawrence Berkeley National 
Laboratory. She has served on advisory committees for the National Academy of 
Science Board on Earth Sciences and Resources and the U.S. Department of 



214 | Baranescu, Rodica 

Energy Geoscience Advisory Committee, and has been involved in an astrobiology 
research with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) analyzing 
potential evidence of biological materials in planetary geological samples. 

Banfield was the recipient of a prestigious five-year MacArthur Foundation 
"genius" grant (1999-2004) and, during this same time period, a Guggenheim 
fellowship (2000). Her other awards and honors include the Mineralogical Society 
of America Award (1997), D. A. Brown Medal from her alma mater, Australian 
National University (1999), and Marion L. and Christie M. Jackson Award of the 
Clay Minerals Society (2000). She has also been honored as the Gast Lecturer of 
the Geochemical Society (2000), the Inaugural National Science Foundation Earth 
Science Week Lecturer (2000), and the Rosenqvist Lecturer in Norway (2005), 
and was the Pioneer Lecturer for the Clay Minerals Society (2005). She is a member 
of the Mineralogical Society of America, Clay Minerals Society, American 
Geophysical Union, and American Society for Microbiology. 

Further Resources 

University of California, Berkeley. Faculty website, http://eps.berkeley.edu/~jill/. 



Baranescu, Rodica 

b. 1940 

Mechanical Engineer 

Education: B.S., mechanical engineering, Institute Francais du Petrol, Rueil- 
Malmaison; M.S., mechanical engineering, Politehnica University, Bucharest, 
Romania, 1961, Ph.D., mechanical engineering, 1970 

Professional Experience: assistant to associate professor, Politehnica University, 
Bucharest, Romania, 1964-1978; chief engineer, Engine Performance Analysis, 
Technical Center of Engine and Foundry Division, International Truck and Engine 
Corporation, and manager, Fuels and Lubricants and Engine Group, International 
Truck and Engine Corporation, 1980-; professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engi- 
neering, University of Illinois, Chicago, 2005- 

Rodica Baranescu is a mechanical engineer who has worked in the automotive 
industry on the development of diesel truck engines, and researching alternative 
fuels, energy, and emissions control. She received her education in France and at 
the Politehnica University in Bucharest, Romania, where she also taught for 
14 years. She came to the United States in 1980 to work for International Harvester 
Company, now International Truck and Engine Corporation. She has served as 
chief engineer for Engine Performance Analysis and manager of the Fuels and 



Bartoshuk, Linda | 215 

Lubricants division. She is co-author of two Romanian patents: Internal Combus- 
tion Engine with Damping Chamber and Accumulator Fuel Injection System for 
Diesel Engine. In 2005, she began an affiliation with the University of Illinois, 
Chicago as professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and has been an 
invited speaker and lecturer for industry and academic groups worldwide. She 
was co-editor of the 1999 edition of the Diesel Engine Reference Book. 

Baranescu was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2001. She is 
a fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers International (S AE) and was S AE 
president in 2000, the first woman to lead that group. Through the SAE, she com- 
mitted herself to promoting engineering education and careers among young 
people and to increasing the presence of women and minorities in the field of auto- 
motive engineering; at that time, less than 5% of SAE members were women. She 
is the recipient of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME) 
Internal Combustion Engine Award (2003). 

Further Resources 

Hatch, Sybil E. 2006. Changing Our World: True Stories of Women Engineers. Reston, 
VA: American Society of Civil Engineers. 

University of Illinois. Faculty website, http://www.mie.uic.edu/faculty/baranescu.htm. 



Bartoshuk, Linda 

b. 1938 
Psychologist 

Education: B.A., psychology, Carleton College, Minnesota, 1960; M.Sc, 
psychology, Brown University, 1963, Ph.D., psychology, 1965 

Professional Experience: research associate, Brown University, 1964-1966, 
lecturer, 1966-1968; affiliate assistant professor, Clark University, 1966-1969; 
research psychologist, Natick Army Laboratories, 1966-1970; assistant fellow, 
John B. Pierce Foundation, 1970-1973, associate, 1974-1985, fellow, 1985- 
1989; assistant professor, epidemiology and public health, Yale University, 
1971-1976, associate professor, epidemiology and public health, and psychology, 
1976-1985, professor, 1985-1988, professor, surgery (otolaryngology) and 
psychology, Yale University, 1989-2005; professor, Community Dentistry and 
Behavioral Science, University of Florida, College of Dentistry, 2005- 

Linda Bartoshuk is a research psychologist who conducts innovative research on 
perceptions of taste and smell. She has researched how genetic differences in taste, 



216 | Bartoshuk, Linda 

and damage to taste buds, affect our sense of pain and our overall health. She spent 
many years as otolaryngology researcher and professor of epidemiology, public 
health, and psychology at Yale University before moving to the McKnight Brain 
Institute's Center for Taste and Smell at the University of Florida College of Den- 
tistry. In particular, she has looked at how the taste buds send signals to the brain, 
and the effects of hormones and of cancer therapy and disease on taste. Her work 
has clinical and pharmaceutical applications for treating patients with oral pain 
and taste bud damage, as well as applications to the food industries in linking taste 
preferences to health and dietary needs. 

Bartoshuk received her doctorate in psychology from Brown University in 
1965. She worked at the Natick Army Research Labs before joining the Pierce 
Foundation and then the faculty at Yale University in 1971. She has been an editor 
or consulting editor for journals such as Chemical Senses, Perception and Psycho- 
physics, and Sensory Processes. She has served on numerous advisory boards and 
committees for the National Institutes of Health and the National Research Council, 
and was on the Women's Affairs Advisory Committee of the American Association 
of Dental Schools. 

Bartoshuk was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 2003 and 
in 2008 was appointed to a three-year term on the Council of the NAS. She is a fel- 
low of the Society for Experimental Psychologists, the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences, and the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, and a 
founding member of the Association for Psychological Science (president, 
2008). She is also a member of the American Psychological Association, American 
Psychological Society, Association for Chemoreception Sciences (AChemS) 
(president, 1980-1981), Eastern Psychological Association (president, 1990- 
1991), Psychonomic Society, and Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior. 
She received an honorary doctorate from Carleton College (2001). Among her 
numerous other awards and honors are the Manheimer Award of Monell Chemical 
Senses Institute (1990), the Leah Lowenstein Award of Yale University School of 
Medicine (1991), AChemS Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Chemical 
Senses (1998), a Distinguished Contribution Award of the New England Psycho- 
logical Association (2000), and the International Flavors and Fragrances Award 
for Innovative Research (2004). 

Further Resources 

O'Connell, Agnes N. and Nancy Felipe Russo, eds. 2001. Models of Achievement: 
Reflections of Eminent Women in Psychology. Vol. 3. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum 
Associates. 

"Cool Careers in Science." PBS interview. http://www.pbs.Org/safarchive/5 cool/53c 
bartoshuk.html. 



Bascom, Florence | 217 

Bascom, Florence 

1862 1945 
Geologist 

Education: A.B., B.L., University of Wisconsin, 1882, B.S., 1884, M.A., geology, 
1887; Ph.D., geology, Johns Hopkins University, 1893 

Professional Experience: instructor, geology and petrology, Ohio State University, 
1893-1895; lecturer and associate professor, geology, Bryn Mawr College, 1895— 
1906, professor, 1906-1928; geological assistant, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 
1896-1901, assistant geologist, 1901-1909, geologist, 1909-1936 

Florence Bascom introduced the microscopic study of minerals in the United States 
and is considered the first female professional geologist. She was a petrologist who 
studied rock formations and published numerous articles on the crystalline rocks of 
the Piedmont area from the Susquehanna River to Trenton, New Jersey. She was the 
first woman to receive a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University and the first 
American woman to receive a doctorate in geology. After teaching for two years 
at Ohio State University, she moved to Bryn Mawr College. At that time, Bryn 
Mawr had no facilities for geological research, but Bascom secured rock and min- 
eral specimens and expanded her geology course into a full major. She soon was 
accepting graduate students from all over the country and from Europe, training 
an entire generation of American women geologists. One of her students was 
Eleanora Bliss Knopf, who also went on to work for the USGS. In 1896, Bascom 
became the first woman scientist hired at the USGS. She retired from teaching at 
Bryn Mawr in 1928 due to poor health, but continued conducting fieldwork and 
laboratory research for USGS for several more years. 

Bascom came from an academic background, as her father, John Bascom, was a 
professor at Williams College in Massachusetts and later president of the Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin, where Florence enrolled as an undergraduate, receiving three 
separate bachelor's degrees as well as a master's degree in geology. She then 
enrolled in Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Johns Hopkins did 
not yet officially admit women or grant women degrees, but allowed them to take 
graduate courses. Bascom sat behind a screen during classes, separate from the 
male students, and received her doctorate from Johns Hopkins in 1893 by special 
dispensation. 

Bascom accomplished several other "firsts" in her field, including as the first 
woman to present a scientific paper at the Geological Society of Washington, the 
first woman to be elected a fellow of the Geological Society of America (1894), 
and the first female officer of that organizations (vice president, 1930). She also 
served as editor of The American Geologist. 



218 I Bates, Grace Elizabeth 

Further Resources 

Arnold, Lois Barber. 1984. Four Lives in Science: Women's Education in the Nineteenth 
Century. New York: Shocken Books. 

Burek, Cynthia V. and Bettie Higgs. 2007. The Role of Women in the History of Geology. 
London: Geological Society of London. 



Bates, Grace Elizabeth 

1914 1996 
Mathematician 

Education: B.S., Middlebury College, 1935; Sc.M., Brown University, 1938; 
Ph.D., mathematics, University of Illinois, 1946 

Professional Experience: teacher, high school, 1935-1936, 1938-1943; instruc- 
tor, mathematics, Sweet Briar College, 1943-1944; assistant professor to profes- 
sor, Mount Holyoke College, 1946-1979 

Grace Bates is recognized for her work as a mathematician at a distinguished 
women's college, Mount Holyoke. As a high school student in the 1920s, Bates 
had to get special permission as a woman to take advanced mathematics courses. 
Again, as a student on the women's campus at Middlebury College, she found that 
the most advanced courses were open only to male students and she had to petition 
the administration to be able to pursue her mathematics education. She worked as 
a high school teacher for a year after receiving her undergraduate degree and again 
taught after receiving her master's degree. She then moved to Sweet Briar College 
for one year before joining the faculty at Mount Holyoke. She received her doctor- 
ate from the University of Illinois, originally intending to study geometry but 
switching to abstract algebra, working under renowned German mathematician 
Reinhold Baer. She returned to teach at her alma mater, Mount Holyoke, where 
she earned tenure and ultimately advanced to full professor. Like many professors 
at the women's colleges, Bates never married and never had children. She lived 
and worked on campus until forced to retire in 1979. 

Bates was active as both a scholar and a teacher, continuing her education in 
new mathematical fields to support her teaching. In the 1950s, she spent several 
summers in Berkeley with Jerzy Neyman, considered by some to be the founder 
of modern statistics. She ultimately contributed several papers on algebra and 
probability theory to technical journals and was the co-author of two books, The 
Real Number System (1960) and Modern Algebra, Second Course (1963). Among 
the honors she received was an honorary degree from Middlebury College (1972). 



Bateson, Mary Catherine | 219 

She was a member of numerous professional societies, including the American 
Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America. 

Further Resources 

Murray, Margaret Anne Marie. 2000. Women Becoming Mathematicians: Creating an 
Identity in Post World War II America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 



Bateson, Mary Catherine 



b. 1939 

Cultural Anthropologist, Linguist 

Education: B.A., Radcliffe College, 1960; Ph.D., Arabic languages, Harvard 
University, 1963 

Professional Experience: associate professor, anthropology, Ateneo de Manila 
University, 1966-1968; senior research fellow, psychology and philosophy, Brandeis 
University, 1968-1969; research staff member, Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, 1969-1971; visiting professor, anthropology, Northeastern University, 
1969-1971 and 1974-1975; researcher, University of Tehran, 1972-1974; professor, 
anthropology and dean of graduate studies, Damavand College, Tehran, 1975-1977; 
professor, anthropology and dean of social science and humanities, University of 
Northern Iran, 1977-1979; visiting scholar, anthropology, Harvard University, 
1979-1980; professor, anthropology, Amherst College, 1980-1987, dean of faculty, 
1980-1983; Clarence Robinson Professor of Anthropology and English, George 
Mason University, 1987-2002, Professor Emerita 

Concurrent Positions: president, Institute for Intercultural Studies, New York 
City, 1979-2009; Visiting Scholar, Center on Aging and Work, Boston College, 
2006- 

Mary Catherine Bateson is a cultural anthropologist whose most recent work, 
Full Circles, Overlapping Lives: Culture and Generation in Transition (2000), 
is a study of how individuals learn about gender, race, and other social differ- 
ences through the intergenerational context of the family. For the book, Bateson 
incorporated research on and life histories of women from a variety of ethnic and 
economic contexts around the world. Bateson's early interest in anthropology 
was influenced by her famous parents, the pioneer anthropologists Margaret 
Mead and Gregory Bateson. Her parents had progressive ideas about rearing 
and educating children, and her mother adopted certain mother-child interactions 



220 | Bateson, Mary Catherine 



she had observed in primitive societies, 
such as on-demand breastfeeding, 
which was not common in the United 
States in the 1940s. 

As a college student at Radcliffe, 
Bateson met J. Barkev Kassarjian, an 
Armenian student at Harvard, and 
they married before either of them 
had completed a doctorate. After 
graduation, the couple moved to the 
Philippines, where they both taught 
at universities. Catherine added 
anthropology and psychology to her 
interest in linguistics in order to 
secure employment. The couple then 
moved to Iran, where both taught in 
universities until the political situation 
became unstable. The couple had a 
daughter and moved to California for 
a short time to help Gregory Bateson 
complete his book, Mind and Nature 
(1979). After several interim appoint- 
ments, Bateson secured a position in 
1980 as professor of anthropology and, later, dean of the faculty at Amherst 
College. In her book Composing a Life (1989), she gives a detailed account of her 
efforts to open the curricula to new areas of study and to retain more women faculty 
members. Although she served as a dean for three years at Amherst, she herself 
experienced discrimination by the college and left in 1987 for a position at George 
Mason University, where she remained until her retirement in 2002. 

Bateson is a member of the American Anthropological Association. She 
has published numerous scientific papers and received prestigious fellowships 
from the Ford Foundation (1961-63), the National Science Foundation (1968-69), 
and Guggenheim (1987-88). In addition to her own autobiographies, information 
about her early life is included in a biography of her famous parents, With a 
Daughter's Eye (1984). 




Anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson. 
(Steve Liss/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images) 



Further Resources 

"Biography." http://www.marycatherinebateson.com/bio.html. 



Beall, Cynthia | 221 



Beall, Cynthia 



b. 1949 
Anthropologist 

Education: B.A., University of Pennsylvania, 1970; M.A., Pennsylvania State 
University, 1972, Ph.D., anthropology, 1976 

Professional Experience: assistant professor to professor, anthropology, Case 
Western Reserve University, 1976- 

Concurrent Positions: founding co-editor, Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 
1986-1995 

Cynthia Beall is a renowned anthropologist and an authority on how people live at 
high altitudes. Beall has examined both the physical and the social aspects of 
people in Tibet, Mongolia, Peru, Bolivia, Nepal, and Ethiopia. Her studies 
have included such diverse topics as China's birth-control policy in Tibet, the 
impact of China's reform policy on 

I 



the nomads, the hemoglobin concen- 
tration in people at high altitudes, 
age differences and sensory and cog- 
nitive functions in elderly Nepalese, 
and the physical fitness of elderly 
Nepalese farmers. 

In Nomads of Western Tibet: The 
Survival of a Way of Life (1990), Beall 
and co-author M. C. Goldstein present 
an overview of the life of Tibetan 
nomads in the years since the Chinese 
invaded the country in 1950. It is a 
collection of photographs with a short, 
nontechnical text, and an article in 
National Geographic (June 1989) 
summarized their 16-month project. 
Theirs was the first research team 
to receive permission to conduct a 
long-term study of the area since the 
Chinese invasion. In The Changing 
World of Mongolian Nomads (1994), 




Anthropologist Cynthia Beall. (AP/Wide World 
Photos) 



222 | Beattie, Mollie Hanna 

the authors described a three-year study of Mongolia after the death of communism 
led to the privatization of the nomads' collective farming system. An overview of 
that study was also published in National Geographic (May 1993). 

Beall's research has been sponsored by grants from the National Science Foun- 
dation, the National Geographic Society, and the American Federation for Aging 
Research. She is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, American Anthropological Association, American Association of Physical 
Anthropology, Human Biology Council (president, 1991-1994), Society for the 
Study of Human Biology, Association for Anthropology and Gerontology, Council 
for Nutritional Anthropology, and Gerontological Society of America. Beall was 
elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1996. 

Further Resources 

Case Western Reserve University. Faculty website, http://www.case.edu/artsci/anth/ 
beall.html. 



Beattie, Mollie Hanna 



1947 1996 

Forester, Government Official 

Education: B.A., philosophy, Marymount College, 1968; M.S., forestry, University 
of Vermont, 1979; M.A., public administration, Kennedy School of Government, 
Harvard University, 1991 

Professional Experience: newspaper reporter; tour guide, Outward Bound, 
1974-1976; program director, Windham Foundation, 1983-1985; commissioner 
of forests and parks, Vermont, 1985-1989; deputy secretary, Vermont Agency of 
Natural Resources, 1989-1990; executive director, Richard A. Snelling Center 
for Government, 1991-1993; director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1993-1996 

Mollie Beattie was the first woman to head the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but 
unfortunately she served only three years before she died of a brain tumor. Before 
taking the position with the Fish and Wildlife Service, she was with the Richard A. 
Snelling Center for Government, a public-policy institute that is now affiliated 
with the University of Vermont. Its aims are to educate citizens about state and 
local governments. Her experiences with the Vermont natural resources, forests, 
and parks agencies prepared her for similar activities on a national level. While 



Beattie, Mollie Hanna | 223 



she was head of the Fish and Wildlife 
Service, her organization enforced 
wildlife laws, administered the Endan- 
gered Species Act, and carried out 
wetland protection and management. 

Beattie was committed to the 
Endangered Species Act and to envi- 
ronmentalism in her personal life. As 
a child, she was introduced to nature 
studies by her grandmother, Harriet 
Hanna, a self-trained botanist in 
upstate New York. As an adult, she 
and her husband lived in a house in 
the Green Mountains, where they used 
solar power for their energy require- 
ments, but the noise of the urban envi- 
ronment was still disturbing. In 1993, 
she published Working with Your 
Woodland: A Landowner's Guide. 
Professionally, she oversaw the reintro- 
duction of the gray wolf into the 

northern Rocky Mountains and won the support of the environmental community 
when she served as vice chair of a 1991 commission created by the Defenders of 
Wildlife organization to study the condition and future of the 91 -million-acre 
National Wildlife Refuge System. During her confirmation hearings for the posi- 
tion, some of the senators asked her if she did any hunting. She replied that 
although she did not hunt, she valued hunters as a major conservation support group 
and did not see hunting or fishing as incompatible with biodiversity goals. She used 
the culling of deer in the national parks to prevent the overgrazing of vegetation as 
an example and said she found biodiversity concepts a good strategy for maintain- 
ing wildlife. Her plan to conserve species was to manage the entire ecosystem 
instead of waiting until individual species became endangered. After her death in 
1996, a wilderness area in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska was named 
in her honor. 




Forester Mollie Hanna Beattie was the first 
woman to head the U.S. Fish and Wildlife 
Service. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Further Resources 

Holmes, Madelyn. 2004. American Women Conservationists: Twelve Profiles. Jefferson, 
NC: McFarland. 



224 | Bell, Gwen (Dru'yor) 
Bell, Gwen (Dru'yor) 



b. 1934 

Geographer, Computer Museum Founder 

Education: B.A., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1955; Master of City and 
Regional Planning, Harvard University, 1957; Ph.D., geography, Clark University, 
1967 

Professional Experience: faculty member, Graduate School of Public and 
International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh, 1966-1973; founder and director, 
Computer Museum, Boston, 1980- 

Gwen Bell has made a unique contribution to the computer industry by founding 
and directing a museum to house a wide array of computers and components, even 
including a number of computer games. In addition, she was the first person cred- 
ited with developing a geographic information system on a computer and with pro- 
ducing a variety of maps. She was first introduced to computers while on Fulbright 
scholarship in Australia and then used the TX-0 at the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology to analyze a redevelopment area of Boston. 

After receiving her doctorate, she taught in the Graduate School of Public and 
International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. In the 1970s, she worked as 
a United Nations consultant on planning and edited a journal and three books. 
Her husband, Gordon Bell, an engineering executive at DEC, was a computer 
junkie who, along with his wife, had long been collecting computing and calculat- 
ing artifacts. In 1978, Ken Olsen, president of Digital Equipment Corporation 
(DEC), asked Bell if the TX-O computer could possibly be rebuilt in DEC head- 
quarters at Marlboro, Massachusetts. This request started Gwen Bell on a project 
to establish a computer museum, which she did in 1979. As computers have 
shrunk in size, the museum has been able to include entire machines, like the 
PDP-1, DEC's first computer, and the Altair of the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology. Many of the display items are in working order, especially the per- 
sonal computers, and older models are loaded with the software that was devel- 
oped for them. Many of the major exhibits have been designed by local students 
using their own time and energy to develop lively presentations. 

The museum, now called the Computer History Museum and located in Silicon 
Valley in California, sponsors a number of lectures by computer pioneers each year, 
and these have been videotaped for use by scholars in the future. A video by Bell 
entitled "Computer Pioneers and Pioneer Computers" (1996) is available commer- 
cially, and many exhibits can be viewed online. Bell is a member of the Association 
for Computing Machinery (ACM) and served as president of the ACM between 
1992 and 1994. 



Benedict, Ruth Fulton | 225 



Further Resources 

"The Computer History Museum." http://www.computerhistory.org/. 



Benedict, Ruth Fulton 

1887 1948 
Anthropologist 

Education: A.B., English, Vassar College, 1909; Ph.D., anthropology, Columbia 
University, 1923 

Professional Experience: lecturer, anthropology, Columbia University, 1924- 
1930, assistant professor to professor, 1930-1948 

Ruth Benedict originated the controversial concept of patterns of culture, which 
combined anthropology with sociology, psychology, and philosophy. At mid- 
century, she was recognized along with Frank Boas as one of the country's leading 
anthropologists. After receiving her undergraduate degree at Vassar (her mother 
was also a Vassar graduate and school teacher), she taught school for a few years 
and then married. Becoming bored with charitable work, in 1919, she enrolled in 
The New School for Social Research at Columbia University, where she received 
her doctorate in anthropology in 1923, and where she met and worked with Boas 
as well as with Margaret Mead, with whom she had an intimate relationship. 
Benedict made her first field trip in 1922 to the Serrano Indians and spent 
subsequent summers studying other tribes, such as the Zuni Pueblo, Apache, and 
Blackfoot. 

In her 1934 book Patterns of Culture, Benedict proposed her holistic theory of 
culture to explain why certain personalities and types were valued in one society 
while discouraged in another. In an era of fascism, racism, and ethnic stereotyping 
for political purposes, Benedict's theory was controversial because it called for 
judging each culture only on its own merits and values, and argued that no culture 
should be forced to conform to the standards or values of another. The book was 
translated into 14 languages and became a standard anthropology text for many 
years to come. More controversy surrounded the publication of her 1940 book 
Race: Science and Politics, which took a strong activist tone against racism and 
was criticized by a politician of the U.S. South. During World War II, she worked 
for the Office of War Information studying cultures in Japan, Thailand, and New 
Guinea. This was a new departure for anthropologists, that of analyzing complex 
modern societies for purposes of politics and national intelligence. This work cul- 
minated in her book The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese 



226 | Benerito, Ruth Rogan 

Culture (1946), a contribution to understanding America's enemy during the war 
without relying upon stereotypes and racism. The book brought her such renown 
that in 1947, the Office of Naval Research gave her a large grant to establish and 
direct a research program on Contemporary Cultures at Columbia, where she 
was promoted to full professor in what proved to be the last year of her life. 

Benedict was a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, president of the 
American Ethnological Society (1927-1929), vice president of the American 
Psychopathological Association, and president of the American Anthropological 
Association (1947); she resigned the latter position due to sexism within the Asso- 
ciation at that time. She also served as editor of the Journal of American Folk-Lore 
from 1923 to 1940. Benedict has been the subject of several biographies, begin- 
ning with that written by her friend and colleague, Margaret Mead, who published 
Ruth Benedict: A Humanist in Anthropology in 1974. 

Further Resources 

Banner, Lois W. 2003. Intertwined Lives: Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Their 
Circle. New York: Random House. 

Lavender, Catherine J. 2006. Scientists and Storytellers: Feminist Anthropologists and the 
Construction of the American Southwest. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 



Benerito, Ruth Rogan 

b. 1916 
Polymer Chemist 

Education: B.S., Sophie Newcomb College, 1935; M.S., Tulane University, 1938; 
Ph.D., chemistry, University of Chicago, 1948 

Professional Experience: instructor, chemistry, Randolph-Macon Women's 
College, Virginia, 1940-1943; assistant professor, Tulane University, New Orleans, 
Louisiana, 1943-1953; physical chemist, Southern Regional Research Center, 
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 1953-1958, head of colloidal chemistry 
investigation, 1958-1961, head of physical chemistry group, 1961-1986 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct professor, chemistry, University of New Orleans; 
adjunct and emerita professor, Tulane University 

Ruth Benerito holds more than 50 patents and is most well-known for her work in the 
development of the "wash-and-wear" or "permanent press" process for fabrics. Her 
research was important both in terms of scientific breakthroughs and implications 



Benerito, Ruth Rogan | 227 



for commerce and industry. The 
advent of polyester and other synthetic 
fabrics threatened the future of cotton 
textiles, but Benerito's work led to 
technologies for creating wrinkle-free, 
stain-free, and even flame-retardant 
cotton fabrics. She developed a process 
for soaking cotton in sodium plumbite 
and heating it to create a slick, clean, 
"glassy" surface. Her research had an 
impact not only on the textile industry, 
but on new wood and paper products 
as well. 

Benerito was a scholar at Bryn 
Mawr College from 1935 to 1936 and 
taught at Randolph-Macon Women's 
College for several years after receiv- 
ing her master's degree from Tulane 
University. She moved to Tulane Uni- 
versity, where she remained for several 
years after receiving her doctorate in 
1948. She was a scholar at the Univer- 
sity of Chicago from 1946 to 1947. In 
1953, she joined the USDA, and in 

1958 became head of the Cotton Chemical Reactions Laboratory. She then spent 
more than 30 years at the USDA Southern Regional Research Center in New 
Orleans, which specializes in the study of cotton and synthetic fabrics due to the 
textile industry in that region. Benerito had a long career with the USDA as head 
of several divisions at New Orleans until her retirement in 1986, after which she 
continued to work as an adjunct professor. 

Benerito was twice honored with the USDA's highest award for Distinguished 
Service (1964 and 1970), and has received numerous other awards for her work, 
including the Federal Woman Award (1968), Southern Chemist Award (1968), the 
Garvan Medal (1970), and the Southwest Regional Award of the American Chemical 
Society (1972). In 2002, she received the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement 
Award, and in 2004 was inducted into the USDA's Research Agency's Hall of Fame. 
She received an honorary degree from Tulane in 1981. She has been a member of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Chemical 
Society, and the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists. 




Chemist Ruth Benerito developed a 
"permanent press" technology for fabrics. 
(AP/Wide World Photos) 



228 | Benesch, Ruth Erica (Leroi) 



Further Resources 



'Ruth Rogan Benerito." 2000. MIT Inventor of the Week Archive, http://web.mit.edu/ 
invent/iow/benerito.html. 



Benesch, Ruth Erica (Leroi) 

1925 2000 
Biochemist 

Education: B.S., University of London, 1946; Ph.D., biochemistry, Northwestern 
University, 1951 

Professional Experience: demonstrator, chemistry, University of Reading, 
1945-1947; research associate, chemistry, Johns Hopkins University, 1947-1948; 
fellow, University of Iowa, 1952, Enzyme Institute, University of Wisconsin, 
1955; independent investigator, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole 
Oceanographic Institution, 1956-1960; research associate, College of Physicians 
and Surgeons, Columbia University, 1960-1964, assistant professor to professor, 
biochemistry and molecular biophysics, 1964-1995, emeritus professor 

Ruth Benesch was a collaborator with her husband, Reinhold Benesch, in their 
research on oxygen transport and other aspects of hemoglobin chemistry. The cou- 
ple met in London, where Ruth (born in Paris) and her family were in hiding 
during World War II. She entered the University of London, married Reinhold in 
1946, and moved with him to the United States, where both became citizens and 
received doctorates from Northwestern University. For 40 years, the Benesches 
conducted research and developed analytical and synthetic methods that allowed 
the introduction of the thiol groups and an accurate determination of their number 
in proteins. All but 13 of their 125 published papers dealt with hemoglobin, with 
special emphasis on its oxygen-carrying capacity. Nearly all the oxygen needed 
by cells is transported by hemoglobin, and although the normal pressure of oxygen 
in the lungs ensures complete saturation, or loading, of the hemoglobin, unloading 
depends not only on oxygen pressure and hemoglobin saturation but also on the 
oxygen affinity of the hemoglobin. If carbon dioxide accumulates, the affinity 
decreases and more oxygen is released. 

In 1967, the Benesches established that D-2,3-diphosphoglycerate is the third 
substance necessary for the proper functioning of the oxygen-hemoglobin system. 
They determined both the site at which diphosphoglycerate and related com- 
pounds bind to the protein and the nature of those bonds, and their discoveries 
resulted in a dramatic change in the way such systems are viewed and studied. 



Benmark, Leslie Ann (Freeman) | 229 

They subsequently researched the cause of sickle-shaped cells in the deadly blood 
disease sickle-cell anemia. Although other scientists had used x-ray diffraction to 
study the disease with limited success, the Benesches used electron micron micro- 
scopic studies, resulting in significant insights into the formation of sickle cells. 
Reinhold Benesch died in 1986, and Ruth Benesch remained an active researcher 
on sickle-cell anemia until her retirement in 1995. 

Ruth Benesch was a member of the American Chemical Society, the American 
Society of Biological Chemists, the Biophysical Society, and the American Society 
of Hematology. 



Benmark, Leslie Ann (Freeman) 

b. 1944 

Industrial Engineer 

Education: B.S., University of Tennessee, 1967, M.S., 1970; Ph.D., information 
systems, Vanderbilt University, 1976; J.D., University of Delaware, 1984 

Professional Experience: systems analyst, Monsanto Company, St. Louis, 1967- 
1968; systems analyst, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, 1968-1970, 
systems analysis supervisor, 1970-1975, design supervisor, 1975-1976, planning 
and industrial engineering supervisor, 1976-1979, business analysis manager, 
1979-1987, business strategy manager, 1987-1990, management systems consul- 
tant, 1990-1993, global planning manager for integrated processes and systems, 
1993- 

Concurrent Positions: instructor, computer science, University of Tennessee, 
1973-1975; assistant to dean of engineering and director of women engineers pro- 
gram, Vanderbilt University, 1975-1979 

Leslie Benmark is known nationally and internationally for her work on the 
accrediting boards for engineering curricula. Since 1993, she has been the global 
planning manager for integrated processes and systems for the international Du 
Pont Company, work that involves long-range strategic planning for global 
systems. Not all scientists and engineers who work for industrial concerns are 
engaged in research, as the corporations need people with scientific and technical 
expertise to work in the entire range of corporate operations. Benmark has always 
been involved in industrial systems, and she acquired a law degree when she was a 
business manager for Du Pont. 

She has been a member of the accrediting boards for engineering curricula for 
a number of years, and she works with similar boards in several countries. 



230 | Bennett, Joan Wennstrom 

For example, she is a fellow of the Institute of Industrial Engineers of Ireland. She is 
also a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers, the organization 
that prescribes the curricula for granting professional engineering licenses in the 
United States. Graduating from an accredited engineering school does not auto- 
matically make a person a professional engineer. The person must pass additional 
coursework and have a specified number of years of experience. In addition to 
working on the national and international levels, Benmark serves on advisory 
boards for engineering programs such as those at the Georgia Institute of Technol- 
ogy, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and West Virginia University. She is par- 
ticularly interested in working with curricula for women engineers. She is also the 
former chair of the Total Quality Engineering Committee of the Union of Pan- 
American Associations of Engineering. 

Benmark was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 
1993. Among her numerous committee appointments, Benmark has been a member 
of the Board of Directors of Manufacturing Studies of the National Research Council 
since 1993, and is a fellow of the Institute of Industrial Engineers and a member of 
the American Society for Engineering Education. She has been a member of the 
Industrial Engineering Advisory Board of Oakridge National Laboratory and served 
as the first female president of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Tech- 
nology (ABET) (1990-1991). In 1994, she was the recipient of the Linton E. Grinter 
Distinguished Service Award from ABET. 



Bennett, Joan Wennstrom 

b. 1942 

Plant Geneticist 

Education: B.S., biology and history, Upsala College, New Jersey, 1963; M.S., 
botany, University of Chicago, 1964, Ph.D., botany, 1967 

Professional Experience: National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, 
Department of Biology, University of Chicago, 1967-1968; National Research 
Council Postdoctoral Fellow, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Southern Regional 
Research Laboratory, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1968-1970; National Science 
Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, and assistant professor, biology, Tulane Univer- 
sity, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1971-1976, associate professor, biology, 1976- 
1981, professor, 1981-1990, professor, cell and molecular biology, 1990-2006; 
professor, plant biology and pathology, and Associate Vice President for Promotion 
of Women in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics, Rutgers University, 2006- 



Berenbaum, May Roberta | 23 I 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct professor, pathology, Tulane University School of 
Medicine, 1982-; visiting scientist, plant molecular biology, Leiden University, 
Netherlands, 1991-1992; adjunct professor, ecology and evolutionary biology, 
Tulane University, 1993-; visiting professor, pharmacology, Robert Wood Johnson 
Medical School, New Jersey, 1998-1999 

Joan Bennett is a plant biologist who specializes in fungal genetics, biodegradation 
and biotechnology, and mycology and mycotoxins, the health and environmental 
hazards of various molds. She has written or edited numerous books and hundreds 
of research papers and reviews on the biology and genetics of fungi and molds 
(mycology), and has taught courses in bioethics and in plant and human genetics 
and reproduction. Bennett taught biology at Tulane University in New Orleans for 
35 years before moving to Rutgers University in New Jersey as professor of plant 
pathology and an administrative post as Associate Vice President for Promotion of 
Women in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics in all levels at the university. 

Bennett was elected a member of the National Academy of Science in 2005. 
She holds honorary doctorates from Bethany College and from her alma mater, 
Upsala College. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science and an honorary member of the Czech Society for Microbiology. She is 
a member of the American Society for Microbiology (president, 1990), British 
Mycological Society (vice president, 1988), Louisiana Academy of Sciences, 
Mycological Society of America, Society for General Microbiology, Society for 
Industrial Microbiology (president, 2001), and Torrey Botanical Club. 

Further Resources 

Rutgers University. Faculty website, http://www.cook.rutgers.edu/~plantbiopath/faculty/ 
bennett/bennett.html. 

Office for the Promotion of Women in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics. Rutgers 
University, http://sciencewomen.rutgers.edu/. 



Berenbaum, May Roberta 

b. 1953 
Entomologist 

Education: B.S., Yale University, 1975; Ph.D., ecology and evolutionary biology, 
Cornell University, 1980 

Professional Experience: assistant to associate professor, entomology, University of 
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1980-1990; professor, entomology and plant biology, 
1990- 



232 | Berenbaum, May Roberta 




Entomologist May Berenbaum researches unexplained reductions in the honey bee 
population. (Ralf-Finn Hestoft/Corbis) 



Concurrent Positions: affiliate, Center for Economic Entomology, Illinois Natural 
History Survey, 1990- 

May Berenbaum is an entomologist who specializes in chemical aspects of insect- 
plant interaction, phototoxicity of plant products, and host-plant resistance, and in 
2006 began leading a project in sequencing the "honey bee genome." Berenbaum 
has been researching and informing the public on unexplained reductions in the 
honey bee population, pointing out the critical importance of bees not only for 
supplies of honey and wax, but for pollination of other plants, flowers, and human 
food crops. She points out that humans take the contributions of bees for granted 



Berenbaum, May Roberta | 233 

and that the loss of significant numbers of bees could have a devastating economic 
effect. Theories explaining the disappearance of bees have ranged from parasites 
to disease to pesticide exposure, but no dead bees have been found to explain the 
cause. Berenbaum's research could reveal whether bees have a genetic disorder 
or dysfunction causing them to misnavigate or lose their way to hives. 

Berenbaum had a childhood fear of insects that she finally overcame after tak- 
ing an introductory course in entomology while a freshman at Yale University. 
She then decided to make them part of her life's work and specialized in insect 
ecology and evolutionary biology. As part of her efforts to improve the image of 
insects among the public, Berenbaum hosts an annual Insect Fear Film Festival. 
While she pointed out in her book Bugs in the System: Insects and Their Impact 
on Human Affairs (1995) that creatures such as lice, mosquitoes, and fleas have 
caused more deaths than bombs or bullets in human wars, she also shows how 
humans are dependent on insects for at least a third of the food grown in the world, 
and for other products such as varnishes and dyes. Other books that Berenbaum 
has written for the general public are Ninety-Nine Gnats, Nits, and Nibblers 
(1989) and Ninety-Nine More Maggots, Mites, and Munchers (1993). 

Berenbaum is also concerned with education about career possibilities in the 
field of entomology, pointing out the multidisciplinary nature of the work of soil 
scientists, plant pathologists, agricultural economists, microbiologists, animal sci- 
entists, and epidemiologists, to name a few. She has received numerous scholarly 
awards and honors, among them the National Science Foundation's Presidential 
Young Investigator Award (1984), the Founder's Memorial Award of the Entomo- 
logical Society of America (1994), the E. O. Wilson Naturalist Award from the 
American Society of Naturalists (1999), the Silverstein-Simeone Award of the 
International Society for Chemical Ecology (2000), the Weizmann Institute 
Women and Science Award (2004), and the MacArthur Award of the Ecological 
Society of America (2005). She was elected to membership in the National Acad- 
emy of Sciences in 1994 and named as Associate of the National Academies and 
National Research Council in 2001. She is a fellow of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
American Philosophical Society, and Entomological Society of America, and a 
member of the American Genetics Association, Ecological Society of America, 
and International Society of Chemical Ecology. 

Further Resources 

University of Illinois. Faculty website, http://www.life.uiuc.edu/entomology/faculty/ 
berenbaum.html. 

Berenbaum, May R. "Losing Their Buzz." New York Times. Opinion section. 
(2 March 2007). http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/opinion/02berenbaum.html. 



234 | Berezin, Evelyn 
Berezin, Evelyn 



b. 1925 

Computer Scientist, Physicist 

Education: B.S., physics, New York University (NYU), 1951 

Professional Experience: design engineer, Electronic Computer Corporation and 
Underwood Corporation, 1951-1957; logic designer, Teleregister Corporation, 
1957-1960; manager, logic design, Digitronics Corporation, 1960-1969; founder 
and president, Redactron Corporation, 1969-1978; president, office products, Bur- 
roughs Corporation, 1978-1980; founder and president, Greenhouse Management 
Corporation, 1980-1987; consultant, 1988- 

Evelyn Berezin was a pioneer in computer hardware design with her development 
of the first office computer in the 1950s and with the first word processor to replace 
the typewriter in the 1960s. She was also an innovator in the uses of interactive 
computer programs and also helped develop the first computer data systems for 
banks and then for the first airline reservation system, which was used by United 
Airlines. She envisioned using the word processor as a tool for creating and editing 
text documents, and in 1969, she and two colleagues founded their own firm, 
Redactron, to design and manufacture a product called Data Secretary. They were 
second only to IBM in producing word processors, but were forced to sell the com- 
pany to Burroughs Corporation in 1978, who failed to market her machine for 
office use. Several other companies, notably IBM, would corner the office word- 
processing market that took off in the 1980s. 

Berezin was a business major in college until an unexpected job offer prompted 
her to switch to physics. She planned to go on for a doctorate, and held a fellowship 
from the Atomic Energy Commission while a student at NYU, but instead obtained a 
job with Electronic Computer Corporation. She designed computer systems and 
received patents on several individual components. After selling Redactron to Bur- 
roughs Corporation in 1978, Berezin became the president of that company's office 
products group. However, she left in 1979 to form her own firm again, this time a 
consultant firm for the automation industry. Later, she formed Greenhouse Manage- 
ment Corporation, a venture capital group that invested in high-technology compa- 
nies. Since 1988, she has been an independent management consultant and has 
served on the board of directors for numerous technology research organizations 
and corporations, including Sion Power Corporation and IntelliCheck, Inc. 

Berezin has received honorary doctorates from Adelphi University and Eastern 
Michigan University. She was acknowledged as an inventor with her 2006 induc- 
tion into the Long Island Technology Hall of Fame. 



Berger, Marsha J. | 235 



Further Resources 



Rostky, George. 2000. "The Word Processor: Cumbersome, but Great." EE Times, http:// 
www.v2.eetimes.com/special/special issues/millennium/milestones/berezin.html. 



Berger, Marsha J. 

b. 1953 
Computer Scientist 

Education: B.S., mathematics, State University of New York, Binghamton- 
Harpur College, 1974; M.S., computer science, Stanford University, 1978, Ph.D., 
computer science, 1982 

Professional Experience: programmer, Energy and Environmental Systems 
Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 1974-1976; consultant and program 
librarian, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and Stanford Center for 
Information Processing (SCIP), and teaching and research assistant, computer 
science, 1976-1982; postdoctoral fellow, Courant Institute of Mathematical 
Sciences, New York University, 1982-1984, associate to assistant professor, com- 
puter science, 1985-1993, deputy director, Courant Institute, 1997-2003 and fall 
2005, professor, 1993- 

Concurrent Positions: research assistant, Mathematics Division, IBM T. J. Watson 
Research Center, 1978; research assistant, Computation Group, Lawrence Livermore 
National Laboratory, 1979; scientist in residence and consultant, Institute for Com- 
puter Applications in Science and Engineering (ICASE), NASA Langley Research 
Center, summers, 1983, 1984, 1985; visiting scientist, NASA Ames Research Center, 
1991-1992, 2003-2005, summers, 1993- 

Marsha J. Berger is a computer scientist whose research interests include compu- 
tational fluid dynamics, numerical analysis, and high-performance parallel com- 
puting, specifically developing software and engineering applications for the 
aircraft and spacecraft industries. After receiving her bachelor's degree in math- 
ematics, she worked as a scientific programmer for Argonne National Laboratory, 
where she developed models for the Energy and Environmental Systems Division. 
She pursued graduate study at Stanford University and was affiliated with the 
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. After receiving her Ph.D. in computer science 
from Stanford in 1982, she joined the faculty of the Courant Institute of Math- 
ematical Sciences at New York University, where she has taught for more than 
20 years. She has also served as deputy director of the Courant Institute. 



236 | Berkowitz, Joan B. 

Berger was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2000 and the 
National Academy of Engineering in 2005. She has also received the Presidential 
Young Investigator Award of the National Science Foundation (NSF) (1988), a 
Faculty Award for Women from the NSF (1991), the NASA Software of the Year 
Award for Cart3D (2002), and the Sidney Fernbach Award of the IEEE (2004). 
She is a member of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, American 
Mathematical Society, Association for Women in Mathematics, and American 
Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics. 

Further Resources 

New York University. Faculty website. http://as.nyu.edu/object/MarshaBerger.html. 



Berkowitz, Joan B. 



b. 1931 

Physical Chemist 

Education: B.A., Swarthmore College, 1952; Ph.D., physical chemistry, Univer- 
sity of Illinois, 1955; certificate, Senior Executive Program, Sloan School, 1977 

Professional Experience: National Science Foundation fellow, Yale University, 
1955-1957; physical chemist, Arthur D. Little, Inc., 1957-1980, vice president 
and section head of Environmental Business World Wide, 1980-1986; chief exec- 
utive officer (CEO), Risk Science International, 1986-1989; founder and manag- 
ing director, Farkas, Berkowitz & Company, Inc., 1989— 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct professor, physical chemistry, Boston University, 
1965-1970; adjunct professor, University of Maryland 

Joan Berkowitz is internationally known as an authority on environmental hazards. 
After receiving her undergraduate degree from Swarthmore, she wanted to study 
physical chemistry at Princeton University; however, the Princeton Chemistry 
Department would not accept women graduate students, so she completed her 
graduate studies at the University of Illinois in three years and then held a National 
Science Foundation fellowship at Yale University. She accepted a position as a 
physical chemist at Arthur D. Little, Inc., an international management and tech- 
nology consulting firm, while her husband, Arthur Mattuck, joined the mathemat- 
ics faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

At Little, Berkowitz was very successful with high-temperature oxidation stud- 
ies, which led to opportunities for projects in hazardous waste disposal. After she 



Bertell, Rosalie | 237 

had worked for about 20 years, the company funded her participation in the Senior 
Executive Program of the Sloan School. In 1980, she became a vice president of 
Little and was further promoted to head the section Environmental Business World 
Wide. In 1986, she became the CEO of Risk Science International, a consulting 
firm in Washington, D.C. In 1989, she teamed with Allen Farkas to form Farkas, 
Berkowitz and Company to consult on waste treatment and disposal, remediation 
technologies, and market potential assessment. She headed a team that produced 
a multivolume catalog of all possible manufactured products with any potential to 
cause pollution problems. She also investigated the problem of "scrubbing," a tech- 
nique in which sulfur dioxide is removed from the air to improve air quality. 

Her research programs in electrochemistry, high-temperature chemistry, solar 
energy, and environmental science are all areas of interest to the space program. 
She developed a major research program in high-temperature oxidation of transi- 
tion metals that showed that molybdenum disilicide had the greatest oxidation 
resistance at all temperatures and was also the most corrosion-resistant. The plat- 
ing techniques using molybdenum disilicide that the National Aeronautics and 
Space Administration (NASA) developed were used in industry also. Other related 
projects involved mechanisms of oxidation reactions in gas streams, studies of 
radiation shields, and the use of electrical fields to retard high-temperature oxida- 
tion of metals and alloys. 

Berkowitz was the first woman president of the Electrochemical Society 
(1979-1980), and she is also a member of the American Chemical Society and 
the American Physical Society. She received the Achievement Award of the Society 
of Women Engineers (1983) for her pioneering contributions in the field of hazard- 
ous waste management. 

Further Resources 

"Farkas Berkowitz & Company: Catalyst for Change." http://www.farkasberkowitz.com/. 



Bertell, Rosalie 

b. 1929 
Biomathematics 

Education: B.A., mathematics, D'Youville College, 1951; M.A., mathematics, 
Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C, 1959, Ph.D., biometrics, 1966 

Professional Experience: assistant, mathematics, Catholic University, 1957-1958; 
associate professor, mathematics, Sacred Heart Junior College, Pennsylvania, 
1958-1968; coordinator of high school math teachers, D'Youville Academy, 



238 | Bertell, Rosalie 

Atlanta, Georgia, 1968-1969, coordinator and associate professor, mathematics, 
D'Youville College, 1969-1972; visiting professor, State University of New York, 
Buffalo, 1972-73, assistant research professor, 1974-1978; director and research 
consultant, Ministry of Concern for Public Health, New York, 1978-1980; Energy 
and Public Health specialist, Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice, Toronto, 
Ontario, Canada, 1980-1984; faculty, Ovum Pacis: The Women's Peace University, 
USA and Canada, 1994-; founder and president, International Institute of Concern 
for Public Health, 1987-2001 

Concurrent Positions: senior research scientist, Roswell Park Memorial Institute, 
1970-1978; cancer research scientist and consultant, 1975-1980 

Rosalie Bertell has studied and been an activist raising awareness about the hazards 
of low-level radiation of nuclear energy. Her research involves mathematical statis- 
tics, analysis, measure theory, the aging effect in humans associated with exposure 
to ionizing radiation, updating relative risk methodology for biomedical applications, 
and lifestyle and chronic diseases. She has created controversy by arguing that stan- 
dard research methods on nuclear energy are aimed to convince people that low-level 
radiation is harmless. She argues, however, that there are no peaceful uses of atomic 
energy because it leads to either a quick death from atomic weapons or a slow death 
from the pollution emanated by atomic production. Radiation increases not only the 
risk of cancer, but also susceptibility to infectious diseases and risk of earlier onset of 
heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, coronary-renal disease, and other chronic health 
problems. At the time the first nuclear tests were conducted, scientists did not have 
sufficient data to anticipate what some of the results would be. However, there still 
is not a consensus on how the data should be interpreted. 

Bertell has published widely on this issue, with numerous articles, pamphlets, and 
books such as No Immediate Danger: Prognosis for a Radioactive Earth (1985), 
which was the first to discuss the dangers of low-level radiation, and Planet Earth: 
The Latest Weapon of War, A Critical Study into the Military and the Environment 
(2001). She was also editor of the journal International Perspectives in Public 
Health. She has also written on the dangers of depleted uranium, the effect of 
x-rays, the toxic waste created by military operations, and Gulf War syndrome. On 
these issues and others, she has consulted for numerous educational, government, 
and human-rights groups, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Energy 
Task Force of the National Council of Churches, the Citizens' Advisory Committee 
to the President's Commission on Three Mile Island, and International Medical 
Commissions to deal with nuclear accidents, such as in Chernobyl in the late 1990s. 

Bertell has been acknowledged for her scientific activism against nuclear weap- 
ons and for human rights. In 1986, she received the Right Livelihood Award "[f]or 
raising public awareness about the destruction of the biosphere and human gene 



Blackburn, Elizabeth | 239 

pool, especially by low-level radiation." In 1993, she received official recognition 
from the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and was named to 
UNEP's Global 500 Roll of Honour. Among her other awards and honors are the 
World Federalist Peace Award, a Health Innovator Award of the Ontario Premier's 
Council on Health, the Sean MacBride International Peace Prize, and selection (in 
2005) as one of 1,000 PeaceWomen nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. She has 
received several honorary doctorates and is a member of the Health Physics Society, 
American Academy of Political and Social Science, American Public Health Asso- 
ciation, and International Biometric Society. She conducts her work through the 
International Institute of Concern for Public Health (IICPH), a Toronto, Canada- 
based organization she founded in 1984. She is also a founding member of the 
International Commission of Health Professionals, the International Association of 
Humanitarian Medicine, and the Commission of Health Professionals. 

Further Resources 

International Institute of Concern for Public Health, http://www.iicph.org. 



Blackburn, Elizabeth 

b. 1948 
Cell Biologist 

Education: B.Sc, biochemistry, University of Melbourne, Australia, 1970, M.Sc, 
biochemistry, 1972; Ph.D., molecular biology, University of Cambridge, England, 
1975 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, molecular and cell biology, Yale 
University, 1975-1977; postdoctoral fellow, University of California, San Francisco, 
1978; assistant professor, molecular biology, University of California, Berkeley, 
1978-1983, associate professor, 1983-1986, professor, 1986-1990; professor, 
biochemistry and biophysics, and microbiology and immunology, University of 
California, San Francisco, 1990- 

Elizabeth Blackburn is a cell biologist whose work has contributed to cancer 
research and who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with 
her former student Carol Greider and colleague Jack Szostak. Blackburn's 
research focuses on telomerase enzyme research and the molecular nature of 
telomeres, the ends of chromosomes that cover and protect genetic information. 
The role of telomerase is important for advances in cancer research since it helps 
explain how cells form, age, replicate, and mutate. Blackburn's lab studies cells 



240 | Blackburn, Elizabeth 




from a variety of organisms, including 
humans. In 2001, Blackburn was 
elected a member of the President's 
Council on Bioethics, but her support 
for stem-cell research led to her con- 
troversial removal from the council in 
2004. Her removal, and the Bush 
administration's moratorium on stem- 
cell research, prompted outrage from 
the scientific community. She serves 
on the Science Advisory Board of the 
Genetics Policy Institute. 

Born in Australia, Blackburn 
received degrees in biochemistry 
from the University of Melbourne 
and went on to earn her doctorate in 
molecular biology from the Univer- 
sity of Cambridge in England. She 
came to the United States in 1975 as 
a postdoctoral fellow at Yale and 
moved to California in 1978 to join 
the faculty at Berkeley. She moved 
to the University of California, San 
Francisco in 1990, where she is currently the Morris Herztein Professor of Biology 
and Physiology and holds joint appointments in the departments of Biochemistry 
and Biophysics and of Microbiology and Immunology, serving as department 
chair between 1993 and 1999. 

Blackburn has received honorary doctorates from several prestigious American 
universities, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and others. A select listing of her 
numerous other awards and honors includes the Eli Lilly Research Award for 
Microbiology and Immunology (1988), National Academy of Sciences Award in 
Molecular Biology (1990), Gairdner Foundation International Award (1998), 
Clowes Memorial Award of the American Association for Cancer Research 
(2000), Medal of Honor of the American Cancer Society (2000), AACR- 
Pezcoller Foundation International Award for Cancer Research (2001), Alfred P. 
Sloan Award of the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation (2001), 
E. B. Wilson Award of the American Society for Cell Biology (2001), Albert 
Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (2006) (shared with future Nobel 
Laureate colleagues, Greider and Szostak), and L'Oreal-UNESCO Award for 
Women in Science (2008). 



Cell biologist Elizabeth Blackburn, co-recipient 
of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or 
Medicine. (© The Nobel Foundation. Photo: 
Ulla Montan) 



Bliss, Eleanor Albert | 241 

Blackburn formalized her American citizenship in 2003. She was elected a 
Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (1993) and a member of 
the Institute of Medicine (2000), and is a fellow of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Microbiology, Royal Society 
of London, Australian Academy of Science, and American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences. She is also a member of the Genetics Society of America and American 
Society for Cell Biology (president, 1998). 

Further Resources 

University of California, San Francisco. Faculty /lab website, http://biochemistry.ucsf.edu/ 
labs/blackburn/index.php?option=com content&view=article&id= 1 &Itemid=3 

"Elizabeth H. Blackburn: Interview." http://nobelprize.org/nobel prizes/medicine/ 
laureates/2009/blackburn-interview.html. 



Bliss, Eleanor Albert 



1899 1987 
Bacteriologist 

Education: A.B., Bryn Mawr College, 1921; Sc.D., Johns Hopkins University, 
1925 

Professional Experience: fellow, medicine, Johns Hopkins University, 1925-1935, 
faculty, 1936-1952; advisor, U.S. Army Chemical Corps, 1945-1952; professor, 
biology and dean of graduate school, Bryn Mawr, 1952-1966 

Concurrent Positions: board member, University of Pennsylvania, 1954-1959 

Eleanor Bliss was an authority on the use of sulfa drugs, and her discovery of 
group F streptococcus led to the first medicine to cure strep infection. Bliss and 
her colleague, Dr. Perrin H. Long, conducted animal and then human trials for 
sulfa drugs before the first human case was cured in 1936. They presented their 
work on drug chemical therapy of bacterial infections at conferences and in jour- 
nal articles before publishing their findings in a 1939 book, Clinical and Experi- 
mental Use of Sulfanilamide, Sulfapyridine and Allied Compounds. Although 
much attention was paid to the use of sulfa drugs in treating streptococcus (espe- 
cially after the president's son, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., was successfully 
cured in late 1936), in the book they outlined a wide range of illnesses and diseases 
that could be treated with the drugs, such as gonorrhea, pneumonia, kidney infec- 
tions, and streptococcal meningitis, which previously was nearly always fatal. 



242 | Blodgett, Katharine Burr 

Even though many of these drugs have since been replaced with other medica- 
tions, Bliss's findings for therapeutic uses for sulfa drugs preceded the discovery 
of penicillin by more than a decade. 

The work of Bliss and Long was supported in part by the Chemical Foundation, 
an American organization that was racing to develop new medicines and cures 
before German or other European countries. Sulfa drugs were used extensively 
for the first time during World War II to treat the wounds of soldiers. The historical 
and scientific importance of Bliss's work as a bacteriologist, which prompted a 
decades-long revolution in pharmaceutical research, is detailed in a recent book 
by John E. Lesch, The First Miracle Drugs: How the Sulfa Drugs Transformed 
Medicine (2007). 

Bliss served on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University for 16 years, taking a 
leave of absence to work with the Chemical Corps during the war years. After the 
war, she accepted an appointment as professor of biology and dean of the graduate 
school at Bryn Mawr College. She was elected a fellow of the American Academy 
of Microbiology and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 
She was a member of several professional societies, including the American Society 
of Bacteriologists and the American Association of Immunologists. 

Further Resources 

Lesch, John E. 2007. The First Miracle Drugs: How the Sulfa Drugs Transformed Medicine. 
New York: Oxford University Press. 



Blodgett, Katharine Burr 

1897 1979 
Physicist 

Education: A.B., Bryn Mawr College, 1917; S.M., University of Chicago, 1918; 
Ph.D., physics, Cambridge University, 1926 

Professional Experience: research physicist and chemist, General Electric Com- 
pany, 1918-1924, 1926-1962 

Katharine Blodgett was a physicist most notable for her invention of nonreflecting 
glass. She developed methods for constructing and measuring the thickness of 
films, and her discovery that stacking thousands of layers of film together would 
neutralize light coming through glass was announced in 1938. Her early research 
on the ability of activated charcoal to absorb gases was important to the design 
of gas masks during World War I. Blodgett's work had applications for another 



Blodgett, Katharine Burr | 243 




Physicist Katharine B. Blodgett. (Time & Life 
Pictures/Getty Images) 



later war effort when, during World 
War II, she researched ways to de- 
ice airplane wings and developed a 
method for military weather balloons 
to measure air humidity. 

After receiving her master's 
degree, Blodgett was the first woman 
research scientist hired by General 
Electric (GE) in Schenectady, New 
York, where she worked with chemist 
Irving Langmuir. Until she received 
her Ph.D., she did not always receive 
credit on papers she co-authored with 
Langmuir, who received the Nobel 
Prize for Chemistry in 1932. Lang- 
muir did, however, thank her in his 
writings for "carrying out most of 
the experimental work." Through 
Langmuir's influence, she was encour- 
aged to pursue a doctorate and was 

able to obtain a position at Cavendish Laboratory, which resulted in her being 
the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge. 

After she completed her doctorate, she returned to GE to work with Langmuir 
on problems with tungsten filaments in lamps and efforts to improve one of GE's 
main products, light bulbs. Langmuir and Blodgett collaborated in developing a 
process of building up film layers for use in nonreflective glass and optical coat- 
ings not only for eyeglasses, but also for camera lenses, televisions, and computer 
monitors. Their discovery, which became known as Langmuir-Blodgett films, 
attracted attention outside of scientific circles because of the possible consumer 
applications and was reported in popular magazines such as Time, Look, and Life. 
Although Blodgett received early attention for her role as a woman scientist at 
GE, by 1953, an article celebrating the seventy-fifth anniversary and achievements 
of the GE laboratory did not even mention her name. 

Blodgett received recognition in the form of an Annual Achievement Award of 
the American Association of University Women (1945), a Garvan Medal of the 
American Chemical Society (1951), and the Progress Medal of the Photographic 
Society of America (1972). She also received honorary degrees from Elmira 
College (1939), Brown University (1942), Western College (1942), and Russell 
Sage College (1944). She was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society 
and was a member of the Optical Society of America. 



244 | Bonta, Marcia (Myers) 



Further Resources 



Byers, Nina and Gary A. Williams. 2006. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth- 
Century Women to Physics. New York: Cambridge University Press. 



Bonta, Marcia (Myers) 

b. 1940 
Naturalist 

Education: B.A., Bucknell University, 1962 

Professional Experience: independent naturalist and author 

Marcia Bonta is renowned as a writer on nature subjects, primarily in the state of 
Pennsylvania. She has contributed greatly to the history of nature writing with her 
books Women in the Field: America's Pioneering Women Naturalists (1991) and 
American Women Afield: Writings by Pioneering Women Naturalists (1995), studies 
of early women naturalists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when 
women scientists had fewer professional opportunities. Bonta spent much of her 
time walking and observing in the woods, and began looking for women in past 
generations who were observers of the natural world. Based on archival research 
from around the United States, she gathered together previously unavailable stories 
of these women's lives. Her first book chronicled her own family's experience of 
wilderness living, Escape to the Mountain (1980; reprinted, 2008). She has also 
written several books about her native Pennsylvania, including Outbound Journeys 
in Pennsylvania (1988; Book of the Year award from Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers 
Association), Appalachian Spring (1991), Appalachian Autumn (1994), More 
Outbound Journeys in Pennsylvania (1995), Appalachian Summer (1999), and 
Appalachian Winter (2005). She was editor of a "Series on Nature and Natural 
History" by the University of Pittsburgh Press (1990-1998). She has also published 
more than 300 articles in state and national magazines, including a long-standing 
monthly column, "Naturalist's Eye," for the Pennsylvania Game News, which she 
has written since 1993. 

Bonta considers herself a naturalist first and a writer second. She calls herself "a 
missionary for the natural world," and calls attention to the spiritual and ecological 
effects of development, inspiring people to think about nature and the outdoors as 
having more than a recreational purpose. She has been a member of the Pennsylvania 
Outdoor Writers Association and the Juniata Valley Audubon Society (vice president, 
1983-1984; president, 1984-1988). 



Boring, Alice Middleton | 245 



Further Resources 

"Marcia Bonta: Naturalist Writer." http://marciabonta.wordpress.com/. 



Boring, Alice Middleton 

1883 1955 
Zoologist 

Education: B.A., Bryn Mawr College, 1904, M.A., 1905, Ph.D., 1910 

Professional Experience: instructor, biology, Vassar College, 1907-1908; 
instructor, zoology, 1911, University of Maine, assistant professor, 1911-1913, 
associate professor, 1913-1918; assistant professor, biology, Peking Union 
Medical College, 1918-1920; professor, zoology, Wellesley College, 1920-1923; 
professor, zoology, Yenching University, 1923-1943, 1946-1950; instructor, his- 
tology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, 1943-1944; 
visiting professor, zoology, Mount Holyoke, 1945-1946; part-time professor, 
zoology, Smith College, 1951-1953 

Alice Boring was a zoologist who made significant contributions to the literature 
on the taxonomy of Chinese amphibians and reptiles, many of which at that time 
were unknown to researchers in the United States and Europe. She contributed to 
the spread of scientific knowledge by teaching Chinese students and by collecting 
data and specimens of Chinese animals. She also published several scientific 
papers in journals such as the Hong Kong Naturalist and Peking Natural History 
Bulletin. Born and educated in Pennsylvania, Boring spent a major portion of her 
career outside the United States. During her doctoral studies on insect genetics at 
Bryn Mawr, she studied at the University of Wurzburg and the Naples Zoological 
Station. She then spent about 10 years on the faculties of Vassar and the University 
of Maine, attaining the position of associate professor at the latter institution. Her 
early research involved cytology and genetics, and she seemed to be headed for a 
traditional career in academia. Between 1918 and 1950, however, Boring 
remained primarily in China, teaching biology and conducting zoological research 
at Peking Union Medical College and, later, at Peking (Yenching) University. 
During this time, she witnessed civil war, revolution, the Japanese occupation, 
World War II (involving her internment and repatriation), and the creation of a 
new socialist society in China. 

After her first two-year term in China, Boring made it her mission in life to stay 
in that country to teach. She immediately involved herself in Chinese educational 



246 | Boyd, Louise Arner 

and political causes. She was repatriated from China in 1943 after spending two 
years with British and American citizens in a concentration camp after their uni- 
versity was shut down. She held teaching posts at Columbia University's medical 
college and at Mount Holyoke, but she eagerly returned to the country she loved 
in 1946 for four additional years. She returned to the United States in 1951 when 
a family member became ill and taught briefly at Smith College. 

Further Resources 

Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey. 1991. "The 'New Look' Women and the Expansion of American 
Zoology: Nettie Maria Stevens (1861 1912) and Alice Middleton Boring (1883 
1955)." In The Expansion of American Biology, edited by Keith R. Benson et al., 
52 79. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 

Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey and Clifford J. Choquette. 1999. A Dame Full of Vim and Vigor: 
A Biography of Alice Middleton Boring, Biologist in China. Amsterdam: Harwood 
Academic Publishers. 



Boyd, Louise Arner 

1887 1972 
Geographer, Explorer 

Education: private schools 

Professional Experience: scientific explorations of polar regions 

Louise Boyd contributed to science by sponsoring and leading expeditions of scien- 
tifically trained personnel who made significant contributions to our knowledge of 
the Arctic. During World War II, she was a consultant to the U.S. War Department 
due to her experience in exploring the polar regions. Since the Danes and the Nor- 
wegians had conducted the primary polar research, her files of notes, maps, photo- 
graphs, botanical specimens, and so on were the only American sources available. 
She was a wealthy woman who first saw polar ice on a vacation with friends in 1926. 
She sponsored six additional trips to Arctic regions, primarily to east Greenland, 
where an area, Louise Boyd Land, was named after her. Although she was not a 
scientist, she provided the best equipment available to the scientists who accompa- 
nied her, and she consulted with the staff of the American Geographical Society in 
selecting both the scientists and the equipment. She trained herself to be an expert 
photographer and developed skill in collecting botanical specimens. In 1955, she 
was the first woman to fly over the North Pole, and in 1960, she became the first 
woman councilor of the American Geographical Society. 



Braun, Annette Frances | 247 

Boyd's published works included The Fiord Region of East Greenland (1935), 
which detailed the scientific results of her 1931 and 1933 trips, and The Coast of 
Northeast Greenland (1948), both published by the American Geographical Society. 
She also published Polish Countrysides (1937), which recorded her trip to Warsaw 
for the International Geographical Congress. She was a delegate to the Congress, 
representing the U.S. government and the American Geographical Society. She had 
exceptional leadership skills, which made her the only woman to achieve an 
outstanding position in Arctic exploration. She received honorary degrees in 1939 
from both the University of California and Mills College. 

Further Resources 

Olds, Elizabeth F. 1985. Women of the Four Winds: The Adventures of Four of America' s 
First Women Explorers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 



Braun, Annette Frances 

1884 1978 
Entomologist 

Education: A.B., University of Cincinnati, 1906, A.M., 1908, Ph.D., zoology, 
1911 

Professional Experience: assistant, zoology, University of Cincinnati, 1911-1916; 
private research, 1916-1978 

Annette Braun was an eminent entomologist and a leading authority on Lepidoptera, 
particularly Microlepidoptera, the order that includes butterflies and moths. She 
was the first woman granted a Ph.D. at the University of Cincinnati. After receiving 
her doctorate, she remained affiliated with the university for about five years before 
she left to engage in private research. She was considered a prominent entomol- 
ogist of her time and was elected vice president of the Entomological Society of 
America in 1926. She and her sister, Lucy Braun, who taught botany at the Univer- 
sity of Cincinnati, maintained a research garden famous for its unusual plants, and 
Annette traveled with her sister on botanical expeditions in Ohio and Kentucky. 
The Braun sisters were committed to the preservation of natural resources and local 
environments, and Annette Braun was a lifetime trustee of the Cincinnati Museum 
of Natural History, which now includes a Braun library and archives of Lucy 
Braun's manuscripts. Annette Braun's notes and an extensive collection of more 
than 5,000 slides were donated to the Smithsonian Institution, and her mounted 
collection of nearly 30,000 specimens of moths was given to the Philadelphia 
Academy of Science. 



248 | Braun, (Emma) Lucy 

Braun published numerous papers on moths for the American Entomological 
Society and other scientific journals, published four monographs and books, and 
provided detailed illustrations for her studies based on her own observations and 
use of a microscope to study insects. She continued to research and publish signifi- 
cant work well into her eighties, and died at the age of 94. 

Further Resources 

Bonta, Marcia M. 1991. Women in the Field: America's Pioneering Women Naturalists. 
College Station: Texas A&M University Press. 

Ohio State University. Obituary. https://kb.osu.edU/dspace/bitstream/1811/22633/l/ 
V079N4 189.pdf. 



Braun, (Emma) Lucy 

1889 1971 
Botanist 

Education: A.B., University of Cincinnati, 1910, A.M., geology, 1912, Ph.D., 
botany, 1914 

Professional Experience: assistant, geology, University of Cincinnati, 1910-1913, 
assistant, botany, 1914-1917, instructor, botany, 1917-1923, assistant to associate 
professor, botany, 1923-1946, professor, plant ecology, 1946-1948 

Lucy Braun was a botanist instrumental in developing the scientific discipline of 
ecology in the United States. She took early retirement from the University of 
Cincinnati only two years after achieving full professorship to devote her time 
to fieldwork, particularly in Ohio. She was often accompanied on her botanical 
field expeditions by her sister, entomologist Annette Frances Braun, work the 
sisters continued well into their eighties. In the 1920s and 1930s, Lucy Braun 
cataloged the flora of the Cincinnati area and compared it with the flora of the 
same region 100 years earlier. One of the first studies of its type in the United 
States, this provided a model for comparing changes in flora over a span of time. 
Braun's research and exhaustive cataloging of native plant life led to the preserva- 
tion of tens of thousands of acres in her native Ohio and established ecology as an 
academic discipline. Thirty years after her death, her ecological legacy is still 
honored through a summer workshop in Kentucky entitled "In the Footsteps of 
Lucy Braun," which leads participants through local forests to show the decima- 
tion caused by mining. 



Bricker, Victoria (Reifler) | 249 

Braun published hundreds of papers as well as books such as An Annotated 
Catalog of the Spermatophytes of Kentucky (1943), The Woody Plants of Ohio 
(1961; commissioned by the Ohio Academy of Science), and various studies on 
plants new to science in Ohio and Kentucky. She is best known, however, for her 
1950 book Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America, still considered an 
authoritative reference work on the subject. In it she coined the term "mixed meso- 
phytic" to describe the thick forests of the American Southeast that are made up of 
a variety of tree species, many of them ancient. In 1917, she founded the Wild- 
flower Preservation Society and served as editor of its journal, Wildftower, 
between 1928-1933. She was the first female president of both the Ohio Academy 
of Science (1933-1934) and the Ecological Society of America (1950), and was 
the first woman inducted into the Ohio Conservation Hall of Fame (1971). Among 
her awards and honors were the Mary Soper Pope Medal in botany (1952) and the 
Certificate of Merit of the Botanical Society of America (1956). 

Further Resources 

Bonta, Marcia M. 1991. Women in the Field: America's Pioneering Women Naturalists. 
College Station: Texas A&M University Press. 

Western Kentucky University. Biography, http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/chronob/ 
BRAU1889.htm. 

Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. "Forests, Firsthand: Workshops Show Richness 
Eastern Kentucky Retains, What It's Lost." http://www.ohvec.org/links/news/archive/ 
2007/fair use/06 11. html. 



Bricker, Victoria (Reifler) 

b. 1940 

Anthropologist, Ethnologist 

Education: B.A., philosophy and humanities, Stanford University, 1962; M.A., 
anthropology, Harvard University, 1963, Ph.D., anthropology, 1968 

Professional Experience: visiting lecturer, anthropology, Tulane University, 
1969-1970, assistant professor to professor, anthropology, 1970- 

Concurrent Positions: book review editor, American Anthropologist, 1971-1973; 
editor, American Ethnologist, 1973-1976 

Victoria Bricker is an ethnologist and anthropologist who specializes in comparing 
the oral tradition with the written history of Mexico. Bricker was born in Hong 



250 | Brill, Yvonne (Claeys) 

Kong and moved to the United States as a young child, eventually attending both 
Stanford and Harvard Universities. Her research and publications relate to the 
Dresden Codex and the Madrid Codex, original manuscripts that describe the 
history and culture of the Mayans. The Maya developed a type of pictogram called 
glyphs in which they recorded events on buildings, monuments, and tree bark. 
When the Spaniards conquered the Maya, they melted the gold and silver orna- 
ments, and the Spanish priests destroyed many written records, although much 
writing remained on buildings and monuments, and some of the manuscripts 
written on tree bark were saved and eventually ended up in archives in Europe. 
The Dresden Codex contains astronomical calculations, and the Madrid Codex 
contains information on astrology and divination practices. One area in which 
Bricker specializes is the astronomical records maintained by the Maya on their 
calendars. 

She has published numerous papers and journal articles, as well as books, 
including The Indian Christ, the Indian King: The Historical Substrate of Maya 
Myth and Ritual (1981) and A Grammar of Mayan Hieroglyphs (1986). Since 
1977, she has served as the general editor of Supplement to Handbook of Middle 
American Indians. Bricker was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 
1991. She is a fellow of the American Philosophical Society and a member of 
the American Anthropological Association, American Society for Ethnohistory, 
Linguistic Society of America, and Societe des Americanistes. 



Brill, Yvonne (Claeys) 



b. 1924 

Aerospace Engineer, Chemist 

Education: B.Sc, University of Manitoba, 1945; M.S., University of Southern 
California, 1951 

Professional Experience: mathematician, aircraft design, Douglas Aircraft Com- 
pany, 1945-1946; research analyst, propulsion and propellants, Rand Corporation, 
1946-1949; group leader, igniters and fuels, Marquardt Corporation, 1949-1952; 
staff engineer, combustion, United Technology Corporation, 1952-1955; project 
engineer, preliminary design, Wright Aeronautical Division of Curtiss-Wright 
Corporation, 1955-1958; consultant, propulsion and propellants, FMC Corpora- 
tion, 1958-1966; manager, propulsion, RCA Astro-Electronics, 1966-1981, staff 



Brill, Yvonne (Claeys) | 251 

engineer, preliminary design, 1983-1986; manager, solid rocket motor, National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) headquarters, 1981-1983; staff 
member and space engineer, International Maritime Satellite Organization, 
1986-1991; consultant, 1991- 

Yvonne Brill has been involved in the aerospace industry both in the United States 
and England during her entire professional career, specializing in both liquid and 
solid rocket propulsion. She developed new rocket-propulsion systems for communi- 
cation satellites; the single-propellant rocket system, the hydrazine/hydrazine 
resistojet, which she developed in 1974 and for which she holds the patent, is still 
in use today. Brill was born in Canada, but after receiving her undergraduate degree 
in mathematics, she was unable to find work in Canada and began graduate studies in 
California after accepting a position at Douglas Aircraft as a mathematician assisting 
with studies of aircraft propeller noise. She received her master's degree in 195 1 and 
held positions with several U.S. companies over the course of her career, including 
researching rocket and missile designs and propellant formulas at Rand, working as 
a staff engineer with United Technology Research Laboratory to study rocket and 
ramjet engines, and developing high-energy fuels for advanced aircraft at Curtiss- 
Wright. After the birth of her children, she worked as a part-time consultant on rocket 
propellants for FMC Corporation. 

Returning to full-time work in 1966, Brill was employed at RCA Astro- 
Electronics (now GE Astro), as a senior engineer and then manager of NOVA 
propulsion. It was at RCA that she developed a hydrazine/hydrazine resistojet 
thruster, which was a monumental advance for single-propellant rockets, enabling 
satellites to change orbits in space. In 1981, she joined NASA as a director of the 
solid rocket motor program in the Office of Space Flight (shuttle program) and 
later joined INMARSAT in London as a space segment engineer until retiring in 
1991. She performed preliminary work on the Mars Observer spacecraft that was 
launched in 1992 and tracked launch vehicle performance on the Scout, Delta, 
Atlas, and Titan spacecraft. After retirement, she served as a consultant monitoring 
propulsion system activities for orbiting communication satellites. 

Brill's many awards and honors include the RCA award for Astro-Electronics 
Engineering Excellence (1970), the Resnik Challenger Medal of the Society of 
Women Engineers (1993), and the SWE Achievement Award (1986). She is a fel- 
low of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of the Society 
of Women Engineers, is a member of the British Interplanetary Society and the 
International Astronautical Union, and was elected to the National Academy of 
Engineering in 1987 and inducted into the Women in Technology International 
(WITI) Hall of Fame in 1999. 



252 | Briscoe, Anne M. 
Briscoe, Anne M. 



b. 1918 
Biochemist 

Education: B.A., Adelphi College, 1942; A.M., Vassar College, 1945; Ph.D., 
biochemistry, Yale University, 1949 

Professional Experience: assistant chemist, University of Maine, 1942-1943; 
Vassar College, 1943-1945; physiological chemist, Yale, 1946-1947; fellow, 
University of Pennsylvania, 1949-1950; associate biochemist, medical college, 
Cornell University, 1950-1954, assistant professor, 1954-1955; research associ- 
ate, school of medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 1956; associate biochemist, 
Columbia University, 1956-1972; assistant professor of medicine, College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia, 1972-1988 

Anne Briscoe is a distinguished medical researcher and faculty member in bio- 
chemistry, with a primary emphasis on the metabolism of calcium and magnesium 
in humans. She has held positions with numerous prestigious employers, including 
the medical college of Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania School 
of Medicine, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. 
She has been active as a consultant for the Veterans Administration Hospital, 
Castle Point, New York. While her primary focus was on research, she has lectured 
in the School of General Studies of Columbia University, the School of Nursing at 
Harlem Hospital Center, and Antioch College's Physician's Assistant Program at 
Harlem Hospital Center. 

Besides her research, Briscoe has been exceptionally active as an advocate for 
women in the sciences. She was one of the founding members of the Association 
for Women in Science (AWIS) in 1971 and subsequently served as president 
(1974-1976), chair of the AWIS Affirmative Action Committee, and co-chair of 
the Committee on Equity. She has published on women, feminism, and science, 
including co-editing (with Sheila Pfafflin) a book, Expanding the Role of Women 
in the Sciences (a publication of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1979). Her 
article, "Diary of a Mad Feminist Chemist," published in the International Journal 
of Women's Studies (1981), is an account of her years as a woman scientist at Cor- 
nell and Columbia. Commenting on her role as both as scientist and a part of the 
feminist movement, she has said, "Opportunities are greater for women than when 
I received a Ph.D. in 1949, and I only regret that I was born too soon." 

Briscoe was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Chemists and a fellow 
of the New York Academy of Sciences, and served on the New York City Commis- 
sion on the Status of Women. In 1997, she received the prestigious Wilbur L. 



Britton, Elizabeth Knight | 253 

Cross Medal of the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She also has been 
a member of the American Chemical Society and the American Society for 
Clinical Nutrition. 



Britton, Elizabeth Knight 

1858 1934 
Botanist, Bryologist 

Education: Hunter College, 1875 

Professional Experience: critic teacher, Hunter College, 1875-1882, tutor, natural 
science, 1882-1885; curator of mosses, Torrey Botanical Club, 1884-1885, editor, 
Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 1886-1888; unofficial curator of mosses, 
Columbia College Herbarium, New York Botanical Garden, 1899-1912, honorary 
curator, 1912-1934 

Elizabeth Knight Britton was an early botanist and one of the founders of the New 
York Botanical Garden. She became a well-regarded amateur botanist with a special 
interest in bryology, or the study of mosses. She built a collection of mosses and ferns 
from expeditions in North America and the Caribbean. She was raised and educated 
in New York and on a family-owned sugar plantation in Cuba. Always interested in 
science, she graduated from Hunter College in 1875 and taught there for 10 years 
until her marriage in 1885 to geologist Nathaniel Britton. In collaboration with her 
husband, who also taught botany, and working through his affiliation as professor 
at Columbia College, she built a significant moss collection at Columbia. The 
Brittons did not have children and often traveled together on botanical collecting 
expeditions. After visiting the Royal Botanic Gardens in England, the couple led 
the campaign to increase public botanical awareness and knowledge through the 
creation of the New York Botanical Garden, a 250-acre garden established in the 
Bronx in 1891 with Nathaniel Britton as its first director. 

Elizabeth Britton's moss collection was eventually moved from Columbia to 
the Botanical Garden, where she was a full-time volunteer and became the honor- 
ary curator of mosses in 1912. Even though she did not hold an advanced degree, 
and did not draw a salary from either the Botanical Garden or from Columbia, she 
was regarded as an eminent botanical scientist of her day and even mentored 
graduate students in botany at Columbia. 

Britton belonged to or helped create every significant botanical club in the late 
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She was an early member of the Torrey 



254 | Brody, Jane Ellen 

Botanical Club who edited the club's Bulletin in the 1880s, and one of the founding 
(and only female) members of the Botanical Society of America in 1893. She 
co-founded the Sullivant Moss Society in 1898 (later the American Bryological 
Society), serving as president from 1916 to 1919 and also editing that group's 
journal, Bryologist. She also co-founded the Wild Flower Preservation Society of 
America in 1902, serving as secretary and treasurer for many years. She helped 
identify and preserve many species of wildflowers in the United States and auth- 
ored or co-authored more than 300 scientific papers and articles on mosses, ferns, 
and wildflowers. There are numerous plant species and one moss genus, Bryobrit- 
tonia, named in her honor. 

Further Resources 

New York Botanical Garden. "Elizabeth Gertrude Knight Britton Records." http:// 
sciweb.nybg.org/science2/libr/finding guide/egbweb.asp. 



Brody, Jane Ellen 

b. 1941 

Science Writer, Nutritionist 

Education: B.S., biochemistry, New York State College of Agriculture and Life 
Sciences at Cornell University, 1962; M.S., journalism, University of Wisconsin, 
Madison, 1963 

Professional Experience: reporter, Minneapolis Tribune, 1963-1965; science 
writer, New York Times, 1965-1976, health columnist, 1976-; independent author 
and lecturer, health and nutrition, 1979- 

Jane Brody is the author of numerous articles and books on health and nutrition 
written for the general public. She combined an undergraduate degree in biochem- 
istry with training as a journalist and science writer. She developed a special inter- 
est in nutrition and disease at an early age, for she lost both her mother and her 
grandmother to cancer while she was in her teens. She enrolled in the biochemistry 
curriculum at the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University and 
planned to become a research scientist. When she spent a summer in a research 
laboratory under a National Science Foundation fellowship at the New York State 
Agricultural Experiment Station at Geneva, New York, however, she decided lab- 
oratory research did not appeal to her as a career. In her senior year, after joining 
the staff of the Cornell Countryman, a school magazine dealing with scientific 



Brody, Jane Ellen | 255 

and agricultural research, she enrolled in a few journalism courses as electives. 
She received a science writing fellowship for a one-year graduate program in jour- 
nalism at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she received a master's 
degree in 1963. 

Brody obtained a position as a general reporter for the Minneapolis Tribune and 
worked there for two years before securing a job as a full-time science writer, special- 
izing in medicine and biology, at the New York Times. She brings a wealth of informa- 
tion to her columns, spending hours researching her subject and consulting experts in 
the field in order to present all sides of controversial subjects. In 1976, she began 
writing her "Personal Health" column for the Times. She urges her readers to adopt 
a healthy diet that features a high intake of complex carbohydrates, a moderate intake 
of proteins, and a reduction in the consumption of fat, sugar, and salt. She also 
advises some exercise daily rather than being a "weekend athlete." She warns against 
making a radical change in lifestyle. Her philosophy is one of moderation, a concept 
foreign to many Americans. She warns people that a healthy lifestyle does not mean 
one may eat a low-calorie salad and then "reward" oneself with a dessert rich in 
calories and fats. She speaks from her own experience. Although she is only five feet 
tall, in graduate school she weighed 140 pounds. She lost 40 pounds over a period of 
two years. 

Her first book to gain national attention was Jane Brody's Nutrition Book (1981), 
in which she expanded the information she had been giving in her columns. The 
companion volume, Jane Brody 's Good Food Book ( 1 985), was a bestselling collec- 
tion of her health-conscious recipes. She has also published collections of recipes for 
children and seafood recipes, and has published books on topics such as allergies and 
cancer, all of which promote healing primarily through a healthful diet. Her book 
Jane Brody's Guide to the Great Beyond (2009) deals with preparing medically and 
emotionally for end-of-life issues. She has been a television personality, including 
10 episodes of her own show, Good Health from Jane Brody's Kitchen, which ran 
on PBS in the mid-1980s. 

Brody has received honorary doctorates from Princeton University (1987) and 
Hamline University (1993). She is also the recipient of honors and awards from 
the American Heart Association (1971), a science writers' award from the American 
Dental Association (1978), and a lifetime award from the American Health Founda- 
tion (1978). 

Further Resources 

Jane Brody. http://www.janebrody.net/. 

"Jane E. Brody: Recent and Archived News Articles by Jane E. Brody." http:// 
topics. nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/b/jane e brody /index. html. 



256 | Brooks, Carolyn (Branch) 
Brooks, Carolyn (Branch) 



b. 1946 
Microbiologist 

Education: B.S., Tuskegee University, 1968, M.S., 1971; Ph.D., Ohio State 
University, 1977 

Professional Experience: science teacher, Union Springs, Alabama, 1968-1969; 
science teacher, Tuskegee, Alabama, 1971-1972; technician, Veteran's Hospital, 
Tuskegee, Alabama, 1972-1973; teaching assistant, Ohio State University, 
1975-1977; researcher and program director, community health studies, Kentucky 
State University, 1977-1981; professor, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, 
1981- 

Concurrent Positions: dean and director, School of Agricultural and Natural 
Sciences, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore 

Carolyn Brooks is a microbiologist who researches legumes in efforts to increase 
the nutritional value of such crops in developing countries. Legumes such as soy- 
beans, peas, and beans enrich the soil and require little or no fertilizer, and Brooks 
has visited several West African countries to study a legume called the groundnut 
in order to help researchers in those countries increase the food value of that plant. 
Another area of her research is the creation of crop plant species that have built-in 
resistance to insects and other predators. 

Brooks was born in Richmond, Virginia, and attended public school before full 
integration took place. Fortunately, she had teachers who realized that the changing 
social climate would bring more opportunities for educated African Americans, 
and they encouraged her to do well and to attend special summer sessions for 
science students. Brooks ultimately received offers of scholarships from six differ- 
ent colleges. She chose Tuskegee Institute, which had a strong science program, for 
both her undergraduate and master's degrees before enrolling at Ohio State for her 
doctorate. She gave birth to three children while pursuing her education. Her first 
position after graduation was at Kentucky State University in a community health 
studies program that combined the resources of the university and statewide social 
services to improve the lives of rural residents. In her work on nutritional needs of 
the elderly, she found that the subjects' hair indicated the amount of mineral intake 
in their diets, which meant that certain medical problems caused by improper diet 
could be diagnosed. 

In 1981, she moved to the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, where she 
is committed to both research and teaching and mentoring students and has served 
as Dean of the School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences. In 1988, she was 



Brooks, Matilda Moldenhauer | 257 

recognized for her teaching at the first annual White House Initiative on Historically 
Black Colleges and Universities, and in 1990, she received an Outstanding Educator 
Award from the Maryland Association of Higher Education. 



Brooks, Matilda Moldenhauer 



b. 1890 
Physiologist 

Education: A.B., University of Pittsburgh, 1912, M.S., 1913; Ph.D., biology, Rad- 
cliffe College, Harvard, 1920 

Professional Experience: bacteriologist, research institute, National Dental 
Association, 1917-1920; assistant biologist, U.S. Public Health Service, 1920- 
1924, associate biologist, 1924-1927; research associate in physiology, University 
of California, Berkeley, 1927-, lecturer, zoology, 1934, 1936 

Matilda Brooks was recognized for developing an antidote or treatment for cyanide 
and carbon dioxide poisoning. She accomplished this in 1932 while working 
as an unpaid research assistant at the University of California, Berkeley. After 
spending about six years with the U.S. Public Health Service, she and her husband, 
zoologist Sumner Cushing Brooks, moved to Berkeley, where she held a position 
as a research associate in physiology. Her husband held a faculty appointment at 
Berkeley (which, due to anti-nepotism rules, meant she could not be employed 
there) and, although she periodically substituted for her husband as a zoology lec- 
turer, she was one of the few early women scientists without a regular teaching 
appointment who was therefore able to devote her entire career to research. Her 
work was supported by numerous distinguished grants, such as the Bache grant 
of the National Academy of Science, the Naples research grant of the National 
Research Council, the Permanent Science Foundation grant, and the American 
Philosophical Society grant. She took early courses at, and was a member of, the 
Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, an honor that few 
women had enjoyed at that time. She and her husband regularly spent summers 
at Woods Hole conducting research. The Brooks not only researched together as 
a team, but jointly published articles and a book on The Permeability of Living 
Cells (1941). The couple also frequently lectured together, including an 
international lecture tour that took them to several South American countries 
in 1944. 



258 | Broome, Claire Veronica 

Brooks was a member of several professional societies, including the American 
Physiological Society, Society of General Physiologists, and Cooper Ornithological 
Society. Although her long-term research had involved cell respiration and oxida- 
tion, her later research interests included the effects of solar light and ultraviolet 
light on sugar production and the four basic acids. 

Further Resources 

"Sumner Cushing Brooks: Zoology: Berkeley (1888 1948)." http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/ 
view?docld=hb9p300969&doc.view=content&chunk.id=div00002&toc. depth 
= 1 &brand=calisphere&anchor.id=0. 



Broome, Claire Veronica 

b. 1949 

Epidemiologist, Physician 

Education: B.A., Harvard University, 1970; M.D., Harvard Medical School, 
1975; diplomate, American Board of Internal Medicine, 1981 

Professional Experience: deputy chief in pathogens, Bacterial Disease Division, 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1979-1980, chief, Bacterial Special 
Pathogens, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCID), 198 1— 
1990, acting director, 1991-1993, deputy director, 1994-1999, senior advisor, 
Integrated Health Information Systems, 2000-2006 

Concurrent Positions: clinical assistant, School of Medicine, Emory University; 
adjunct professor, Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, 
Emory University 

Claire Broome has performed significant research on bacterial disease epidemiol- 
ogy, including the public health aspects of pneumonia, meningitis, toxic shock 
syndrome, and Legionnaires' disease. Born in England, she immigrated to the 
United States with her family in 1951. After completing her education, she joined 
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1979 and has remained there 
ever since. One of her significant achievements is her novel approach to estimating 
the effectiveness of a pneumococcal vaccine by comparing the distribution of ster- 
eotypes (organisms distinguished by different surface antigens) in vaccinated and 
unvaccinated persons who have had the disease. Her method has proved essential 
in defining the appropriate use of the vaccine in the United States. 

Another area of study has been the incidence of cerebrospinal meningitis 
epidemics. Meningitis is comparatively rare in the United States and other 



Brothers, Joyce Diane (Bauer) | 259 

industrialized countries (the last epidemic in the United States was in the 1940s), 
but the disease still reaches epidemic levels in underdeveloped countries. In an 
article published in Scientific American in November 1994, Broome reported that 
people living in central Africa are uniquely susceptible to repeated outbreaks of 
meningitis. The cycles of epidemics may correspond to environmental changes 
with heat and humidity, unusual patterns of immunity, or association with still 
other infectious diseases. The bacterium causing meningococcal meningitis is 
called Neisseria meningitidis, or "meningococcus." It is a very common organism 
that many people carry without being infected. 

Broome has served as an advisor for numerous national and international organ- 
izations, including the World Health Organization, Global Alliance for Vaccines 
and Immunization, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, U.S. Food and 
Drug Administration, and National Institutes of Health. She was elected to the 
Institute of Medicine (1996) and is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of 
America and a member of the American Epidemiology Society, American College 
of Physicians, American Society for Microbiology, and American College of 
Epidemiology. 



Brothers, Joyce Diane (Bauer) 

b. 1929 
Psychologist 

Education: B.S., psychology, Cornell University, 1947; M.A., Columbia University, 
1950, Ph.D., psychology, 1953 

Professional Experience: teaching fellow, Hunter College, 1948-1950, instruc- 
tor, 1950-1952, research fellow, 1952-1953; independent psychologist and writer, 
1952-; television and radio personality, 1958-; columnist, Good Housekeeping, 
1963- 

Joyce Diane Brothers is a psychologist who has been a popular writer, as well as 
television and radio personality, and who pioneered the idea of phone-in advice 
on emotional and relationship issues. She first conducted her own local New York 
radio show in 1958, and was subsequently offered an afternoon talk show on NBC 
television. She became an instant celebrity through The Dr. Joyce Brothers Show 
and other syndicated programs that aired over the next two decades. She took live 
phone calls and responded to letters from viewers, pioneering the idea of short- 
term counseling and advice on oftentimes controversial issues related to sex, mar- 
riage, and parenting. She went on to write a syndicated advice column that ran in 



260 | Brothers, Joyce Diane (Bauer) 




more than 300 newspapers and has 
written a monthly column family life 
in Good Housekeeping magazine for 
more than 40 years. She has also writ- 
ten numerous books and made guest 
appearances playing herself, a well- 
recognizable and honest psychologi- 
cal expert, in television comedies, 
dramas, talk shows, and feature films. 
Brothers's television career began 
on a somewhat unusual path — as a 
game show contestant. After receiving 
her doctorate from Columbia Univer- 
sity in 1953, Brothers put her teaching 
and counseling career on hold to stay 
home with her young daughter. Her 
husband was still in medical school at 
the time and, hoping to win some extra 
money, Brothers studied for an appear- 
ance on a television quiz show, The 
$64,000 Question, in 1955. She won 
the top prize and went on to the next 
level in The $64,000 Challenge in 1957, winning again. In addition to the much- 
needed money, Brothers gained the attention of broadcast executives as a personable, 
energetic, and intelligent contestant, and was offered other television appearances, 
including an early stint as a co-host of a sports show. Her radio show soon followed, 
and then a national television show. Critics within the psychiatric profession 
charged that she could not provide real therapy or treat mental illness in the radio 
and television formats, but Brothers countered that she provided practical 
solutions to common problems and, when necessary, advised callers to seek addi- 
tional help from mental-health professionals. 

Many of Brothers's books have been bestsellers, and her works have been trans- 
lated into more than 20 languages. Her books include: The Brothers System for 
Liberated Love and Marriage (1975), How to Get Whatever You Want Out of Life 
(1978), What Women Should Know about Men (1982), What Every Woman Ought 
to Know about Love and Marriage (1988), The Successful Woman: How You Can 
Have a Career, a Husband, and a Family — And Not Feel Guilty about It (1989), 
Widowed (1992, published after the death of her husband of almost 40 years), Pos- 
itive Plus: The Practical Plan to Liking Yourself Better (1994), Dr. Brothers' 
Guide to Your Emotions (1996), and Middle Childhood: Practical Tips to Develop 



Psychologist Joyce Brothers hosted popular 
radio and television advice programs. (AP/ 
Wide World Photos) 



Brown, Barbara B. | 261 

Greater Peace and Cooperation for Parents of Children Ages 7-12 (1997). She has 
received honorary degrees, and her awards and honors include the Mennen Baby 
Foundation Award (1959), Newhouse Newspaper Award (1959), Woman of 
Achievement Award from the Federation of Jewish Women's Organizations 
(1964), Merit Award from Bar-Ilan University (1968), Parkinson Disease Founda- 
tion Award (1971), and numerous other acknowledgements. 



Brown, Barbara B. 

1917 1999 

Neurophysiologist, Pharmacologist 

Education: B.A., Ohio State University, 1938; Ph.D., pharmacology, University 
of Cincinnati College of Medicine, 1950 

Professional Experience: head, Division of Pharmacology, William S. Merrell 
Company, 1953-1957; research neuropharmacologist, Riker Labs, Inc., 1957-1962; 
consulting neurophysiologist, Veterans Administration Hospital, Sepulveda, 
California, 1963-1965; associate professor, pharmacology, University of California, 
Irvine, 1965-1973; chief, experimental physiology, Veterans Administration 
Hospital, Sepulveda, California, 1967- 

Concurrent Positions: pharmacologist, Center for Health Science, University of 
California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 1957-1962; lecturer, psychiatry, UCLA Medical 
School, 1973 

Barbara Brown helped create the science of biofeedback, a method of learning to 
control one's bodily functions by monitoring one's own brain waves, blood pres- 
sure, degree of muscle tension, and so forth. In the 1970s, she found that the brain 
emits at least four distinct kinds of waves, depending on its activity at the time. 
These are delta, the sleep pattern; theta, linked to creativity; beta, connected with 
mental concentration; and alpha, reflecting a relaxed state. The brain's constant 
electrical activity produces wave patterns, and these patterns can be measured 
and recorded using an electroencephalograph (EEG) attached to the scalp. Brown 
hypothesized that if people could connect physical sensations with each emission, 
they could perhaps learn to achieve the various states at will. 

Not only did she discover biofeedback, Brown made innovative applications of 
its findings to human health. She also invented two tools to make alpha waves 
more vivid and memorable to patients and research subjects — the Alpha train 
and the Alpha wave racetrack. The Alpha train records the signals that reveal brain 
or body activity by starting when the alpha waves appear in a subject and stopping 



262 | Brown, Rachel Fuller 

when they disappear. The Alpha wave racetrack consisted of a racecar set operated 
by brain waves. Two people can be wired up at once and race their cars against 
each other, competing for alpha wave control. 

After receiving her doctorate, Brown was employed as a pharmacologist with two 
corporations, William S. Merrell Company and Riker Labs, Inc. She then was 
appointed an associate professor of pharmacology at the University of California, 
Irvine for several years before securing an overlapping position as the chief physi- 
ologist at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Sepulveda, California. In addition 
to numerous papers, she published three books on biofeedback: New Mind, New 
Body: Bio-Feedback, New Directions for the Mind (1974), Stress and the Art of Bio- 
feedback (1977), and Supermind, the Ultimate Energy (1980). She was a founding 
member and first president (1969-1970) of the Biofeedback Research Society. 



Brown, Rachel Fuller 

1898 1980 
Biochemist 

Education: A.B., Mount Holyoke College, 1920; M.S., University of Chicago, 
1921, Ph.D., chemistry, 1933 

Professional Experience: teacher, private school, 1921-1924; assistant chemist, 
New York State Department of Health, 1926-1929, assistant biochemist, 1929-1936, 
senior biochemist, 1936-1951, associate biochemist, 1951-1964, research scientist, 
1964- 

Rachel Brown was responsible (along with her colleague Elizabeth Hazen) for 
one of the most important medical discoveries of the century: the development 
of the antibiotic fungicide, nystatin. Brown spent her entire career at the division 
of laboratories and research of the New York State Department of Health, where 
she worked with Hazen, a microbiologist, isolating antibiotics from soil organisms 
and testing their antifungal properties on mice. The two women produced two dif- 
ferent fungicides, but announced the most successful, nystatin (named for their lab 
in New York State), in the fall of 1950. In the 1920s and 1930s, doctors began 
regularly prescribing powerful new antibiotics, but many patients developed 
severe side effects, including yeast and fungus growth. Nystatin, however, killed 
the harmful fungus without attacking common or helpful bacteria. Nystatin (under 
the brand name Mycostatin) has been used to treat yeast and fungal infections in 
humans, as well as to combat mold in animal feed and even in water-damaged 
paper products and artwork. The patent on the drug earned millions in royalties, 



Brugge, Joan S. | 263 

which Brown and Hazen used to form a foundation for scholarships and research 
in the natural sciences. A portion was designated to provide advanced training 
for the staff at the state laboratory where they worked. Later, the two women dis- 
covered two other new antibiotics, phalamycin and capacidin. 

Brown originally intended to study history, but became interested in chemistry 
while attending Mount Holyoke College, where she was inspired by chemistry 
professor Emma Perry Carr. Brown went on to the University of Chicago for 
graduate work. She received her master's in 1921 but, for some reason, approval 
of her doctoral thesis and scheduling of her oral exams was initially delayed. 
Needing employment, she moved to Albany, New York, for a position with the 
State Department of Health without completing the degree. After proving herself 
and achieving some recognition as a scientist in that position, her professor at 
Chicago finally approved the thesis and she received her Ph.D. in 1933. Before 
her work leading to the development of nystatin, Brown researched bacteria 
responsible for pneumonia and helped develop a pneumonia vaccine. 

Brown and Hazen were jointly awarded the Squibb Award in Chemotherapy 
(1955), the Distinguished Service Award of the New York State Department of 
Health (1968), and the Benham Award of the Medical Mycological Society of 
the Americas (1972). They were the first women awarded the Chemical Pioneer 
Award from the American Institute of Chemists (1975). In an interview toward 
the end of her life, Brown was quoted as saying that she hoped for "equal opportu- 
nities and accomplishments for all scientists regardless of sex." In 1981, a year 
after Brown's death, a joint biography of Brown and Hazen was published, The 
Fungus Fighters: Two Women Scientists and Their Discovery. In 1994, Brown 
was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, one of only a handful 
of women. 

Further Resources 

Baldwin, Richard S. 1981. The Fungus Fighters: Two Women Scientists and Their Discovery. 
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 



Brugge, Joan S. 

Cell Biologist, Cancer Researcher 

Education: B.A., biology, 1971 Northwestern University, 1971; Ph.D., virology, 
Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, 1975 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, University of Colorado Medical 
Center, 1975-1979; assistant professor, microbiology, State University of New York 



264 | Brugge, Joan S. 




Cell biologist and cancer researcher, Joan Brugge. (Courtesy of Harvard University) 



at Stony Brook, 1979-1984, associate professor, 1984-1987, professor, 1988; inves- 
tigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and professor, microbiology, University 
of Pennsylvania, 1989-1992; scientific director, and senior vice president, Research 
and Biology, ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 1992-1996, senior vice president, 
Exploratory Research, 1996-1997; professor, cell biology, Harvard Medical School, 
1997-, acting chair, Department of Cell Biology, 2003, chair, 2004- 

Joan Brugge is a cell biologist whose research focuses on the growth of cells, tis- 
sues, and tumors related to understanding breast cancer. After receiving her doc- 
torate in virology from Baylor College of Medicine in 1975, Brugge held 
postdoctoral fellowships from the National Institutes of Health and the American 
Cancer Society to study at the University of Colorado Medical Center, where she 
isolated proteins in viral and cellular oncogenes and investigated normal cellular 
growth as well as tumor formations. She went on to teach microbiology and cell 
biology at State University of New York and at the University of Pennsylvania, 
but she left academia in 1992 to found ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, a drug develop- 
ment company researching new treatments for cancer and other diseases caused 
by cellular malformation, such as cystic fibrosis, asthma, and some allergies. She 
returned to teaching as professor of cell biology at Harvard Medical School in 
1997 and became chair of that department in 2004. 



Buck, Linda B. | 265 

Brugge has been an invited lecturer at numerous universities, conferences, and 
organizations, and has served as an advisor, consultant, or board member for pharma- 
ceutical companies and research institutes, including the Howard Hughes Medical 
Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology Cancer Center, National Cancer Institute, Fox Chase Cancer Center, 
Van Andel Cancer Institute, and advisory committees and review panels for the 
National Institutes of Health and National Academies of Science. In 2009, she 
received a grant through the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for her continued 
work on cellular formation, migration, and abnormalities resulting in tumors. 

Brugge was elected to both the National Academy of Science and the Institute 
of Medicine in 2001, and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sci- 
ences. She has received numerous awards and honors, including a National Cancer 
Institute Merit Award, American Cancer Society Research Professorship (2001), 
Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Foundation Award (2001), Senior Career Recognition 
Award from the American Society of Cell Biology (2001), Distinguished Alumnus 
Award from the Baylor College of Medicine (2003), National Cancer Institute 
Rosalind Franklin Award (2005), and Charlotte Friend Award of the American 
Association for Cancer Research (2005). 

Further Resources 

Harvard Medical School. Faculty website, http://brugge.med.harvard.edu/. 



Buck, Linda B. 

b. 1947 
Biologist 

Education: B.S., psychology and microbiology, University of Washington, 
Seattle, 1975; Ph.D. immunology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical 
Center, 1980 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, neurobiology and molecular biology, 
Columbia University, New York, 1980-1984; associate, Howard Hughes Medical 
Institute, 1984-1991; assistant professor, neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, 
1991-1996; associate professor, 1996-2001, professor, 2001-2002; full member, 
Division of Basic Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and affiliate 
professor, physiology and biophysics, University of Washington, Seattle, 2003- 

Concurrent Positions: assistant investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 
1994-1997, associate investigator, 1997-2000, full investigator, 2001- 



266 | Buck, Linda B. 




Linda Buck was co-recipient of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her 
research on the sense of smell. (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/Roland Morgan) 



Linda Buck is a biologist who studies the mammalian olfactory system, or sense of 
smell. She was the co-recipient (with colleague Richard Axel) of the Nobel Prize 
in Physiology or Medicine in 2004, one of only eight American women to win in 
that category to date. Buck has investigated how the nose detects an incredible 
variety of odors and pheromones and how the brain interprets and acts upon these 
messages. In the early 1990s, Buck and Axel identified and cloned 1,000 different 
genes for odorant receptors in the nose, and their research eventually revealed 
differences between different groups of these receptors for different types of tastes 
(pheromones, bitter, sweet). She has also researched how odors impact the release 
of hormones related to reproduction and sexual behaviors. Buck received her doc- 
torate in immunology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center 
in 1980 and began working with Richard Axel as a postdoctoral researcher at 
Columbia University. She went on to teach neurobiology at Harvard Medical 
School for 10 years and then returned to the University of Washington (where 
she had received her undergraduate degree) as affiliate professor of physiology 



Buikstra, Jane Ellen | 267 

and biophysics. She has also held research investigator positions at the Fred 
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes. 
Buck was elected to the National Academy of Science in 2003 and the Institutes 
of Medicine in 2006. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has been 
Director's Lecturer at the National Institutes of Health (1999) and Ulf von Euler 
Lecturer at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden (1999). Her numerous other awards 
and honors preceding her 2004 Nobel Prize included the Takasago Award for 
Research in Olfaction (1992), Unilever Science Award (1996), R. H. Wright 
Award in Olfactory Research (1996), Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished 
Work in Basic Medical Research (1997), Perl/UNC Neuroscience Prize (2003), 
and Gairdner Foundation International Award (2003). 

Further Resources 

Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "Linda B. Buck, Ph.D." http://www.hhmi.org/research/ 
investigators/buck bio. html. 

University of Washington. Faculty website, http://depts.washington.edu/pbiopage/ 
people fac page.php?fac ID=5. 



Buikstra, Jane Ellen 

b. 1945 

Anthropologist, Archaeologist 

Education: B.A., DePauw University, 1967; M.A., University of Chicago, 1969, 
Ph.D., anthropology, 1972 

Professional Experience: instructor, Northwestern University, 1970-1972, assis- 
tant to associate professor, 1972-1984, professor, 1982-1986; professor, Univer- 
sity of Chicago, 1986-1995; professor, University of New Mexico, 1995-2005; 
professor, Bioarchaeology and Director, Center for Bioarchaeological Research, 
Arizona State University, 2005- 

Concurrent Positions: associate editor, American Journal of Physical Anthropol- 
ogy, 1978-1981; research associate, Field Museum of Natural History, 1981—; 
research associate, Museum of the American Indian, 1983-1986; resident scholar, 
School of American Research, 1984-1985; adjunct professor of anthropology, 
Washington University, 1986-; research associate, University of Florida, 1991— 
1997; research associate, University of Chicago, 1995-present; research associate 




268 | Buikstra, Jane Ellen 

in anthropology, Field Museum of 
Natural History, 2003-2008; research 
associate, National Museum of Natu- 
ral History, 2005-2009 

Jane Buikstra is renowned for her 
research on prehistoric skeletal popu- 
lations of the Americas, which empha- 
sizes microevolutionary change and 
biological response to environmental 
stress. She is considered one of the 
founders of bioarchaeology, or the 
application of biological anthropologi- 
cal methods such as studying vital 
rates, population distribution, genetics, 
disease, and population density to 
the archaeological records of extinct 
human groups. This is a composite field 
involving forensic anthropology, physi- 
Anthropologist and archaeologist, Jane cal anthropology, archaeology, and 

Buikstra. (Courtesy of the University of demography. Buikstra has conducted 

Arizona) research at mounds and other historical 

sites throughout North America, South 
America, and various Mediterranean countries, and has contributed archaeological 
evidence to studies of the spread of populations and of human diseases. 

Under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act 
(NAGPRA), artifacts or remains that are encountered in construction projects or 
archaeological digs must be examined by trained archaeologists before a decision 
can be made regarding their disposal or other claims, and efforts must be made to 
return such items to descendants. Buikstra's work focuses on the scientific and ethi- 
cal issues involved in such work. Among her numerous articles and publications, 
she is co-editor or co-author of the following books: Human Identification: Case 
Studies in Forensic Anthropology (1984), Standards for Data Collection from 
Human Skeletal Remains (1994), The Bioarchaeology of Tuberculosis: A Global 
View on a Reemerging Disease (2003), Interacting with the Dead: Perspectives on 
Mortuary Archaeology for the New Millennium (2005), and Bioarchaeology: The 
Contextual Study of Human Remains (2006). 

Her research has been supported by grants from the National Science Founda- 
tion, National Geographic Society, and Wenner-Gren Foundation. Buikstra was 
elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1987. She has been 



Bunce, Elizabeth Thompson | 269 

a fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science, and the Smithsonian Institution, and a 
member of the American Anthropological Association, American Association 
for Physical Anthropologists (president, 1985-1987), American Board of Forensic 
Anthropology, and Society of Professional Archaeologists. 

Further Resources 

Arizona State University. Faculty website, http://www.asu.edu/clas/shesc/faculty/ 
buikstraj .htm?Name. 



Bunce, Elizabeth Thompson 



1915 2003 
Geophysicist 

Education: A.B., Smith College, 1937, M.A., physics, 1949 

Professional Experience: instructor, physics, Smith College, 1949-1951; 
research assistant, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1951-1964, associate 
scientist, physics and geophysics, 1964-1975, senior scientist, 1975-1980, emeritus 
scientist 

Elizabeth Bunce was the first American woman to become chief scientist of a 
major oceanographic expedition at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She 
was a geophysicist whose research interests included marine seismology and 
underwater acoustics through study of the seafloor. As chief scientist, she led 
numerous expeditions out to sea, including cruises to the Indian Ocean in 1964 
and 1971 surveying sites for scientific deep-sea drilling. In 1965, she was the first 
woman to dive in "Alvin," a deep-sea submersible vehicle. When she began her 
career, few women were engaged in oceanographic exploration at all, but Bunce 
broke those barriers by progressing from research assistant to senior scientist at 
Woods Hole and achieving many "firsts" as a woman. In addition to her research, 
she was the first woman to serve as a department chair at Woods Hole, in the 
department of Geology and Geophysics. In the early 1960s, she appeared on the 
television game show, To Tell the Truth, where contestants failed to identify her 
as the oceanographer on the panel. In 1995, she was honored at a special "Woman 
Pioneers in Oceanography" conference held at Woods Hole. 

Bunce loved sports and studied physical education in college. She worked as a 
physical education teacher in New Jersey for four years before a summer visit to 



270 | Bunting (Smith), Mary Ingraham 

Woods Hole in 1944 led to a job with the underwater explosives research group. 
Bunce's interest in science was piqued and she returned to Smith College to pursue 
graduate work in and then teach physics while working summers at Woods Hole, 
where she joined the staff full-time in 1952 and spent the remainder of her long 
career. She authored or co-authored numerous papers on marine geophysics and 
was honored in 2003, the year of her death, with the naming of the "Bunce Fault" 
located in the deepest trench of the Atlantic Ocean. 

Bunce received an honorary doctorate from Smith College in 1971. She was a 
fellow of the Geological Society of America, and a member of the Society of 
Exploration Geophysics, the American Geophysical Union, and the American 
Association of Petroleum Geologists. 

Further Resources 

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution "In Memoriam: Elizabeth T. Bunce." http://www 
.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=10934&tid=282&cid=730&ct=163. 



Bunting (Smith), Mary Ingraham 

1910 1998 
Microbiologist 

Education: A.B., Vassar College, 1931; A.M., University of Wisconsin, 1932, 
Ph.D., agricultural bacteriology, 1934 

Professional Experience: assistant agricultural bacteriologist and agricultural chem- 
ist, University of Wisconsin, 1933-1935; faculty, biology, Bennington College, 
1935-1937; instructor, physiology and hygiene, Goucher College, 1937-1938; 
research fellow, Yale University, 1938-1941; fellow, Wellesley College, 1946- 
1947; research assistant, Yale University, 1948-1952, lecturer, microbiology, 1952- 
1955; dean, Douglass College of Rutgers University, 1955-1960; president, Radcliffe 
College, 1960-1972; assistant to president, Princeton University, 1972-1975 

Concurrent Positions: commissioner, Atomic Energy Commission, 1964-1965; 
member, national science board of the National Science Foundation, 1965-1970 

Mary Bunting (Smith) was a renowned scientist as well as an influential president of 
Radcliffe College who helped integrate women into Harvard University in the 1960s. 
She had received her graduate degrees in agricultural bacteriology at the University 
of Wisconsin, Madison, and went on to teach microbiology, genetics, and physiology 
at several schools, including Bennington College, Goucher College, Yale University, 
and Wellesley. Even as she raised four children and ran the family farm after her 



Bunting (Smith), Mary Ingraham | 271 



husband's early death, she continued 
her bacteriology research part-time at 
Yale before accepting a position in 
1955 as dean of Douglass College in 
New Jersey, the women's school at 
Rutgers University. Her interest and 
experience working with female 
students led to the position in 1960 
as president of Radcliffe College in 
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Bunting 
continued her scientific studies with 
a one-year leave from Radcliffe to 
consult for the U.S. Atomic Energy 
Commission. She was at Radcliffe 
for more than a decade, then held an 
administrative position at Princeton 
University for three years before retir- 
ing in 1975. 

Bunting was featured on the cover 
of Time magazine in November 1961 
because of her effort to integrate 
women into Harvard and raise the 
expectations of women for their own 
educations. Radcliffe College had 

been founded in 1879 as the women's annex at Harvard University. In 1963, under 
Bunting's tenure, Radcliffe students were the first women to receive joint degrees 
from Harvard and women were admitted for the first time to Harvard graduate 
and business schools. She helped reorganize Radcliffe as a top-notch research 
center for women scholars (including inviting part-time and married researchers) 
with the founding of the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study, later renamed 
the Bunting Institute. 

Bunting was awarded the National Institute of Social Scientists Gold Medal in 
1962, was elected to the National Science Board of the National Science Founda- 
tion, and received numerous honorary degrees. She was a member of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Society for Microbiology. She 
was known to many as "Polly" and is identified in some sources by her later name, 
Bunting-Smith. 




Microbiologist Mary Ingraham Bunting served 
as president of Radcliffe College in the 1960s 
and helped fully integrate women into Harvard 
University. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Further Resources 

Yaffe, Elaine. 2005. Mary Ingraham Bunting: Her Two Lives. Savannah, GA: Frederic C. Beil. 



272 | Burbidge, (Eleanor) Margaret 



Harvard. Obituary. http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/01.29/MaryBunting 
-Smi.html. 

"Education: One Woman, Two Lives." Time. (3 November 1961). http://205.188.238.109/ 
time/magazine/article/0,9 1 7 1 ,897907- 1 ,00.html. 



Burbidge, (Eleanor) Margaret 



b. 1919 

Astrophysicist, Astronomer 

Education: B.Sc, University of London, 1939, Ph.D., astrophysics, 1943 

Professional Experience: acting director, University of London Observatory, 
1943-1951; research associate, astronomy, Yerkes Observatory, 1951-1953; 
research fellow, astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, 1955-1957; 
Shirley Farr fellow in astronomy, Yerkes Observatory, 1957-1959; associate pro- 
fessor, University of Chicago, 1959-1962; associate research professor, University 
of California, San Diego, 1962-1964, professor, 1964-1990, director, Center for 
Astrophysics and Space Science, 1979-1988, emeritus professor, 1990- 

Concurrent Positions: director, Royal Greenwich Observatory, 1972-1973 

Margaret Burbidge is considered one of the premier woman astrophysicists of the 
twentieth century. Burbidge and her husband, Geoffrey Burbidge, are both astron- 
omers and divided their time between the United States and England for a number 
of years before becoming U.S. citizens in 1977. Margaret Burbidge was interested 
in science at an early age due to the influence of her father, a chemistry professor, 
and her mother, who had also studied chemistry. Early on, Burbidge became inter- 
ested in the origin of chemical elements and the chemical composition of stars. 
Although some astronomers thought all elements had been created when the uni- 
verse was born, the Burbidges were among those who believed that elements are 
constantly being made inside stars. In England, the couple worked with astrono- 
mer Fred Hoyle and nuclear physicist William Fowler to refine Hoyle's theory that 
elements are created by fusion reactions. They called the theory "the B2HF 
theory," based on the initials of the four participants. When the couple returned 
to the United States in 1955, Margaret had hoped to obtain a fellowship to work 
at Mt. Wilson Observatory, but only male applicants were accepted. Geoffrey 
received the fellowship, and Margaret shared his access to the observatory. In 
1959, the couple received the Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society 
for a paper on the B2HF theory; Margaret remains, to date, the only woman to 
have received this prize for young astronomers. 



Butler, Margaret K. | 273 

Geoffrey Burbidge was offered an associate professorship at the University of 
Chicago, which operates the Yerkes Observatory, but because of anti-nepotism 
rules, Margaret was first given only a research fellowship; later, she became an 
associate professor. When she was invited to be director of the Royal Greenwich 
Observatory, her husband was offered a position there as an astronomer. The two 
were offered positions at the University of California, San Diego in 1962, where 
Margaret was appointed professor of astronomy. In the 1970s, Margaret served 
on the Space Science Board, which advises the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA) on programs in space. As director of the Center for Astro- 
physics and Space Science at San Diego, Burbidge was assigned to oversee the 
faint object spectrograph for the Hubble telescope, which was launched in 1990. 

Burbidge was the first woman to serve as director of the Royal Greenwich 
Observatory in England (1972-1973) and the first woman president of the Ameri- 
can Astronomical Society (1976-1978). She was elected to membership in the 
National Academy of Sciences in 1978. In addition to numerous papers and 
articles, the couple published one book, Quasi-stellar Objects (1967). She has 
received several honorary degrees and awards, including the Warner Prize 
(1959), the Bruce Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (1982), the 
National Medal of Science (1985), and the Albert Einstein World Award of Sci- 
ence Medal (1988). She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
(president, 1982). She is also a member of the American Astronomical Society, 
International Astronomical Union, American Philosophical Society, and New 
York Academy of Sciences. In 2001, Margaret Burbidge received the UCSD 
Founders Distinguished Senior Scholar Award, and in 2005, the Royal Astronomical 
Society of England jointly awarded the couple its highest honor, the Gold Medal, 
for their lifetime achievements as scientists. Some sources use her first name or 
initial, as in Eleanor Margaret Burbidge or E. Margaret Burbidge; some sources 
have been found to list her name in error as Burbridge. 

Further Resources 

Byers, Nina and Gary A. Williams. 2006. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth- 
Century Women to Physics. New York: Cambridge University Press. 



Butler, Margaret K. 



b. 1924 

Mathematician, Computer Scientist 

Education: B.A., Indiana University, 1944 



274 | Butler, Margaret K. 

Professional Experience: statistician, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1945- 
1946 and U.S. Air Force in Europe, 1946-1948; mathematician, Argonne National 
Laboratory, 1948-1949; statistician, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1949-1951; 
mathematician, National Energy Software Center, Argonne National Laboratory, 
1951-1980, director, 1960-1993, senior computer scientist, 1980-1993 

Margaret Butler helped to develop one of the first digital computers for science as 
a staff mathematician at Argonne National Laboratory in the early 1950s. Butler 
had one of the earliest and one of the longest careers for a woman in computer sci- 
ences, and was involved at every stage of technological change for nearly 50 years. 
She participated in the evaluation and selection of the first commercial digital 
computer for scientific computation, and prepared and implemented programs 
for both the UNIVAC and the AVIDAC computers. In addition, she worked on 
the logical design of Argonne's GEORGE computer and designed computer pro- 
grams to solve engineering problems and to aid in the design of nuclear reactors. 
She did important early work in software as a junior mathematician in the Naval 
Reactor Division at Argonne, where she performed some of the computation work 
underlying the Nautilus submarine prototype. As head of the applications pro- 
gramming section of the Applied Mathematics Division (AMD) at Argonne, she 
directed the development of the AMD Program Library and Argonne's first com- 
puter operating system. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, she researched 
computers for image processing and reactor physics computation. As a senior 
computer scientist in the 1980s, she conducted benchmark studies for evalu- 
ating laboratory computers. She researched computing technology forecasting, 
applying computers to scientific and engineering problems, and was involved in 
preparing standards for computers and information processing. She felt one of 
her most significant contributions was in creating and directing the National 
Energy Software Center (also called the Argonne Code Center), a clearinghouse 
for the worldwide exchange of computer programs for peaceful uses of nuclear 
energy and development of world standards for computer technology. 

Butler was elected a fellow of the American Nuclear Society in 1972. She was a 
member of the Association for Computing Machinery, American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 
Association of Women in Science, and Association for Women in Computing. In 
recent years, she has been active in compiling the history of women's contribu- 
tions at Argonne. 



c 



Cady, Bertha Louise Chapman 



1873 1956 
Entomologist 

Education: A.B., 1895, Stanford University, A.M., 1902, Ph.D., entomology, 1923 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, 1900-1907; assistant in nature 
study, University of Chicago, 1907-1909; instructor, biology, California State 
Teachers College, Chico, 1918; lecturer, Stanford University, 1921-1923; natural- 
ist, National Girl Scouts, 1924-1936 

Concurrent Positions: lecturer and field secretary, Social Hygiene Association, 
1914-1924; secretary, Coordinating Council on Nature, 1928-1930 

Bertha Cady was trained as an entomologist, but her research and teaching inter- 
ests included natural history and child and adolescent psychology. She made 
contributions to science education through her long-term association with the 
nature study movement. While teaching biology at the high school level, she was 
the director of nature study for the high schools in Oakland, California. She 
became an assistant in nature study in the school of education at the University 
of Chicago and later taught in the biology department at California State Teachers 
College. She received degrees from Stanford University and also took courses at 
the University of Chicago, University of California, and Columbia University. 
She earned her doctorate from Stanford in 1923, at the late age of 50. 

Cady then obtained employment as a naturalist for the Girl Scouts, and during 
that time, she served as secretary of the Coordinating Council on Nature. Prior to 
this, she worked as lecturer and field secretary of the Social Hygiene Association. 
She published in journals of nursing and public health, and co-authored a book, 
The Way Life Begins: An Introduction to Sex Education, written with her husband, 
psychologist Vernon Mosher Cady, and published by the American Social 
Hygiene Association in 1917. This was a book for children that explained repro- 
duction in the plant, animal, and human worlds. Also during this period, as a 
member of the National Tuberculosis Association, she served as the director of 
the department of nature study for several years and was president of the American 
Nature Study Society from 1926 to 1929. She published numerous pamphlets, 



275 



276 | Caldicott, Helen Mary (Broinowski) 

teacher's guides, and books on nature study, including Animal Pets: A Study in 
Character and Nature Education (1930) and Nature Guides for Schools, Volunteer 
Organizations, Camps, and Clubs (1930). 



Caldicott, Helen Mary (Broinowski) 

b. 1938 

Pediatrician, Antinuclear activist, Environmentalist 

Education: M.B. (Bachelor of Medicine) and B.S. (Bachelor of Surgery), 
Adelaide Medical School, South Australia, 1961 

Professional Experience: intern, Royal Adelaide Hospital, South Australia, 1961; 
general medical practice, South Australia, 1963-1965; research fellow, nutrition, 
Children's Hospital Medical Center, Boston, 1967-1968; intern, Adelaide Children's 
Hospital, 1972, resident, 1973-1974, founder and head of cystic fibrosis clinic, 
1975-1976; fellow in cystic fibrosis, Children's Hospital Medical Center, 
1975-1976, assistant in medicine, 1977-1980; independent activist and writer, 1980- 

Concurrent Positions: fellow, nutrition, Harvard University Medical School, 
1966-1968, instructor, pediatrics, 1977-1980; president, Physicians for Social 
Responsibility, 1977-1986; founder and president, Physicians for Social Respon- 
sibility, 1978-1983, president emeritus; instructor, New School for Social 
Research, New York, 1995-1996; Laurie Chair in Women's Studies, Douglass 
College, Rutgers University, 2001 

Helen Caldicott quit her position as a physician at the Children's Hospital Medical 
Center in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1980 to devote all of her time to her campaign 
against the use of nuclear energy, including an attempt to ban the mining of 
uranium in the western part of the United States. She was a six-year-old child 
living in Australia when the atomic bomb was dropped on several cities in Japan, 
and she first became concerned about nuclear energy when, as a teenager, she read 
Nevil Shute's book On the Beach, a chilling story set in Australia about a nuclear 
holocaust. She was a practicing physician in Australia when she received a fellow- 
ship for further study at Children's Hospital in Boston and her husband, also a 
physician, received a fellowship from Harvard. On her return to Australia for fur- 
ther training in pediatrics, she worked with children who had cystic fibrosis and 
became head of the cystic fibrosis unit in 1975. 

She had a devastating experience in 1969 when she caught hepatitis from a 
patient by accidentally pricking her finger. She felt that her life had been saved 



Caldicott, Helen Mary (Broinowski) | 277 




because she was meant to make a 
commitment to human survival. She 
became incensed that the French 
government, ignoring an international 
ban, was conducting atmospheric 
nuclear tests on islands in the Pacific, 
and that the fallout was drifting 
toward South Australia. She started 
gathering reports on the amount of 
radioactive matter in drinking water 
and cow's milk and sent the reports 
to medical groups, newspapers, news 
organizations, and other sources, 
and was interviewed on radio and 
television programs. She gained so 
much public support that, in 1973, 
the Australian and New Zealand gov- 
ernments took the French government 
before the International Court of 
Justice in The Hague in an effort to 
get the French to discontinue the tests. 
The French government complied 
with the court's ruling and stopped 
the tests. 

When Caldicott and her family returned to Boston in 1975, she tried to rally the 
American public to ban all military and peaceful uses of nuclear energy. She had 
little success with her campaign, until the failure at the nuclear power plant at 
Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania created more public concern about nuclear 
energy. In 1978, she revived the flailing organization Physicians for Social 
Responsibility (originally founded in 1962), and served as president until 1983. 
She also founded Medical Campaign Against Nuclear War, Women's Action for 
Nuclear Disarmament, Standing for Truth About Radiation, Women's Party for 
Survival, and the Nuclear Policy Research Institute. She produced several docu- 
mentary films, including If You Love This Planet, which won an Academy Award 
for Best Documentary in 1982, and has published numerous books, including 
Nuclear Madness: What You Can Do (1970), Missile Envy (1986), If You Love 
This Planet: A Plan to Heal the Earth (1991; rev. ed., 2009), The New Nuclear 
Danger (2001), and Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer (2006). Her autobiography 
is A Desperate Passion (1996). She has received numerous honorary degrees and 
honors, and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. 



Helen Caldicott, an advocate of nuclear 
disarmament, is one of the most well-known 
activists of the late 20th century. (Greg Barrett) 



278 | Calloway, Doris (Howes) 

Further Resources 

"Helen Caldicott, MD." http://www.helencaldicott.com/about.htm. 



Calloway, Doris (Howes) 

1923 2001 
Nutritionist 

Education: B.S., Ohio State University, 1943; Ph.D., nutrition, University of 
Chicago, 1947; diplomate, American Board of Nutrition, 1951 

Professional Experience: intern in dietetics, Johns Hopkins University Hospital, 
1944; research dietitian, Department of Medicine, University of Illinois, 1945; 
consulting nutritionist, Medical Associates of Chicago, 1948-1951; nutritionist, 
QM [Quartermaster] Food and Container Institute, 1951-1958; head of metabo- 
lism laboratory, 1958-1959, chief of nutrition branch, 1959-1961; chair, Depart- 
ment of Food Science and Nutrition, Stanford Research Institute, 1961-1963; 
professor of nutrition, University of California, Berkeley, 1963-1991, provost 
and professor, 1981-1987, professor emeritus, 1991-2001 

Concurrent Positions: associate editor, Nutrition Reviews, 1962-1968; editor and 
consultant, Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations, 1971 and 1981 

Doris Calloway was a renowned nutritionist with a wide range of experience 
working on areas related to food safety, food preservation, food energy, and human 
metabolism and digestion. Calloway was initially interested in studying medicine, 
but a lack of family funds and a scholarship led her to Ohio State University and a 
B.S. in nutrition and dietetics, and then to the University of Chicago for her 
doctorate in nutrition. She was employed for about 10 years by the QM Food 
and Container Institute, which was funded by the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps. 
In the 1950s, the Army was concerned about the effect of nuclear radiation on 
soldiers' rations, and Calloway's research focused on trying to determine various 
foods' resistance to radiation. The Army acknowledged her with a "Man of the 
Year" award in 1959, something Calloway found quite amusing. After the Korean 
War, government research turned to space travel and, now employed by the 
Stanford Research Institute, Calloway's research on food packaging led to the cre- 
ation of freeze-dried orange juice and, ultimately, the product Tang as an astronaut 
staple. In 1963, she received an appointment as professor at the University of 
California, Berkeley, a school with an international reputation in nutrition, where 
she studied food protein requirements, specifically the role of nitrogen in the diets 



Cannon, Annie Jump | 279 

of people of different ages, health, and levels of physical activity. She served as the 
head of a multimillion-dollar study on malnutrition in Kenya, Mexico, and Egypt, 
and also served as a consultant for the United Nations Food and Agriculture 
Organization. Her methods and findings influenced the way government and 
humanitarian agencies approach the problem of malnutrition and the special 
dietary needs of pregnant and lactating women in developing areas of the world. 

Calloway served on numerous committees and panels ranging from United 
Nations groups to the National Institutes of Health and its National Institute of 
Aging and National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolic and Digestive Diseases. She 
was involved in work with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement 
Center, a renowned research facility located in Mexico City, and the National 
Research Council. She wrote Nutrition and Health (1981) and Human Ecology 
in Space Flight (1967), as well as editing 11 editions of the textbook Nutrition 
and Physical Fitness (1966-1984). She served on the editorial board of numerous 
professional journals. 

Calloway was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Nutrition (president, 
1982-1983), the International Union of Nutritional Science, the Institute of Medi- 
cine, and was a member of the Human Biology Council. She received an honorary 
doctorate from Tufts University in 1992. Her husband, Dr. Robert Nesheim, was also 
a food researcher and was employed at Quaker Oats. 

Further Resources 

King, Janet C. 2003. "Doris Howes Calloway (1923 2001)." American Society for Nutri- 
tional Sciences. Journal of Nutrition. 133:2113 2116. (July 2003). http://jn. nutrition 
.org/cgi/content/full/133/7/2113. 



Cannon, Annie Jump 

1863 1941 
Astronomer 

Education: B.S., Wellesley College, 1884, M.A., 1907; special student, Radcliffe 
College, 1895-1897 

Professional Experience: astronomer, Harvard College Observatory, 1896-1940, 
curator of astronomical photographs, 191 1-1938, William Cranch Bond Astronomer, 
Harvard University, 1938-1940 

Annie Cannon was a distinguished astronomer and probably the best-known 
woman astronomer in the first half of the twentieth century. Her specialty was 



280 | Cannon, Annie Jump 




the study of stellar spectra and, 
although she did not create the concept 
or invent the methodology for studying 
stellar spectra, she simplified and per- 
fected the system. She was one of the 
pioneers in the photographic study of 
stellar variability, and she discovered 
277 variable stars and 5 new stars. 
She produced such a huge volume of 
data that she was popularly called the 
"Census Taker of the Stars." She 
published over 90 catalogs and papers, 
and her major publications were The 
Henry Draper Catalogue (1918-1924) 
and The Henry Draper Extension 
(1925-1949). No other astronomer or 
group of astronomers has yet matched 
the sheer bulk of her output in the field 
of spectral classification. 

Cannon became interested in 
astronomy at Wellesley while studying 
under Sarah Whiting, but she spent sev- 
eral intervening years at home with her 
parents before returning to Wellesley as a postgraduate student. She became an assis- 
tant at the Harvard College Observatory in 1896 at a time when several other women 
were employed as astronomers, such as Williamina Fleming, Antonia Maury, and 
Henrietta Swan Leavitt. Interestingly, both Cannon and Leavitt were at least 
partially deaf. Cannon went on to succeed Fleming as curator of the observatory's 
astronomical photographs and in 1938 was appointed William Cranch Bond Astrono- 
mer at Harvard University, one of the first appointments of a woman at Harvard. 

Cannon was awarded six honorary degrees as well as the Nova Medal of the 
American Association of Variable Star Observers (1922), the Draper Medal of 
the National Academy of Sciences (1931), and the Ellen Richards Prize of 
the Society to Aid Scientific Research by Women (1932). She was elected to 
membership in such honorary societies as the American Philosophical Society of 
Philadelphia and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences of Boston. In 
1933, she established the Annie J. Cannon Prize of the American Astronomical 
Society to be awarded triennially to a woman who demonstrates distinguished 
service to astronomy. Cannon also supported women's suffrage and was a member 
of the National Woman's Party. 



Annie Jump Cannon catalogued the stars 
and was the most famous female astronomer 
of the first half of the 20th century. (Library of 
Congress) 



Carey, Susan E. | 281 

Carey, Susan E. 

Psychologist 

Education: B.A., Radcliffe College, 1964; Ph.D., Harvard University, 1971 

Professional Experience: lecturer, psychology, Harvard University, 1971-1972; 
adjunct assistant professor, Rockefeller University, 1974-1975; assistant to associ- 
ate professor, psychology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1972- 
1984, professor, brain and cognitive sciences, 1984-1996; professor, psychology, 
New York University (NYU), 1996-2001; professor, psychology, Harvard Univer- 
sity, 2001-, Henry A. Morss, Jr., and Elizabeth W. Morss Professor of Psychology, 
2004- 

Concurrent Positions: fellow, Radcliffe Institute, 1976-1978; Sloane Fellow, 
University of California, Berkeley, 1980-1981; fellow, Institute for Advanced 
Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, 1984-1985 

Susan Carey is a psychologist and researcher of cognitive development who stud- 
ies language and language development. Her research is unique in that it combines 
the concerns and questions of philosophy, linguistics, history of science, and the 
acquisition of culture with neuroscience and brain development. She has been a 
pioneer in the field of word meaning, language and numbers acquisition, and the 
recognition of human and nonhuman objects by infants under one year old. She 
has collaborated and co-authored papers with her colleague at Harvard's Labora- 
tory for Developmental Studies, Elizabeth Spelke. In addition to her numerous 
papers, articles, and book chapters, Carey is co-editor of several books, and author 
of Conceptual Change in Childhood (1985) and The Origin of Concepts (2009), 
which examines how children acquire complicated and abstract concepts and 
terminology created by adults. Her work questions our understandings of innate 
versus acquired knowledge, explores the relationship between thought and 
language, and has implications for adult interactions with infants as well as early 
childhood education, especially in math and science. 

Carey was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2002. She is a fellow 
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, British Academy, American 
Philosophical Society, and National Academy of Education, and was named a 
William James Fellow of the American Psychology Society (2002). She is also a 
member of the Society for Experimental Psychology, Society of Cognitive Neuro- 
science, International Society for Infant Studies, Society for Research in Child 
Development, Society for Philosophy and Psychology (president, 1983-1984), 
and Piaget Society. She was the recipient of a Cattell Fellowship (1995-1996), 
the Jean Nicod Prize, Paris (1998), and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1999-2000), 



282 | Carothers, (Estrella) Eleanor 

and her work has also been supported by grants from the National Institutes of 
Health and the National Science Foundation. She has served on the editorial 
boards of journals such as Psychological Review, Psychological Science, Journal 
of Language Acquisition, Developmental Psychology, and others. 

Further Resources 

Harvard University. Faculty website, http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~lds/index.html7carey 
.html. 



Carothers, (Estrella) Eleanor 

1882 1957 
Zoologist 

Education: Nickerson Normal College, Kansas; B.A., University of Kansas, 
1911, M.A., 1912; Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1916 

Professional Experience: assistant professor, zoology, University of Pennsylvania, 
1913-1926, lecturer, 1926-1933; research associate, University of Iowa, 1935-1941 

Concurrent Positions: member, Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, 
1920-1956 

Eleanor Carothers specialized in insect genetics and made contributions to the 
study of the cytological, or cellular, basis of heredity. She primarily studied the 
insect order of "orthoptera," which includes grasshoppers, crickets, locusts, and 
cockroaches. Having attended Normal College, she was probably a school teacher 
before receiving her undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of 
Kansas. She went on to receive a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, 
where she was an assistant professor of zoology and one of the few female mem- 
bers of scientific expeditions to the Southern and Southwestern states in 1915 
and 1919. Her most important work, The Segregation and Recombination of 
Homologous Chromosomes as Found in Two Genera of Acrididae (Orthoptera), 
was published in 1917, and her research is still referred to in graduate courses to- 
day. She received major funding to research grasshopper cells through a grant 
from the Rockefeller Foundation Fund. For most of her career, she was an inde- 
pendent researcher affiliated with institutions such as the Marine Biological Labo- 
ratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and in 1933, she began an affiliation at the 
University of Iowa as a research associate in zoology. 



Carr, Emma Perry | 283 

Carothers was one of only seven women cited as primary investigators by 
Thomas H. Morgan in The Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity (1915), and her 
findings on the effect of x-rays on cells were published in leading scientific jour- 
nals, such as the Journal of Morphology, Biological Bulletin, and Proceedings of 
the Entomological Society. She was awarded the Ellen Richards Research Prize of 
the Naples Table Association in 1921. She was an elected member of the Academy 
of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 



Carr, Emma Perry 

1880 1972 
Chemist 

Education: Ohio State University, 1898-1899; Mount Holyoke College, 1901- 
1904; B.S., University of Chicago, 1905, Ph.D., physical chemistry, 1910; Queen's 
University, Belfast, 1919; University of Zurich, 1925, 1929-1930 

Professional Experience: instructor, chemistry, Mount Holyoke College, 1905- 
1908, associate professor, 1910-1913, professor and chair, 1913-1946 

Emma Carr developed an ambitious research program in chemistry at Mount 
Holyoke, making that institution one of the first American research centers to 
make use of ultraviolet spectrophotometry to determine the structure of complex 
organic molecules. She was affiliated with Mount Holyoke for 65 years, building 
a strong science program for women in the tradition of the school's founder, 
Mary Lyon, who was also a chemistry teacher. She and her students made fun- 
damental contributions to the understanding of the causes of selective absorption 
of radiant energy. She received grants in the 1930s and 1940s from the National 
Science Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation to investigate simple 
unsaturated hydrocarbons using ultraviolet spectrophotometry. She was a coop- 
erating expert in charge of absorption spectra data for the International Critical 
Tables. 

Carr received numerous grants and prizes during her career, and was chosen in 
1937 as the first recipient of the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society. 
She was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society and also was a member 
of the American Chemical Society and the Optical Society of America. She 
received honorary degrees from Allegheny College in 1939, Russell Sage College 
in 1941, and Mount Holyoke College in 1952. 



284 | Carson, Rachel Louise 



Carson, Rachel Louise 



1907 1964 

Biologist, Conservationist 

Education: B.A., Pennsylvania College for Women, 1929; M.S., zoology, Johns 
Hopkins University, 1932 

Professional Experience: zoology staff, University of Maryland, 1931-1936; 
biologist, Bureau of Fisheries, 1936-1949, editor-in-chief, 1949-1952; indepen- 
dent author 

Rachel Carson was a prominent figure in the mid-twentieth-century conservation 
movement, and her name is often synonymous with the idea of ecology. Her 1962 
book, Silent Spring, was one of the first efforts to point out the dangers of using 
insecticides, notably DDT, and is often credited with starting the modern environ- 
mental movement. The book stirred a national controversy, arousing public opinion 
and leading to legislative change. Carson's interest in natural history prompted her 
to major in science in college. She received a degree in zoology and taught science 
courses before beginning graduate studies at the Marine Biological Laboratory in 




Rachel Carson, shown here giving testimony before Congress in 1 963, was a noted biologist and 
ecology writer who helped launch the modern environmental movement. (Library of Congress) 



Caserio, Marjorie Constance (Beckett) | 285 

Woods Hole, Massachusetts. In 1936, she accepted a position as an aquatic biologist 
with the Bureau of Fisheries, one of the first two women professionals to be hired by 
the bureau. She supplemented her income by writing magazine articles on natural 
history subjects in addition to writing numerous publications on conservation for 
the bureau. In 1940, when the Bureau of Fisheries merged with the Biological Survey 
to form the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, one of the stated purposes of the new 
department was conservation, and Carson became editor-in-chief of the bureau's pub- 
lications. She produced 12 government pamphlets on "Conservation in Action," argu- 
ing for a national policy for conserving natural resources. 

Carson had published three other books before Silent Spring made her famous: 
Under the Sea Wind (1941), The Sea Around Us (1951), and The Edge of the Sea 
(1956). The Sea Around Us was also a bestseller, translated into 30 languages, and 
won her a National Book Award. After the success of that book, she took a leave 
from the Bureau of Fisheries, supported by a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, 
and soon after resigned to build a cottage in Maine and become a full-time writer. 
After the publication of Silent Spring in 1962, she dedicated herself to the campaign 
to influence legislation curtailing the use of insecticide, but Carson died of cancer in 
1964 before any substantive results of her efforts were achieved. 

Carson received numerous awards and honors, including the John Burroughs 
Medal (1952), the Gold Medal of the New York Zoological Society (1954), and 
the Conservationist of the Year Award of the National Wildlife Federation (1963). 
Carson has been the subject of several biographies and picture books for children. 

Further Resources 

Holmes, Madelyn. 2004. American Women Conservationists: Twelve Profiles. Jefferson, 
NC: McFarland. 

Lear, Linda, ed. 1998. Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson. Boston, 
MA: Beacon Press. 

Lear, Linda. 2009. Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature. 2nd ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin. 



Caserio, Marjorie Constance (Beckett) 

b. 1929 
Organic Chemist 

Education: B.Sc, Chelsea College, University of London, 1950; M.A., Bryn 
Mawr College, 1951, Ph.D., chemistry, 1956 

Professional Experience: associate chemist, Fulmer Research Institute, England, 
1952-1953; assistant to instructor, chemistry, Bryn Mawr College, 1953-1956; fellow, 



286 | Charles, Vera Katherine 

California Institute of Technology, 1956-1964; assistant professor, chemistry, Univer- 
sity of California, Irvine, 1965-1967, associate professor, 1967-1971, professor, 
1971-1990; professor, chemistry, University of California, San Diego, 1990-1996, vice 
chancellor of academic affairs, 1990-1995, interim chancellor, 1995-1996, emerita 

Marjorie Caserio is recognized as a leading physical organic chemist who 
has achieved excellence in research and teaching as well as governance and 
administration. Her research centered on reaction mechanisms in organic chemistry. 
She received her doctorate from Bryn Mawr College in 1956 and taught in England 
and in the United States before joining the new campus of the University of 
California, Irvine in 1965 and moving to the University of California, San Diego in 
1990. She served as department head at Irvine, chair of the academic senates of both 
Irvine and the University of California system, and vice chancellor and interim 
chancellor at San Diego before retiring in 1996. She has also made important contri- 
butions to chemistry education by her innovative teaching methods. In the early 
1960s, she co-authored the book Basic Principles of Organic Chemistry. This text 
had a large impact on the teaching of organic chemistry with its emphasis on spectro- 
scopic methods. Her expertise was recognized by her appointment as a member and 
then chair of the Committee on Professional Training and Consultant on Graduate 
Education, both of the American Chemical Society. 

Caserio was born in England, and entered Chelsea College, University of 
London, at age 1 5 to study podiatry, but she soon switched to chemistry rather than 
pursue medicine. She obtained a fellowship from the English Speaking Union to 
do graduate work at Bryn Mawr College. She returned to England and obtained a 
position at the Fulmer Research Institute, but then applied for a postdoctoral 
appointment at the California Institute of Technology, where she stayed for nine 
years. While there, she met another postdoctoral appointee, Fred Caserio; they 
married in 1957, the same year she became a citizen of the United States. The 
new campus at the University of California, Irvine started hiring in the mid- 
1960s, and she was the second faculty member to be hired in the chemistry depart- 
ment. Caserio's significant contributions to research have been recognized with 
the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society (1975), given annually to 
an American woman chemist. 



Charles, Vera Katherine 

1877 1954 
Mycologist 

Education: Mount Holyoke College; A.B., Cornell University, 1903 



Chase, (Mary) Agnes Meara | 287 

Professional Experience: mycologist, Bureau of Plant Industry, U.S. Department 
of Agriculture, 1903-1942 

Vera Charles was among the first women hired by the U.S. Department of Agricul- 
ture in professional positions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 
An expert on mushrooms, she co-authored several articles and USDA bulletins 
on topics such as "Mushrooms and Other Common Fungi," "Some Common 
Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms," and "Some Fungous Diseases of Economic 
Importance." She studied mycology and plant pathology at Cornell University's 
Agriculture School and began her long career with the USDA soon after gradu- 
ation. During the 1910s and 1920s, she worked with a group of women who 
included the USDAs first female mycologist, Flora Patterson. She and Patterson 
were often co-authors, and their published findings were widely known and highly 
regarded by their contemporaries. Charles wrote a profile of her colleague in the 
industry journal Mycologia after Patterson's death in 1928. 

Prior to the enactment of the Plant Quarantine Act in 1912, Charles inspected a 
large portion of the imported plants received in the department for disease and 
pathogen analysis; her lab was the first to identify potato wart disease on imported 
potatoes. In 1917, the Plant Disease Survey was organized, and Charles and Patterson 
were primarily responsible for all research and maintenance of the Pathological 
Collections. Charles had expert knowledge of Fungi imperfecti, and she spent 
several winters in Florida collecting mycological samples. She was interested in, 
and also published on, fungal pathogens in North American insects. 

Charles worked as a collaborator for the division of mycology and disease survey 
for several years after she retired until failing eyesight forced her to give up her micro- 
scopic studies. She published a book, Introduction to Mushroom Hunting (1931), 
which went through several reprinted editions, and contributed a chapter, "The 
Mycologist," to a book on Careers for Women (1935; edited by Catherine Filene). 

Further Resources 

Baker, Gladys L. 1976. "Women in the U.S. Department of Agriculture." Agricultural 
History 50(1): 190 201. 

"U.S. National Fungus Collections History." Systematic Mycology and Microbiology, 
USDA. http://www.ars. usda.gov/Services/docs. htm?docid=9399. 

Chase, (Mary) Agnes Meara 

1869 1963 
Botanist 

Education: public schools 



288 | Chasman, Renate (Wiener) 

Professional Experience: assistant, botany, Field Museum of Natural History, 
1901-1903; meat inspector, Chicago stockyards, U.S. Department of Agriculture 
(USDA), 1901-1903; botanical artist, Bureau of Plant Industry, USDA, 1903- 
1907, assistant systematic agrostologist, 1907-1923, assistant to associate 
botanist, 1923-1936, senior botanist, 1936-1939; custodian of grasses, National 
Herbarium, 1939-1963 

Agnes Chase was a botanist who greatly expanded scientific data and knowledge on 
grasses (a scientific field known as agrostology), particularly those of the Northern 
Hemisphere. She updated and augmented the collections of grasses of the U.S. 
National Herbarium, which were moved to the Smithsonian Institution in 1912. 
She eventually donated her own personal agrostological library to the Smithsonian. 
Chase began her career illustrating several publications for the Field Museum of 
Chicago. After transferring to Washington, D.C., with the USDA in 1903, she began 
her collaboration with A. S. Hitchcock, a specialist in agrostology. In 1936, she 
succeeded Hitchcock as the principal scientist in charge of systematic agrostology, 
and she became a senior botanist. She was the author of more than 70 research pub- 
lications. She wrote First Book on Grasses (1922) and Index to Grass Species 
(1962), a bibliographic register of types. She was also responsible for the 1950 
revised edition of the Manual of Grasses of the United States. 

Chase officially retired in 1939 but continued to be active at the National 
Herbarium for the rest of her life. Although she had little formal education, she 
became an acknowledged expert in her field. The Botanical Society of America 
awarded her a certificate of merit in 1956. She received an honorary degree from 
the University of Illinois in 1958, and the Smithsonian Institution named her its 
eighth honorary fellow. She was active in various reform movements, including 
women's rights, prohibition, and socialism. At one time, she was jailed for partici- 
pating in a women's rights march. 

Further Resources 

Baker, Gladys L. 1976. "Women in the U.S. Department of Agriculture." Agricultural History 
50(1): 190 201. 

Bonta, Marcia M. 1995. American Women Afield: Writings by Pioneering Women Naturalists. 
College Station: Texas A&M University Press. 

Chasman, Renate (Wiener) 

1932 1977 
Nuclear Physicist 

Education: M.Sc, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1955, Ph.D., physics, 1959 



Chasman, Renate (Wiener) | 289 

Professional Experience: research associate, Columbia University, 1959-1962; 
research associate, physics, Yale University, 1962; assistant to associate physicist, 
Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1963-1969, physicist, 1969-1977 

Renate Chasman was known for her work in the development of particle accel- 
erators. She spent most of her career at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, 
where she compiled and systematized neutron cross-sections before becoming 
one of the key participants in the development of particle accelerators. She 
was the only woman physicist in her department, but she was the chief theorist 
for the group. The Alternating-Gradient Synchrotron (AGS) at Brookhaven was 
the world's highest-energy particle accelerator at that time, and Chasman was 
responsible for the theoretical aspects of the design for this device. She created 
and used computer programs for exploring the behavior of the beam during the 
acceleration process, and when the device was put into operation, it was found 
to behave in excellent agreement with her theoretical predictions. She then 
joined the group that explored the concept and design of superconducting 
storage rings for protons in the range of several hundred GeV (a GeV is defined 
as a giga-electron volt; giga means a billion; thus, several hundred billion 
electron volts). 

Chasman and her twin sister, Edith, were born in Berlin, and the family was 
forced to flee to northern Europe in 1938. After the sisters graduated from high 
school in Sweden, they went to Israel, where Chasman received her doctorate in 
experimental physics. She then moved to New York to work as a research associate 
for the prominent female physicist Chien-Shiung Wu at Columbia University. 
She planned to follow her husband to Yale, but was told that her work visa required 
she leave the country for two years and then reapply for entrance. Administrators at 
Yale were able to intervene in her deportation, explaining to U.S. officials that the 
Chasmans were engaged in critical research in nuclear spectroscopy. As Renate 
Chasman's reputation grew, she was invited to serve on review committees at 
the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois and at the European 
Laboratory for Particle Physics in Switzerland. In the 1970s, she investigated the 
radiation from several electron synchrotrons and storage rings as a source of ultra- 
violet light, or x-rays, and designed storage rings especially for the production of 
synchrotron radiation. 

In 1972, Chasman was diagnosed with malignant melanoma, but she continued 
to work while receiving treatment. The construction of the last project on which 
she worked, the National Synchrotron Light Source, was approved in the fall of 
1977, but she never saw its completion. In 1985, the Brookhaven National Labora- 
tory established a Renate W. Chasman Scholarship awarded annually to a woman 
who plans to resume her scientific studies after an interruption. 



290 | Chesler, Phyllis 
Chesler, Phyllis 



b. 1940 
Psychologist 

Education: B.A., comparative literature and language, Bard College, 1963; M.A., 
psychology, New School for Social Research, 1967, Ph.D., psychology, 1969 

Professional Experience: instructor, psychology, Institute for Developmental 
Studies, New York Medical College, 1965-1966; teaching fellow and research 
associate, neurophysiology, Brain Research Laboratory, New York Medical 
College, 1966-1969; private practice, psychotherapy and forensic psychology, 
1970-1991; assistant professor, psychology, College of Staten Island, City Univer- 
sity of New York (CUNY), 1969-1998, emerita professor, psychology and 
women's studies, 1998- 

Concurrent Positions: research associate, Graduate Department of Psychology, 
Yeshiva University, 1965; intern, psychotherapy, Washington Square Institute for 
Psychotherapy and Mental Health, 1968-1969; clinical research associate and 
intern, psychology and psychiatry, New York Medical College, Metropolitan, 
1968-1969;instructor, United Nations Institute for Training and Research, 
1979-1980; visiting instructor, Graduate Forensic Psychology Program, John Jay 
College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, 1997; research scholar and visiting professor, 
International Research Institute on Jewish Women, Brandeis University, 
1997-1998 

Phyllis Chesler is a psychologist, educator, writer, and feminist cultural critic who 
has focused on women's mental-health issues. She has been a scholar and activist 
around a range of issues related to women's social, legal, and political inequality, 
including abortion, rape, equal pay, healthcare, incest, battery, pornography, moth- 
erhood, spirituality, and mental health. She has taught for 30 years at the College 
of Staten Island in New York, and has been an invited lecturer and affiliated fac- 
ulty at several other colleges and universities, as well as a psychotherapist in pri- 
vate practice. Her groundbreaking book, Women and Madness, published in 1972 
at the height of the new women's movement, traces the psychological enslavement 
of women by society and by the psychiatric profession that labeled women as 
"mad" when they did not conform to traditional feminine ideals. Women and 
Madness (reissued in 1997 and again in 2005) has sold millions of copies and is 
credited with initiating major reforms within the mental-health community. 

Chesler is a prolific author who has published 13 books and hundreds of articles 
in major newspapers and magazines in both the United States and Europe. Her 
books include With Child: A Diary of Motherhood (1979), which describes her 



Chesler, Phyllis | 291 



own experience of combining femi- 
nism and motherhood. Her concern 
about the legal rights of mothers led 
to two other books: Mothers on Trial: 
The Battle for Children and Custody 
(1986) and Sacred Bond: The Legacy 
of Baby M (1988), which deals with 
the new issues of surrogacy and repro- 
ductive technologies in the 1980s. 
Patriarchy: Notes of an Expert Witness 
(1994) and Letters to a Young Feminist 
(1997) are collections of writings on a 
variety of feminist issues, the latter 
presented as wisdom for the next 
generation of activists. Her concern 
about women's historical participation 
in the oppression of other women is 
explored in Woman 's Inhumanity to 
Woman (2002; reissued 2009). Her 
criticism of some aspects of western 
feminism itself is the subject of The 
Death of Feminism: What's Next in 
the Struggle for Women's Freedom 
(2005), which describes what she sees 




Psychologist Phyllis Chesler has been a 
scholar and activist around a range of issues 
related to women's social, legal, and political 
inequality. (Bettmann/Corbis) 



as the "moral failure" of a women's movement that has failed to address global 
women's rights issues, such as women's oppression under fundamentalist Islamic 
religion. 

Chesler has appeared as an expert and controversial guest on numerous televi- 
sion shows, including the Today Show, Oprah, Nightline, CSPAN, the History 
Channel, CNN, and Court TV, and other television and radio news programs. 
Among her awards and honors are the Dorothy Gelgor Prize in Psychology from 
the New School for Social Research (1967), Positive Image of Women Award 
from the National Organization for Women (1978), Feminist Book Fortnight 
Award for Sacred Bond (1990), Medal of Honor Award from Veteran Feminists 
of America (1993), and Nike Prize at the International Book Fair (1998). She 
was a co-founder of the Association for Women in Psychology (1969) and the 
National Women's Health Network (1974), and a charter member of the Women's 
Forum and the Veteran Feminists of America. She has been a member of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Psychological 
Association, American Association for the Abolition of Involuntary Mental 



292 | Chilton, Mary-Dell (Matchett) 

Hospitalization, Eastern Psychological Association, New York State Psychological 
Association, and National Organization for Women. 

Further Resources 

"The Phyllis Chesler Organization." http://www.phyllis-chesler.com/. 



Chilton, Mary-Dell (Matchett) 

b. 1939 

Molecular Biologist, Biochemist 

Education: B.S., chemistry, University of Illinois, 1960, Ph.D., chemistry, 1967 

Professional Experience: fellow, microbiology, University of Washington, 
Seattle, 1967-1969, fellow, biochemistry, 1969-1970, assistant biologist, 1971- 
1979, assistant to associate research professor, biology, 1973-1979; associate pro- 
fessor, biology, Washington University, St. Louis, 1979-1983; executive director, 
agricultural biotechnology, Ciba-Geigy Biotechnology Facility (now Syngenta), 
1983-1991, vice president, biotechnology, 1991— 

Mary-Dell Chilton is renowned for her research in plant biotechnology and the 
genetic engineering of agricultural crops to make them resistant to pests and environ- 
mental distress. In the 1970s, she was a member of a team of university and industry 
scientists who developed the first method to introduce foreign genes into plant cells 
and reliably produce normal fertile plants. They utilized the natural form of genetic 
engineering (a bacterium invades a plant and sometimes destroys it) to inject a 
bacterium into a crop plant to modify it genetically. Chilton and her colleagues used 
bacterium to transplant genes from one plant into another, altering the bacterial DNA 
to prevent crown gall disease and tumors from developing in the new plant. Crown 
gall disease can afflict a wide range of broad-leaved plants, and it causes consider- 
able loss in certain crops, notably grapes, stone fruits, and ornamental plants. She 
published a paper in the June 1983 issue of Scientific American outlining the process 
the team developed. She went on to apply their research to genetically modifying 
other crop plants, such as maize. 

Genetic engineering of plants is on the front line of research in both academic 
and industrial institutions, and millions of dollars are invested each year to 
improve crop plants. Although there has been much controversy about genetic 
engineering in animal research, especially the cloning of animals, there is also 
criticism of plant research. The fear is that agriculture will become too dependent 
on specific strains of plants to the extent that if those strains were wiped out by 



Chory, Joanne | 293 

disease, the world food supply could be in trouble. Chilton was a founder of 
Ciba-Geigy Corporation (now Syngenta Biotechnology, Inc., or "SBI"), located 
at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, where she is vice president of bio- 
technology and where, in 2002, a new building was named after her. The 
international company, which employs 19,000 people worldwide, is "committed 
to sustainable agriculture through innovative research and technology." 

Chilton was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1985, 
just two years after the successful genetic engineering of plants was announced. 
She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of 
the American Society of Microbiology. She has received the Bronze Medal from 
the American Institute of Chemists (1960), the Hendricks Medal of the American 
Chemical Society (1987), and the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Sciences 
(2002). 

Further Resources 

Syngenta Global. "Mary-Dell Chilton, Ph.D.: Biography." http://www.syngenta.com/en/ 
downloads/Chilton Biography.doc. 



Chory, Joanne 

b. 1955 

Plant Biologist 

Education: A.B., biology, Oberlin College, Ohio; Ph.D., microbiology, University 
of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1984 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, Harvard Medical School, 1984- 
1988; professor and Director, Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory, 
Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, California, 1988-; Investigator, 
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 1997- 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct professor, biology, University of California, 
San Diego 

Joanne Chory is a plant biologist whose research focuses on the genetic and bio- 
chemical explanations for how plants physically respond to light and other envi- 
ronmental changes. She has determined that plants have special light-sensitive 
receptors that respond to changes in sunlight, for example, and alter their shape, 
growth, and even flowering. This work has implications for identifying certain 
plant hormones and altering plant genetics in order to benefit commercial 



294 | Clark, Eugenie 

agriculture through resisting disease and increasing plant yields even in shady, 
crowded, or off-season conditions. She is director of the Plant Molecular and 
Cellular Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San 
Diego and, since 1997, has been an affiliated Investigator with the Howard Hughes 
Medical Institute. 

Chory was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1999 and is a fellow 
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), 
German National Academy of Sciences, and French Academie des Sciences. She 
has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the National 
Academy of Sciences Award for Initiatives in Research (1994), the Charles Albert 
Schull Award of the American Society of Plant Physiologists (1995), and the 
L'Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science (2000), and was named Scientific 
American's Research Leader in Agriculture in 2003. 

Further Resources 

Salk Institute. Faculty website, http://www.salk.edu/faculty/faculty details.php?id=12. 

Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "Joanne Chory, Ph.D." http://www.hhmi.org/research/ 
investigators/chory bio. html. 



Clark, Eugenie 

b. 1922 

Zoologist, Ichthyologist 

Education: B.A., zoology, Hunter College, 1942; M.A., zoology, New York 
University, 1946; Ph.D., zoology, New York University, 1950 

Professional Experience: chemist, Celanese Corporation of America, New 
Jersey, 1942-46; chemist, Department of Endocrinology, Cornell Medical School, 
New York, 1946; oceanographic chemist, Philippine Expedition, U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service, 1947; research assistant, ichthyology, Scripps Institution of Ocean- 
ography, University of California, 1946-1947; research assistant to associate, animal 
behavior and ichthyology, American Museum of Natural History, 1947-1981; 
instructor, biology, Hunter College, New York, 1953-1954; pharmacologist, Nepera 
Corporation, New York, 1954-1955; executive director, Cape Haze Marine Labora- 
tory, Florida, 1955-1967; associate professor, zoology, City University of New York, 
1966-1967; associate professor to professor, zoology, University of Maryland, 
1968-1992; consultant and director emerita, Mote (formerly Cape Haze) Marine 



Clark, Eugenie | 295 



Laboratory, Florida, 1986-; senior 
research scientist and professor emer- 
ita, Department of Biology (formerly 
Zoology), University of Maryland, 
1992- 

Concurrent Positions: swimming 
instructor, Shelton Athletic Club, 
New York, 1943-1944; director, 
National Science Foundation (NSF) 
summer science training programs, 
Cape Haze Marine Laboratory, 
Florida, 1955-1965; research associ- 
ate, New England Institute for Medi- 
cal Research, 1956-1966, visiting 
professor, 1966-1968; consultant/ 
participant on television and film 
documentaries, 1967-; founding 
member, Marine Biological Labora- 
tory, Hebrew University, Israel, 
1969-1979; visiting professor, zool- 
ogy, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 
1972 




Zoologist and ichthyologist, Eugenie Clark. 
(Courtesy of University Publications, 
University of Maryland) 



Eugenie Clark is one of the foremost marine biologists in the world, specializing 
in sharks, the reproductive behavior of fishes, morphology and taxonomy of plec- 
tognath fishes, and Red Sea fishes. Known worldwide as "the Shark Lady," she has 
successfully combined scientific research with imparting scientific information to 
the general public. Clark became interested in fish when, as a child, she spent 
Saturdays at the New York Aquarium. She began to keep an aquarium at home, 
collecting a variety of fish, and went on to study biology in high school and then 
zoology at Hunter College. After receiving her master's degree, she was hired by 
the Fish and Wildlife Service for an expedition to the Philippines, but at a stop 
in Hawaii she was notified that she would not be continuing on as one of her supe- 
riors did not want to hire a woman. She returned to New York to pursue the Ph.D., 
studying the mating habits of platies and swordfishes, and producing the first test- 
tube fishes. At the time she received her doctorate, Clark was one of only three 
female ichthyologists in the United States. 

As part of her graduate education, Clark attended summer programs 
at the University of Michigan Biological Station and the Marine Biological Labo- 
ratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. She participated in a post- World War II 



296 | Clarke, Edith 

government project studying and counting fish in the South Pacific and, after 
receiving her doctorate, traveled to Egypt to study fish in the Red Sea, where she 
identified three new species. She published an early bestselling autobiography 
detailing her work and adventures, entitled Lady with a Spear (1953). Philanthrop- 
ist Anne Vanderbilt read the book and invited Clark to Florida to direct a new 
marine laboratory to be funded by the Vanderbilt family. Clark served as director 
and later consultant to the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory, where she began to 
specialize in the study of sharks, collecting and studying hundreds of specimens, 
both dead and alive. She became well-known as "the Shark Lady" in both 
academic and popular scientific circles and publications (such as through National 
Geographic). In 1968, Clark took a teaching position in zoology at the University 
of Maryland and, soon after, published another autobiography, The Lady and the 
Sharks (1969). 

Clark lectures internationally at conventions, schools, and universities, and has 
consulted on or made appearances in hundreds of radio, television, and documen- 
tary programs on sharks and marine environments, such as the National Geo- 
graphic Society special on "The Sharks" (1981-1982), BBC-Discovery 
Channel's "Reef Watch— Live from the Red Sea" (1988), National Geographic 
Explorers on marine life (1987-1990), and the IMAX film Search for the Great 
Sharks (1993). She is a member of dozens of underwater, zoological, and scientific 
organizations, and has received numerous awards and honors, including the Cous- 
teau Award (1973), Gold Medal of the Society of Women Geographers (1975), 
John Stoneman Marine Environmental Award (1982), Lowell Thomas Award of 
the Explorers Club (1986), Franklin L. Burr Award of the National Geographic 
Society (1993), and the Medal of Excellence of the American Society of Oceanog- 
raphers (1994). At least four species of fish have been named for Clark and, in 
addition to being profiled in numerous books and articles, she is the subject of sev- 
eral biographies for children. 

Further Resources 

"The Shark Lady." http://www.sharklady.com. 



Clarke, Edith 

1883 1959 
Electrical Engineer 

Education: A.B., Vassar College, 1908; University of Wisconsin, 1911-1912; 
M.S., electrical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1919 



Cleave, Mary L. | 297 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, mathematics and physics, 1909; 
Marshall College, 1910-1911; computer, American Telephone and Telegraph 
(AT&T), 1912-1918; supervisor, Turbine Engineering Department, General Elec- 
tric Company (GE), 1920-1921; instructor, physics, Constantinople Woman's 
College, Turkey, 1921-1922; engineer, GE, 1922-1945; professor, electrical engi- 
neering, University of Texas, Austin, 1947-1956 

Edith Clarke was a mathematician and theorist recognized as an expert in the 
design of large electrical power stations. She developed calculating devices that 
allowed the prediction of system reactions to extraordinary events without solving 
the same sets of equations repeatedly. She patented such a calculating device in 
1925. She authored numerous articles that were recognized for their high merit; 
two of them received prizes from the American Institute of Electrical Engineers 
(AIEE). Her book, Circuit Analysis of A-C Power Systems (1943, 1950), became 
a standard graduate text. She spent most of her career as an engineer at General 
Electric before joining the faculty at the University of Texas, Austin as the first 
woman to teach electrical engineering in a university in the United States. 

After receiving her undergraduate degree, Clarke taught mathematics at a high 
school and a college for several years before deciding to pursue a career in engineer- 
ing. She studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin for one year, and was 
the first woman to receive a master's degree in electrical engineering from MIT She 
found it difficult to find employment as an engineer, however, and worked for a few 
years as a "computer" at AT&T, supervising a group of women performing computa- 
tions for research engineers in an era before the development of the electronic calcu- 
lator and computer. After teaching abroad for one year, she was hired by GE as an 
engineer. She invented and patented a device called the "Clarke calculator" for solv- 
ing line equations. She was the first woman elected a fellow of the AIEE in 1948, 
and she received the Society of Women Engineers' Achievement Award in 1954. 

Further Resources 

Agnes Scott College. "Edith Clarke." Biographies of Women Mathematicians, http:// 
www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/clarke.htm. 



Cleave, Mary L. 

b. 1947 

Environmental Engineer, Astronaut 

Education: B.S., biological sciences, Colorado State University, 1969; M.S., 
microbial ecology, Utah State University, 1975, Ph.D., civil and environmental 
engineering, 1979 



298 | Cleave, Mary L. 




Astronaut Mary Cleave. (NASA) 



Professional Experience: research 
staff, Ecology Center and Utah Water 
Research Laboratory, Utah State 
University, 1971-1980; astronaut, 
National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA), 1980-1990, 
deputy project manager, SeaWiFS, 
Laboratory for Hydrospheric Pro- 
cesses, NASA Goddard Space Flight 
Center, 199 1— , deputy associate 
administrator (advanced planning), 
Office of Earth Science, and associate 
administrator, Science Mission 
Directorate, NASA Headquarters, 
2004-2007 

Mary Cleave was one of the first eight 
women astronauts selected between 
1978 and 1980, and she flew on two 
Atlantis missions (1985 and 1989). 
In the mid-1970s, NASA modified 
its requirements to allow applicants without jet pilot experience, but with 
advanced scientific training. Many women scientists and engineers applied. 
Cleave earned her engineering doctorate in 1979 and was selected for the astronaut 
program in 1980. Cleave's earlier work focused on environmental engineering 
questions concerning algae growth, sand and salt flow, and the effects on fish and 
plant life in the Great Basin Desert of Utah. On the Atlantis 1989 mission, she 
was involved in the deployment of the Magellan planetary probe that would map 
over 95% of the surface of Venus. She has studied planetary atmospheric and mag- 
netic fields among other geological observations. She left the astronaut program in 
1990, but continued to work for NASA in the Laboratory for Hydrospheric 
Processes in Maryland, specializing in environmental problems through a project 
called SeaWiFS (Sea-viewing, Wide-Field-of-view Sensor), a satellite that monitors 
ocean color for signs of vegetation growth for insight into global climate and 
other changes. 

Cleave has been honored with the American Astronautical Society Flight 
Achievement Award (1989) and the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal 
(1994), named NASA Engineer of the Year (1998), and nominated by the National 
Women's History Project as one of their "Women Taking the Lead to Save Our 
Planet" (2009). She has been a member of the Water Pollution Control Federation, 



Cobb, Geraldyne M. | 299 

the Society for Professional Engineers, the Association of Space Explorers, and 
Women in Aerospace. Since 2007, she has served on the board of directors of 
Sigma Space Corps, which provides services and products to the aerospace indus- 
try, including NASA. 

Further Resources 

Kevles, Bettyann H. 2003. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. New York: 
Basic Books. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Mary L. Cleave (Ph.D., PE.)." http:// 
www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/cleave-ml.html. 



Cobb, Geraldyne M. 

b. 1931 

Aviator, Astronaut Consultant 

Education: student, Oklahoma College for Women, 1948 

Professional Experience: teacher, aviation school, 1949; self-employed charter 
pilot, 1950; charter pilot, commercial and military planes, Fleetway, Inc., chief 
pilot, South American operations, 1951-1955; chief pilot, Executive Aircraft, 
Inc; executive pilot and advertising and sales promotion manager, Aero Design 
& Engineering Company, 1958-1964; consultant, astronaut qualifying tests, 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 1960-1961, consultant, 
1961-1962; private and commercial pilot 

Geraldyne "Jerrie " Cobb was a commercial pilot who helped developed astronaut 
training tests for women, but never made a space flight. More than 20 years before 
astronaut Sally Ride made her historic launch in 1983, Cobb worked with NASA 
to develop physical and mental tests for female pilots who wished to enter the 
astronaut training program. Between 1957 and 1960, Cobb set international 
records for speed, altitude, and distance in the twin-engine class of airplanes, pilot- 
ing Aero Commander planes, and was considered one of the premier women pilots 
of that era. Although numerous women had ferried military planes overseas during 
World War II, the military services had no data on the physical capabilities of 
women pilots, and none of the branches of the military trained women pilots. 

Cobb originally worked with a privately funded organization to modify NASA's 
astronaut tests for women. She and 12 other women passed the tests, often surpass- 
ing the performance of men, but NASA would not allow the women into the astro- 
naut program. Although Cobb participated in congressional hearings urging the 



300 | Cobb, Geraldyne M. 

program to select women astronauts, the project was canceled. By this time, the 
Russians had several women in their astronaut program, and Valentina Tershkova 
became the first woman in space when she orbited the Earth for three days in 
1963. Cobb went on to work briefly with NASA directly as a general consultant 
and consulted for the Federal Aviation Administration as well. 

Cobb became interested in flying early, and when she was 12 years old, her 
father installed pedal blocks and seat cushions so she could fly his biplane. She 
earned her private pilot's rating when she was only 16 years old and, leaving col- 
lege after one year, received her commercial pilot's and flight instructor's licenses 
and obtained a job teaching in an aviation school. One of the most dangerous jobs 
she had was ferrying World War II fighter planes that the Navy had sold to the 
Peruvian air force. Flying in the Andes is considered one of the most challenging 
experiences for any pilot, and she made solo trips there for several years when 
she worked for Fleetway, Inc. She also tested reconditioned commercial and mili- 
tary planes and flew them throughout the world for the same company. She 
became engaged to her boss, Jack Ford, but after they broke their engagement, 
she left the company in 1955. She achieved her numerous flight records while 
employed as a pilot for Aero Design & Engineering Company. She went on to 
fly humanitarian missions and conduct surveys of new routes in South America 
and other remote regions. In 1999, the National Organization for Women launched 
a failed campaign to give Cobb one more chance to go into space. 

Several books have been written about women in the early years of the space 
race, and Cobb published two autobiographies: Woman into Space: The Jerrie 
Cobb Story (1963) and Jerrie Cobb, Solo Pilot (1997). Cobb is the recipient of 
the Amelia Earhart Gold Medal of Achievement (1949), Amelia Earhart Memorial 
Award (1957), Pilot of the Year by the National Pilots Association (1959), Harmon 
International Trophy (1973), and Bishop Wright Air Industry Award (1979), and 
has been honored by the governments of France, Columbia, Brazil, Peru, and 
Ecuador for her aviation and humanitarian achievements. In 1981, she was nomi- 
nated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and in 2007, she received an honorary doctorate 
from the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. 

Further Resources 

Ackmann, Martha. 2004. The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen American Women 
and the Dream of Space Flight. New York: Random House. 

Nolen, Stephanie. 2002. Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the 
Space Race. New York: Avalon. 

Weitekamp, Margaret A. 2005. Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America's First Women in Space 
Program. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. 

"The Jerrie Cobb Foundation, Inc." http://www.jerrie-cobb-foundation.org/. 



Cobb, Jewel Plummer | 301 

Cobb, Jewel Plummer 

b. 1924 
Cell Biologist 

Education: student, University of Michigan, 1941-1942; B.A., Talladega College, 
1944; M.S., New York University, 1947, Ph.D., cell biology, 1950 

Professional Experience: instructor, anatomy, and director, Tissue Culture Labo- 
ratory, University of Illinois, 1952-1954; research instructor, surgery, New York 
University, 1955-1956, assistant professor, 1956-1960; professor, Biology 
Department, Sarah Lawrence College, 1960-1969; dean and professor, zoology, 
Connecticut College, 1969-1976; dean and professor, biological science, Doug- 
lass College (Rutgers University), 1976-1981; president and professor, biological 
sciences, California State University, Fullerton, 1981-1990, president emerita, 
1990-; trustee professor, California State University, Los Angeles, 1990- 

Concurrent Positions: member, Marine Biological Institute, Woods Hole 
Oceanographic Institution, 1972-; member, U.S. Department of State Advisory 
Committee on Oceans and International Environment and Science Affairs, 1980- 
1990; principal investigator, Southern California Science and Engineering 
ACCESS Center and Network, 1991—; chair, Committee on Women in Science 
and Engineering, National Research Council, 1993-; ASCEND Project, Science 
Technology Engineering Program (STEP) Up for Youth, California State Univer- 
sity, Los Angeles, 2001- 

Jewel Plummer Cobb is a researcher in cell biology, an educator who develops pro- 
grams to encourage ethnic minorities and women in the sciences, and an administra- 
tor who has headed several colleges and universities. Her research in cell biology has 
focused on melanin, a brown or black skin pigment; she also studies the causes and 
growth of normal and cancerous pigment cells. In addition, she has studied the 
effects of newly discovered cancer chemotherapy drugs on human cancer cells. 
One of her first accomplishments was establishing and directing the Tissue Culture 
Laboratory at the University of Illinois, and she managed to continue her research 
during appointments at various other colleges even though her positions often 
required heavy administrative responsibilities. When she was selected as president 
of California State University, Fullerton, however, she had to reduce her involvement 
in research. As president, she established the first privately funded gerontology 
center in Orange County, lobbied the state legislature to approve the construction 
of new science buildings, and worked to ensure a more diverse student body. She 
is also the director of a program committed to bringing science education to inner- 
city middle school students, the Science Technology Engineering Program (STEP) 



302 | Cohn, Mildred 

Up for Youth ASCEND project. Under her leadership, the program received a sig- 
nificant three-year grant from the National Science Foundation in 2001. 

Cobb became interested in science at an early age owing to the example of her 
physician father. She selected a career in biology in her sophomore year in high 
school when she first looked through a microscope and went on to the University 
of Michigan in the early 1940s. She left Michigan after three semesters, however, 
due to their policy of segregated dormitories. She transferred to Talladega College 
in Alabama, earning her bachelor's degree, and went on to graduate studies with a 
fellowship to New York University. Initially intending to become a doctor, she 
decided to pursue biological research instead. 

Cobb has received 1 8 honorary degrees and numerous awards for her service to 
organizations dedicated to increasing the presence of women and minorities in the 
sciences. She was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National 
Academy of Sciences and is a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences and the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is a member of the 
Association of Women in Science and the Tissue Culture Association. 

Further Resources 

Ehrhart-Morrison, Dorothy. 1997. No Mountain High Enough: Secrets of Successful African 
American Women. Berkeley, CA: Conari Press. 



Cohn, Mildred 

1913 2009 
Biochemist 

Education: A.B., Hunter College, 1931; A.M., Columbia University, 1932, Ph.D., 
chemistry, 1938 

Professional Experience: junior science aide, National Advisory Committee on 
Aeronautics, 1932-1935; biophysical assistant, George Washington University 
medical school, 1937-1938; biophysicist, Cornell University medical school, 
1938-1941, research associate, 1941-1946; biochemist, School of Medicine, 
Washington University, St. Louis, 1946-1957, associate professor, 1958-1960; 
associate professor, medical school, University of Pennsylvania, 1960, professor, 
biophysics and physical biochemistry, 1960-1982; senior scientist, Fox Chase 
Cancer Center, 1982-1985; emeritus professor 

Concurrent Positions: career investigator, American Heart Association, 
1964-1978 



Cohn, Mildred | 303 




Mildred Cohn was a biochemist 
whose research focused on metabolic 
studies with stable isotopes, mecha- 
nisms of enzymatic reactions, and 
electron spin. Cohn's most important 
contribution to science was her work, 
in the 1950s, on using nuclear mag- 
netic resonance (NMR) to study the 
function of enzymes. She pursued 
this work at Washington University 
in St. Louis, where she worked in the 
biochemistry department with Gerty 
T. Cori and Carl Ferdinand Cori, 
winners of the 1947 Nobel Prize in 
Physiology or Medicine. 

The daughter of Russian immi- 
grants, Cohn showed an early interest 
in science and entered college to 
study chemistry and physics at the 
age of only 14. At the time, even the 
chair of the Hunter College chemistry 
department believed that he was 
training female students to be science 

teachers, not scientists. By age 17, she had received her bachelor's degree and had 
gone on to graduate work at Columbia. She was unable to support herself through 
teaching assistantships since those positions were reserved for male students. She 
lived at home and worked odd jobs to complete her master's degree, but was 
forced to leave school to find paid employment. In 1932, she went to work for 
the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics at Langley Field, Virginia, 
where she worked as a research assistant, and the only woman, in the engine divi- 
sion. She returned to Columbia and expected to find another industry research 
position after completing her Ph.D. in chemistry in 1937, but most of the large 
research companies would not even interview a Jewish woman at that time. She 
instead found research laboratory positions in college medical schools before tak- 
ing her first academic appointment in 1958 at Washington University, where her 
husband, theoretical physicist Henry Primakoff, had also been offered a position. 
She later commented that there were advantages to working as an independent 
researcher in the early years of her career, as she had more flexibility for raising 
her children and could pursue long-term projects without the publishing pressures 



Biochemist Mildred Cohn was the first female 
career investigator for the American Heart 
Association. (Bettmann/Corbis) 



304 | Cole, Johnnetta (Betsch) 

of an academic position. Cohn retired from teaching in 1982 and subsequently had 
a three-year affiliation at the Fox Chase Cancer Center as a senior scientist. 

Cohn was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1971 
and was awarded the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society (1963), the 
National Medal of Science (1982), and the Distinguished Award of the College of 
Physicians (1987). She was a senior member of the Institute for Cancer Research 
(1982-1985) and served as president of the American Society of Biological 
Chemists (1978-1979). She was a member of the American Philosophical Society, 
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Chemical Society, and 
the Biophysical Society, and was president of the American Society of Biological 
Chemistry (1978-1979). She was the mother of three children, all of whom also 
earned Ph.D.s in scientific disciplines. 

Further Resources 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 



Cole, Johnnetta (Betsch) 

b. 1936 
Anthropologist 

Education: student, Fisk University, 1953; B.A., sociology, Oberlin College, 
1957; M.A., Northwestern University, 1959, Ph.D., anthropology, 1967; LLD, 
Bates College, 1989 

Professional Experience: instructor, University of California, Los Angeles, 1964; 
assistant professor, anthropology and director, black studies, Washington State 
University, Pullman, 1967-1970; professor, anthropology and Afro-American 
studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1970-1983, provost of under- 
graduate education, 1981-1983; visiting professor, Hunter College, City Univer- 
sity of New York (CUNY), 1983-1984, professor, anthropology, 1983-1987, 
director, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 1984-1987; president, Spelman 
College, 1987-1997; professor, anthropology and African American studies, 
Emory University, 1999-2002; president, Bennett College, 2002-2007; director, 
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2009- 

Concurrent Positions: chair, United Way of America, 2004-2006 

Johnnetta Cole is a cultural anthropologist whose research focuses on African and 
African American women and families. Cole also had a distinguished career as an 



Cole, Johnnetta (Betsch) | 305 




Johnnetta Cole, a cultural anthropologist whose research focuses on African and African- 
American women and families, served as president of both Spelman College and Bennett 
College. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



administrator, serving as president of the only two remaining historically black 
female colleges in the United States: Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, and 
Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. She was born into a prominent 
middle-class family in segregated Jacksonville, Florida. Her great-grandfather 
had helped to found an African American insurance company in 1901 — a local 
library and a YMCA were named for him — but even though her family was a 
prominent one, she attended segregated public schools. At the age of 15, she was 
accepted at the predominantly black Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, 
under its early admissions program. She went on to Oberlin, her first experience 
in a predominantly white institution, and then to graduate school at Northwestern. 
After receiving her master's degree in 1959, she married fellow student Robert 
Cole and the couple departed for Liberia to gather data for their doctoral projects, 
his in economics and hers in anthropology. When they returned to the United 
States, her husband completed his doctorate and secured a position at Washington 
State University, Pullman. Johnnetta taught part-time at the same institution and 
received her doctorate from Northwestern in 1967. She also conducted fieldwork 
in Cuba, Haiti, and Grenada, and was involved in a Peace Corps training project 
at San Francisco State University in 1965. She eventually relocated to the University 



306 | Collins, Eileen 

of Massachusetts, where she developed a black studies program and her husband 
taught at Amherst College in Massachusetts. She was selected president of Spelman 
College in 1987. Even though Spelman College is a private, all-girls school, Cole 
was the first black woman to serve as president. She taught women's studies 
and African American studies at Emory University before becoming President of 
Bennett College in 2002. 

Her fieldwork has included studies of a Chicago black church, labor in Liberia, 
racial and gender inequality in Cuba, Caribbean women, female-headed households, 
the way women age, and the Cape Verdean culture in the United States. In her book 
Conversations: Straight Talk with America's Sister President (1993), she discussed 
some of the problems faced by African American women, such as racism and sexism, 
as well as ways to deal with those problems. With Beverly Guy-Sheftall, she 
co-authored Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women 's Equality in African American 
Communities (2003). In addition, she has edited three textbooks on anthropology: 
Anthropology for the Eighties (1982), All American Women: Lines That Divide, Ties 
That Bind (1986), and Anthropology for the Nineties: Introductory Readings (1988). 

Cole is a fellow of the American Anthropological Association and a member of 
the Association of Black Anthropologists and the National Council of Negro 
Women, and has served on the board of directors for the Global Fund for Women. 
She has received numerous honorary degrees and awards for her educational and 
community service, including the McGovern Behavioral Science Award from the 
Smithsonian Institute (1999). In 2004, the Johnnetta B. Cole Global Diversity & 
Inclusion Institute was founded at Bennett College, and Professor Cole continues 
to serve on the Board of Directors. 

Further Resources 

"Johnnetta B. Cole Global Diversity & Inclusion Institute." http://www.jbcinstitute.org/. 



Collins, Eileen 

b. 1956 
Astronaut 

Education: B.A., mathematics and economics, Syracuse University, 1978; M.S., 
operations research, Stanford University, 1986; M.A., space systems management, 
Webster University, 1989 

Professional Experience: instructor pilot, Vance Air Force base, Oklahoma, 1947- 
1982; aircraft commander and instructor pilot, Travis Air Force base, California, 
1983-1984; assistant professor, mathematics, and instructor pilot, U.S. Air Force 



Collins, Eileen | 307 




President Bill Clinton greets astronaut Eileen Collins at a White House ceremony in 1998. 
Collins was the first female space shuttle pilot and the first female commander of a shuttle 
mission. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Academy, Colorado, 1986-1989; astronaut, National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA), 1991-2006 

Eileen Collins is an engineer and astronaut who logged over 870 hours in space as 
part of four space flights: Discovery (1995), Atlantis (1997), Columbia (1999), and 
Discovery (2005). For the first Discovery flight in 1995, which docked with the 
Russian space station Mir, Collins was the first woman to pilot the space shuttle. 
For the Columbia flight in 1999, Collins was the first female shuttle commander. 
Collins received her pilot training through the Air Force, graduating from the Air 
Force Undergraduate Pilot Training program in 1979 and the Air Force Test Pilot 
School in 1990. Between those years, she worked as an instructor pilot and Air 
Force Academy mathematics professor. She became an astronaut in 1991. Collins 
retired from the Air Force in 2005 and from NASA in 2006. 



308 | Colmenares, Margarita H. 

Collins dreamed of flying and of becoming an astronaut as a child, but her fam- 
ily did not have money for college. She attended community college and, at the 
age of 20, worked odd jobs to pay for flying lessons. She received an Air Force 
ROTC scholarship to attend Syracuse University in New York, where she studied 
math and economics, and went on to the pilot training program at Vance Air Force 
Base in Oklahoma. She was one of only four women in her class of more than 300 
and became the Air Force's first female flight instructor, teaching in Oklahoma and 
then at Travis Air Force Base in California. In California, she attended the Air 
Force Institute of Technology and went on to earn a master's degree in operations 
research from Stanford University. She relocated to the U.S. Air Force Academy 
in Colorado as an instructor pilot and then earned a master's degree in space sys- 
tems management from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. While attend- 
ing the Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California, she 
applied for and was accepted into the NASA astronaut program. She has said that 
she considers the female military pilots during World War II, as well as the first 
generation of women astronauts, role models who paved the way for her to 
become an astronaut and to become the first female shuttle pilot and commander. 

Collins has received numerous awards and honors, including a President's Medal 
from the New York Institute of Technology, Defense Superior Service Medal, Distin- 
guished Flying Cross, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Meritorious 
Service Medal with one oak leaf cluster, Air Force Commendation Medal with one 
oak leaf cluster, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for service in Grenada (Opera- 
tion Urgent Fury, October 1983), French Legion of Honor, NASA Outstanding Lead- 
ership Medal, NASA Space Flight Medals, Free Spirit Award, and National Space 
Trophy. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1998. 

Further Resources 

Kevles, Bettyann H. 2003. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. New York: 
Basic Books. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Eileen Marie Collins (Colonel, USAF, 
RET.)." http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/collins.html. 



Colmenares, Margarita H. 

b. 1957 

Environmental Engineer 

Education: student, business, California State University, Sacramento; student, 
Sacramento City College; B.Sc, civil engineering, Stanford University, 1981 



Colmenares, Margarita H. | 309 

Professional Experience: field construction engineer, Chevron Corporation, 
1981, recruiting coordinator (San Francisco) field construction engineer (Salt 
Lake City), foreign training representative, 1983-1986, compliance representative 
and lead engineer in environmental cleanup (El Segundo refinery), 1986, air quality 
specialist (El Segundo), 1989-1996; director of corporate liaison, U.S. Department 
of Education, 1996- 

Concurrent Positions: White House fellow 1991-1992 

Margarita Colmenares is the first Hispanic engineer to be selected as a White 
House fellow since the program was established in 1964, and during her 1991— 
1992 fellowship years, she served as special assistant to the deputy secretary of 
education in Washington, D.C. She was also the first woman president of the Soci- 
ety of Hispanic Professional Engineers. She received her first assignment specifi- 
cally involved in environmental protection as an engineer charged with ensuring 
compliance with federal, state, and local environmental, safety, fire, and health 
regulations at Chevron Corporation's facilities. She directed an environmental 
cleanup project at the Chevron refinery in El Segundo and was then promoted to 
air quality specialist in 1989. At this time, she also was national president of the 
Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and persuaded Chevron to 
give her a one-year paid leave while she was president. During her term of office, 
she promoted education, especially engineering education, for Hispanics. In 1989, 
she also participated in the National Hispana Leadership Initiative, a program 
for women that included training sessions in public policy at Harvard's John F. 
Kennedy School of Government. 

Colmenares was born in Sacramento of parents who had emigrated from 
Mexico. Her parents sent her and her siblings to parochial schools in order to pro- 
vide the best education for them, and she was selected in high school for a program 
for inner-city youth to work at Xerox Corporation. She entered California State 
University, Sacramento to study business courses, but discovered an interest in 
engineering. She filled in gaps in her education with courses in chemistry, physics, 
and calculus at Sacramento City College before entering the Engineering School 
at Stanford University. While attending school, she also worked part-time with 
the California Department of Water Resources inspecting the structural conditions 
of dams and water-purifying plants. She won five scholarships to attend Stanford 
and simultaneously worked for the Chevron Corporation in Texas and California 
in that company's cooperative education program. 

When Colmenares received the White House fellowship in 1991-1992, she also 
requested an assignment with the Department of Education. In 1996, she accepted 
a position as director of corporate liaison for the U.S. Department of Education, 
where she works with business leaders and organizations around the country to 



310 | Colson, Elizabeth Florence 

engage their support for education. She has received recognition for her commit- 
ment to the Hispanic community. She founded the San Francisco chapter of SHPE 
in 1982 and served as president of that organization. In 1990 and 1992, Hispanic 
Business recognized her as one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the country. 

Further Resources 

Ambrose, Susan A. et al. 1997. Journeys of Women in Science and Engineering: No 
Universal Constants. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. 



Colson, Elizabeth Florence 

b. 1917 
Anthropologist 

Education: B.A., anthropology, University of Minnesota, 1938, M.A., 1940; M.A., 
Radcliffe College, 1941, Ph.D., social anthropology, 1945 

Professional Experience: assistant social science analyst, War Relocation Author- 
ity, Arizona, 1942-1943; research assistant, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, 
1944-1945; senior research officer, Rhodes-Livingstone Institute of Social 
Research, Northern Rhodesia, 1946-1947, director, 1948-1951; senior lecturer, 
social anthropology, Manchester University, England, 1951-1953; associate profes- 
sor, anthropology, Goucher College, Maryland, 1954-1955; associate professor and 
research associate, African studies, Boston University, 1955-1959, part-time 
research associate, 1959-1962; professor, anthropology, Brandeis University, 
1959-1963; visiting professor, Northwestern University, 1963-1964; professor, 
anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, 1964-1984, emeritus 

Concurrent Positions: fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral 
Sciences, Stanford University, 1967-1968; lecturer, University of Rochester, 
1973; fellow, California Institute of Technology, 1975-1976; lecturer, University 
of New Mexico, 1978; visiting professor, University of Zambia, 1987; visiting 
senior research fellow, Refugee Studies Programme, Queen Elizabeth House, 
Oxford, England, 1988—1989 

Elizabeth Colson has investigated social change in central Africa and in the north- 
west United States; in particular, her work was a forerunner to anthropological 
research on African Americans. Her main research interest has been a longitudinal 
study of the Gwembe Tonga of Zambia through a period of forced resettlement 
and political reorganization. Whether in Africa or in the United States (such as 
among the Pomo, Makah, or Hopi-Navajo Indians, or Japanese Americans during 



Colwell, Rita (Rossi) | 311 

World War II), her research has looked into the effects of assimilation, relocation, 
and economic and political change on women, families, and religious life. In 
common with many anthropologists, whose work often takes them around the globe, 
she has held a variety of jobs in academia, institutes, fellowships, and special 
projects. She has had unique appointments as director of an institute in Northern 
Rhodesia and as a senior lecturer at Manchester University in England. She pub- 
lished dozens of articles and reports, and authored or edited more than 15 books, 
including Life among the Cattle-Owning Tonga: The Material Culture of a Zambian 
Tribe (1949), The Makah Indians: A Study of an Indian Tribe in Modern American 
Society (1953), Marriage and Family among the Plateau Tonga of Northern 
Rhodesia (1958), The Social Consequences of Resettlement: The Impact of the 
Kariba Resettlement upon the Gwembe Tonga (1971), Autobiographies of Three 
Porno Women (1974), and For Prayer and Profit: The Ritual, Economic, and Social 
Importance of Beer in Gwembe District, 1950-1982 (co-author, 1988). 

Colson was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1977. She received 
the Morgan Lectureship at the University of Rochester (1973), the Outstanding 
Achievement Award of the Society of Woman Geographers (1982), the Rivers 
Memorial Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (1982), and the Distin- 
guished Africanist Award of the American Association for African Studies (1988). 
She was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute, a fellow 
of the American Anthropological Association, and a fellow of the American Associ- 
ation for the Advancement of Science. She has been a member of the American 
Ethnological Society, Society for Political and Legal Anthropology, American Soci- 
ety for Applied Anthropology, American Association of African Studies, American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, Society of Women Geographers, and Association 
of Social Anthropologists. She received honorary degrees from Brown University 
(1979), the University of Rochester (1985), and the University of Zambia (1992). 

Further Resources 

University of California, Berkeley. "Seventh Emeritus Lecture Honoring Elizabeth F. Colson." 
Anthropology Emeritus Lecture Series. (20 October 1997). http://www.lib. berkeley 
.edu/ANTH/emeritus/colson/index.html. 



Colwell, Rita (Rossi) 

b. 1934 

Marine Microbiologist 

Education: B.S., bacteriology, Purdue University, 1956, M.S., genetics, 1958; 
Ph.D., marine microbiology, University of Washington, Seattle, 1961 



3 1 2 I Colwell, Rita (Rossi) 




Marine microbiologist Rita Colwell is awarded the National Medal of Science by President 
George W. Bush in 2007. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Professional Experience: research assistant professor, University of Washington, 
1961-1964; visiting assistant professor, Georgetown University, 1963-1964, as- 
sistant to associate professor, biology, 1964-1972; professor, microbiology and 
biotechnology, University of Maryland, 1972-, director, University of Maryland 
Biotechnology Institute (UMBI), 1987-1991, president, 1991-1998; director, 
National Science Foundation, 1998-2004; chair and chief scientist, Canon U.S. 
Life Sciences, Inc., 2004- 

Concurrent Positions: consultant, Environmental Protection Agency, 1975-; 
director, Maryland Sea Grant Program, 1978-1983; vice president of academic 
affairs, University of Maryland, 1983-1987; member, National Science Board, 
1984-1990; chairman, National Science Board, 1996-1998; councilor, National 
Academy of Sciences, 2008-201 1 



Colwell, Rita (Rossi) | 313 

Rita Colwell is a leader in marine biotechnology, a field that involves the applica- 
tion of molecular techniques to marine biology for harvesting medical, industrial, 
and aquaculture products from the sea. Her goal is to improve the environment and 
human health by understanding, preserving, and using the ocean's resources, and 
she believes the future of marine biotechnology lies in new drugs made from 
marine sources, new methods of cost-effective fish culture, seaweed genetics, 
and improved biotechnological waste recycling. Her work led to the creation of 
the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, established in 1987 with 
Colwell as director and then president of this cutting-edge research center. In 
1998, she was appointed by President Clinton to be director of the National Science 
Foundation (NSF), the first woman to hold this position. At the NSF, she showed a 
commitment to K-12 science and mathematics education, and to increasing the 
presence of women and minorities in science. She left her post at the NSF in 
February 2004 to become chair of Canon U.S. Life Sciences, Inc., a new organization 
that seeks to apply molecular research to medical diagnostic applications. 

Colwell was the seventh of eight children of parents who emphasized the 
importance of a good education. She obtained a full scholarship to study at Purdue, 
where she majored in bacteriology. She married in her senior year of college and 
planned to continue in the master's program while her husband, Jack Colwell, 
completed his degree in physical chemistry. However, the head of the bacteriology 
department did not want to give fellowship money to a woman. She was accepted 
into the master's program in genetics instead. After she and her husband both 
received doctorates from the University of Washington, Colwell obtained a grant 
from the National Science Foundation and joined her husband in Canada to con- 
duct research. The Colwell Massif geological site in Antarctica is named for her 
work in the polar regions. 

Colwell has authored, co-authored, or edited 16 books and hundreds of scien- 
tific papers. She also produced the award-winning film, Invisible Seas. She was a 
member of the National Science Board (1984-1990), which advises the federal 
government on science policy. She is a fellow of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, the Society for Industrial Microbiology, and the 
American Academy of Microbiology. She is a member of the American Society 
for Microbiology (president, 1984-1985) and the Society for Invertebrate Pathology, 
and the recipient of the Fisher Award of the American Society for Microbiology 
(1985), Gold Medal Award of the International Institute of Biotechnology (1990), 
Phi Kappa Phi National Scholar Award (1993), Outstanding Service Award from 
the American Institute of Biological Sciences (2004), and National Medal of Science 
(2006). She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 2000, and in 
2008 she began a three-year term as a councilor to the NAS. 



314 | Conway, Lynn Ann 



Further Resources 



University of Maryland. Faculty website, http://chemlife.umd.edu/about/circleofdiscovery/ 
ritarcolwell. 



Conway, Lynn Ann 

b. 1938 

Computer Scientist, Electrical Engineer 

Education: B.S., Columbia University, 1962, M.S., electrical engineering, 1963 

Professional Experience: staff researcher, IBM Corporation, 1964-1969; senior 
staff engineer, Memorex Corporation, 1969-1973; research engineer, Xerox Cor- 
poration, 1973-1983; chief scientist and assistant director of strategic computing, 
Defense Advisory Research Projects Agency (DARPA), 1983-1985; professor, 
electrical engineering and computer science and associate dean of the College of 
Engineering, University of Michigan, 1985-1998, emerita 

Concurrent Positions: visiting associate professor, electrical engineering and 
computer sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1978-1979 

Lynn Conway is famous for two major developments in computer circuitry, the 
first being the invention of a new approach to the design of integrated computer 
circuit chips that simplified and demystified the design process. Her second major 
achievement was a new method of chip fabrication that enabled designers to 
obtain rapidly prototypes with which to test their hardware and software designs. 
The latter development was reported in the textbook Introduction to VLSI Systems 
(1980, co-authored with Carver Mead), which became the standard text in courses 
around the world. 

Conway excelled in physics and mathematics in high school, and began her col- 
lege career as a physics major at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). 
She took some time off from school before returning to Columbia University to com- 
plete her undergraduate and master's degrees in engineering. While at Columbia, her 
course project was a software system that impressed a visiting professor and led to a 
job at IBM. In 1969, she accepted a position with Memorex Corporation, where she 
headed a project to develop a processor for an inexpensive office computer. Memorex 
decided to drop its computer program and, in 1973, Conway joined Xerox Corpora- 
tion on a project to superimpose an optical character recognition over a facsimile 
system. The prototype was a mammoth machine that filled a room, and Xerox 
dropped the project. She next worked on designing computer chips, which resulted 



Conwell, Esther Marly | 315 

in the major accomplishment of simplifying computer chip design, and briefly taught 
a course on chip design at MIT. In 1983, she had the opportunity to work for the 
Defense Advisory Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Washington, D.C., the 
agency that developed ARPAnet, an early version of the Internet. Part of her job 
was to oversee the preparation of an advanced computing program to secure funding 
from Congress. She moved to the University of Michigan in 1985 as associate dean of 
the College of Engineering, where she spent the remainder of her career and helped 
the university keep abreast of computer research and technology. 

Conway is truly a pioneer in computer technology, as she has worked at the fore- 
front of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, telecommunica- 
tions, and personal computers. But she has an unusual personal story as well, in 
that she was born a male (Robert) and underwent gender reassignment surgery in 
1968. She believes she was fired from IBM because of her surgery, and she did not 
speak publicly about her past as a man for many years, achieving worldwide recog- 
nition for her work as a woman computer scientist. She now maintains a website that 
tells her story and provides information on transgender and transsexual issues. 

Conway is a fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and 
has served on the editorial board of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engi- 
neers (IEEE) magazine Spectrum. She is or has been a member of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association for Artificial 
Intelligence, and the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, and is a presidential 
appointee on the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Air Force Academy. She was elected 
to the National Academy of Engineering in 1989 and has received numerous awards, 
including the Wetherill Medal from the Franklin Institute (1985), the Meritorious 
Civilian Service Award given by the Secretary of Defense (1985), and the National 
Achievement Award of the Society of Women Engineers (1990). 

Further Resources 

University of Michigan. "Lynn Conway: Computer Scientist, Electrical Engineer, Inven- 
tor; Research Manager, Engineering Educator." http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/ 
conway/conway.html. 



Conwell, Esther Marly 

b. 1922 
Physicist 

Education: B.A., physics, Brooklyn College, 1942; M.S., physics, University of 
Rochester, 1945; Ph.D., physics, University of Chicago, 1948 



316 | Conwell, Esther Marly 

Professional Experience: instructor, physics, Brooklyn College, 1946-1951; 
technical staff, Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1951-1952; engineering specialist, 
Sylvania/General Telephone and Electronics Laboratory (GTE), 1952-1963, 
manager, physics department, 1963-1970; professor, Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology, 1971-1972; principal scientist, Xerox Laboratories, 1972-1980, 
research fellow, 1980-1998; professor, chemistry and physics, University of 
Rochester, 1998- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting lecturer and researcher, University of Paris, 1962- 
1963; associate director, National Science Foundation Center for Photoinduced 
Charge Transfer, University of Rochester, New York, 1991— 

Esther Conwell is a physicist who specializes in the study of solid-state materials, 
such as silicon, which are used to make transistors and semiconductors in the elec- 
tronics and computer industries. She spent almost her entire career in industry, as 
head of research departments at both GTE and Xerox. She has published more 
than 100 papers in leading scientific journals, describing how semiconductors can 
be affected by subjecting the substances to outside perturbations like high electric 
fields. She is the author of an early work in the industry, High-Field Transport in 
Semiconductors (1967), which became a widely used text on the topic. She has also 
researched xerography, or photoconductors, in the use of copy machines. 

Her father lived through the Depression and encouraged Conwell's education so 
that she would be able to support herself someday. Although she taught briefly at 
Brooklyn College, there were few academic positions for a woman physicist at the 
time she received her Ph.D., so she found her niche in industry research. She worked 
at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for one year, then moved to GTE, where she rose 
through the ranks to manager of the physics department. She spent another year 
teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) before accepting a posi- 
tion as principal scientist and then research fellow for Xerox. Since her retirement 
from Xerox, she has been on the chemistry faculty at the University of Rochester. 

Conwell received the Society of Women Engineers achievement award (1960) 
and was elected to both the National Academy of Engineering (1980) and the 
National Academy of Sciences (1990). She has been elected a fellow of the 
American Physical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
and is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). 
Her numerous awards and honors include the Achievement Award of the Society 
of Women Engineers (1960), being the first woman to receive the Thomas 
Edison Medal of the IEEE (1997), a Dreyfus Senior Scholar Mentor Award 
(2005), and the Susan B. Anthony Lifetime Achievement Award of the University 
of Rochester (2006); most recently, the American Chemical Society honored her 
with an Award for Encouraging Women into Careers in the Chemical Sciences 



Cordova, France Anne-Dominic | 317 

(2008). As part of her commitment to issues faced by women scientists, she was a 
founding member of the American Physical Society's Committee on Women in 
Physics (1971). In 2002, she was named by Discover magazine as one of the 
50 most important female scientists. Her son, Lewis Rothberg, is also a physicist 
on the faculty at the University of Rochester, and the two have collaborated on 
research and articles for publication. 

Further Resources 

Byers, Nina and Gary A. Williams. 2006. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth- 
Century Women to Physics. New York: Cambridge University Press. 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 

University of Rochester. Faculty website, http://www.chem.rochester.edu/faculty/ 
faculty.php?name=conwell. 



Cordova, France Anne-Dominic 

b. 1947 

Astronomer, Astrophysicist 

Education: B.A., Stanford University, 1969; Ph.D., physics, California Institute of 
Technology, 1979 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, 1969-1971; research assistant, 
astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, 1975-1979, fellow, 1979; staff 
member and department group leader, astrophysics, Los Alamos National Labora- 
tory, 1979-1989; professor and head, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 
Pennsylvania State University, 1989-1993; chief scientist, National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration (NASA), 1993-1996; professor, physics and vice 
chancellor for research, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1996-2002; 
professor, astrobiology and chancellor, University of California, Riverside, 
2002-2007; president, Purdue University, 2007- 

France Cordova, an observational astronomer and high-energy astrophysicist, 
served as chief scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
(NASA), a professor of physics and astrobiology, and a college president. 
Her research covers a wide range of subjects: observational and experimental 
astrophysics, multispectral research on x-ray and gamma-ray sources, ultraviolet 
spectroscopy of nearby binary stars, thermal emissions from neutron stars, and 
spaceborne instrumentation. As a chief scientist for NASA, she worked on the 



318 | Cordova, France Anne-Dominic 




Astronomer and astrophysicist France Anne- 
Dominic Cordova became president of Purdue 
University in 2007. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Mars Pathfinder Space Program and, 
although she left NASA before the 
Pathfinder reached Mars in 1997, 
NASA later awarded her its highest 
honor, the Distinguished Service 
Medal (2007). Cordova spent several 
years in California, improving fund- 
ing for space and science research in 
the University of California system. 
In 2007, she became the first woman, 
and first Latina, to become president 
of Purdue University, coincidentally 
the alma mater of astronaut Neil 
Armstrong. 

Cordova initially intended to study 
anthropology, but after college gradu- 
ation began teaching high school 
physics and math. She became inter- 
ested in cosmology and earned her Ph.D. in physics in 1979. She was employed 
at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she studied white dwarfs, neutron 
stars, and black holes, theorizing that white dwarfs should emit x-rays but at lower 
intensities than neutron stars. She looked at more than 200 white dwarf close bina- 
ries with x-ray satellites to prove this theory and, with colleagues, described math- 
ematically the low-energy pulsations in these systems. She moved to Pennsylvania 
State University in 1989 as professor and head of the Department of Astronomy 
and Astrophysics, where her husband, Christian J. Foster, led a Ph.D. program in 
cognitive science and education. 

Cordova has served on numerous prestigious committees, including the Presi- 
dent's National Medal of Science Committee (1991-1993), the committee that 
selects the persons to receive the National Medal of Science, one of the top awards 
in the nation. She received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the California 
Institute of Technology (2007) and was named to Stanford University's Multicultural 
Hall of Fame (2008). She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 
and the Association for Women in Science, and a member of the American Astro- 
nomical Society and the International Astronomical Union. In 1996, she appeared 
on a PBS television series about women minority scientists. 



Further Resources 

Purdue University. President's website, http://www.purdue.edu/president/about/index 
.html. 



Cori, Gerty Theresa Radnitz | 319 

Cori, Gerty Theresa Radnitz 

1896 1957 
Biochemist 

Education: M.D., German University of Prague, 1920 

Professional Experience: assistant, Karolinen Children's Hospital, 1920-1922; 
assistant pathologist, Roswell Park Memorial Institute, 1922-1925, assistant 
biochemist, 1925-1931; researcher, medical school, Washington University, 
St. Louis, 1931-1947, professor, biochemistry, 1947-1957 

Gerty Cori was a biochemist who was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize in 
Physiology or Medicine, and the first American woman to win in any of the sci- 
ences. She won the Nobel Prize jointly with her husband, Carl F. Cori, in 1947 
for their work on the effect of hormones on the rate of conversion of glycogen to 
glucose in the overall processes of the body's carbohydrate metabolism. Their dis- 
covery was termed the "Cori cycle," and their laboratory at Washington University 
in St. Louis became the focal point for all researchers interested in carbohydrate 
metabolism. Their research had implications for understanding diabetes and other 
metabolic diseases, and in later work they demonstrated that a human heritable 
disease can stem from a defect in an enzyme. 

The couple met while they were both in medical school in Prague and immigrated 
to the United States when Carl received an appointment at Roswell Park Memorial 
Institute in Buffalo, New York. Gerty also received a staff appointment and, in addi- 
tion to their regular duties, the two pursued their own research interests in normal 
carbohydrate metabolism and its regulation. They decided to leave Roswell and Carl 
was recruited by several universities, none of which would offer Gerty a faculty 
appointment. They finally found dual positions at Washington University, where Carl 
was chair of the department of pharmacology, and Gerty collaborated with her hus- 
band while receiving a token salary as a researcher for more than 15 years. Only after 
they were awarded the Nobel Prize did she receive a full professorial appointment. 

Gerty was diagnosed with bone marrow disease in 1947, but she continued to 
work for another 10 years in spite of extreme pain. After receiving the Nobel 
Prize, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1948. She was 
also the 1948 recipient of the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society. 
In 2008, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp featuring Gerty Cori as part of 
an "American Scientists" series. 

Further Resources 

Opfell, Olga S. 1986. The Lady Laureates: Women Who Have Won the Nobel Prize. Metuchen, 
NJ: Scarecrow Press. 



320 | Cowings, Patricia Suzanne 

McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch. 1998. Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, 
and Momentous Discoveries. Secaucus, NJ: Birch Lane Press. 

"Dr. Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori." Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating 
America's Women Physicians. National Library of Medicine. National Institutes of 
Health, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography 
69.html. 



Cowings, Patricia Suzanne 

b. 1948 

Psychologist, Physiologist 

Education: B.A., psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 
1970; M.A. and Ph.D., psychology, University of California, Davis, 1973 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral associate, National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA)/Ames Research Center, 1973-1975; research specialist, 
San Jose State University Foundation, 1975-1977; research psychologist and prin- 
cipal investigator, NASA/ Ames Research Center, 1977- 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct associate professor, psychology, University of 
Nevada, Reno, 1987; adjunct assistant professor, psychiatry, University of California, 
Los Angeles, 1991-2001; acting assistant chief, Life Sciences Division, NASA/ 
Ames, 1995; adjunct associate professor, biomedical engineering, University of 
Akron, Ohio, 1997-; adjunct assistant professor, medical/clinical psychology, 
F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of Health 
Sciences, Maryland, 1998— 

Patricia Cowings is known for specialized work in psychophysiology, the study of 
the relationships among the mind, behavior, and bodily mechanisms, and, in par- 
ticular, in studying the effects of zero gravity on astronauts. She worked to develop 
a treatment for the motion sickness commonly experienced by astronauts and pio- 
neered the use of biofeedback and autogenic (or self-suggestion) training to help 
suppress the problem. The results of her research were first tested in space and 
found successful during the September 1992 Spacelab-J mission, an eight-day 
flight of the space shuttle Endeavour. Cowings replicated the conditions that cause 
motion sickness to record the physiological and psychological changes that 
occurred. The astronauts affectionately called her "the Baroness of Barf." She 
teaches a subject to mentally evoke a sensation, like warmth in a limb or relaxation 
of muscles, to bring about desired physiological changes such as increased skin 



Cowings, Patricia Suzanne | 321 



temperature or relaxed muscles. In 
biofeedback, she teaches people to 
control as many as 20 physiological 
functions related to motion sickness, 
including heart rate, skin conduct- 
ance, depth and rate of respiration, 
and flow of blood to the hands. 
During the first test in space, the 
astronauts had biofeedback units 
strapped to their wrists. Another area 
in which Cowings has worked is 
therapy to exercise the veins in the 
astronauts' legs to combat the effects 
of weightlessness. Her husband, 
William B. Tiscano, also works at 
NASA, and the two have co-authored 
several publications together. 

Cowings's work combines her 
early interests in both space science 
and psychology. After receiving her 
doctorate in psychology, she received 

a postdoctoral appointment at NASA's Ames Research Center and has remained 
there throughout most of her career. Her research for NASA has led to important 
breakthroughs for the comfort and health of astronauts, and her autogenic training 
exercise methods and system were patented in 1997. She has received numerous 
awards and honors, including the NASA Individual Achievement Award (1993), 
Black Engineer of the Year Award (1997), AMES Honor Award for Technology 
Development (1999), NASA Space Act Award for invention (2002), and National 
Women of Color Technology Award (2006). She is a member of the Society for 
Psychophysiological Research, American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, and New York Academy of Sciences. 




NASA psychophysiologist Dr. Patricia 
Cowings. (NASA) 



Further Resources 

Ehrhart-Morrison, Dorothy. 1997. No Mountain High Enough: Secrets of Successful African 
American Women. Berkeley, CA: Conari Press. 

Kevles, Bettyann H. 2003. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. New York: 
Basic Books. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Patricia Cowings." http://humansystems 
.arc.nasa.gov/groups/ACD/personnel view.php?personnel id=20. 



322 | Cox, Geraldine Anne (Vang) 

Cox, Geraldine Anne (Vang) 



b. 1944 

Environmental Scientist, Biologist 

Education: B.S., Drexel University, 1966, M.S., 1967, Ph.D., environmental 
science, 1970 

Professional Experience: technical coordinator of environmental programs, Ray- 
theon Company, 1970-1976; White House fellow, special assistant to secretary, 
U.S. Department of Labor, 1976-1977; environmental scientist, American Petro- 
leum Institute, 1977-1979; vice president and technical director, Chemical Manu- 
facturers Association, 1979-1991; vice president, Fluor Daniel, subsidiary of 
Fluor Corporation, 1991-1993; chair and chief executive officer, AMPOTECH, 
1994-2000; independent consultant, 1996-; Disaster Assistance Employee, 
FEMA, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2004- 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct associate professor, Graduate Environmental 
Program, Drexel University, 2002- 

Geraldine Cox is an environmental scientist whose research focuses on water pol- 
lution, ecological damage assessment, and environmental health. She is known for 
her role in creating chemical industry policy guidelines for community emergen- 
cies following the accidental release of methyl isocyanate gas at a plant in Bhopal, 
India, late in 1984. At the time, she was vice president and technical director of the 
Chemical Manufacturers Association, a professional organization whose members 
represent 90% of the chemical companies in the United States. The explosion was 
devastating to the owner of the plant, Union Carbide Corporation, because of the 
contamination of the area around the plant and the adverse publicity about safety 
procedures at that location. In the United States, the Chemical Manufacturers 
Association's guidelines established the Community Awareness and Emergency 
Response (CAER), which led to the adoption of a federal and later an international 
standard drafted by the United States, both based on Cox's model. 

Cox left the association in 1991 to join Fluor Daniel as a vice president, a position 
she held for two years before helping to found AMPOTECH, a company committed 
to using waste coal and other technologies to create low-pollution energy in develop- 
ing countries. She has been an environmental impact consultant and analyst for both 
government and trade organizations such as the Environmental Protection Agency, 
U.S. Department of Justice, and the chemical technologies firm EUROTECH, and 
has been a participant in numerous workshops and committees of the National 
Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. She has held many signifi- 
cant committee assignments, such as founder and chair of the Marine Water Quality 



Cox, Gertrude Mary | 323 

Committee, member of the Transportation Advisory Committee of the U.S. Coast 
Guard (from whom she received a Meritorious Service Medal, the highest civilian 
award, in 1992), and member of the Engineering Affairs Council of the Association 
of American Engineering Societies. She has received the Achievement Award of the 
Society of Women Engineers (1984) and is a member of the American Society for 
Testing and Materials, Water Pollution Control Federation, American Chemical 
Society, American National Standards Institute, and Society of Women Engineers. 

Cox, Gertrude Mary 

1900 1978 
Mathematician, Statistician 

Education: B.S., mathematics, Iowa State University, 1929, M.S., statistics, 1931; 
graduate student, psychological statistics, University of California, Berkeley, 
1931-1933 

Professional Experience: research assistant to assistant professor, statistical labo- 
ratory, Iowa State University, 1933-1940; professor, experimental statistics, North 
Carolina State College, 1940-1944, head, Institute of Statistics, 1944-1949, 
department of biostatistics, 1949-1960; head, Research Triangle Institute, statis- 
tics research division, 1960-1965; independent consultant 

Gertrude Cox was the prominent American woman statistician of her time and is 
remembered by many as the "First Lady of Statistics." She founded the department 
of experimental statistics in the School of Agriculture and was head of the Institute 
of Statistics at North Carolina State College. Perhaps her greatest legacy was as an 
administrator, for Cox was committed to promoting statistics research and teaching 
at other institutions throughout the South, helping to establish programs at the Univer- 
sity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the Research Triangle Institute, which com- 
bined and drew on the research of the three campuses at North Carolina State 
College, the University of North Carolina, and Duke University. Even after her formal 
retirement in 1965, she traveled to Egypt, where she spent a year helping establish an 
Institute of Statistics at the University of Cairo. Cox's specialty was the design of 
experiments, and she enthusiastically used each new generation of computers as they 
became available. Under her leadership, North Carolina State College was one of the 
first colleges to use IBM computers and therefore to develop some of the most power- 
ful statistical software programs. She published Experimental Designs (1950, 
co-authored with William Cochran), which became a popular and widely used textbook. 
After graduating high school, Cox began training to become a deaconess in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. She enrolled at Iowa State to obtain a degree in social 



324 | Crane, Kathleen 

science, but switched to mathematics for her bachelor's degree in 1929 and, in 193 1, 
received the first master's degree in statistics from Iowa's mathematics department. 
She studied psychological statistics at Berkeley for two years before returning to 
Iowa State to assist in establishing the new Statistical Laboratory. Although she never 
completed the requirements for the Ph.D., she was appointed to the faculty at Iowa 
State in 1939. When her Iowa advisor was asked by North Carolina State College 
for faculty recommendations, he sent a list of male graduates for consideration, but 
then added a note: "Of course if you would consider a woman for this position I 
would recommend Gertrude Cox of my staff." Cox was hired in 1940 as head of the 
newly created department of experimental statistics at North Carolina State College, 
the first female head of any department at that institution. She obtained sizable grants 
from the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations for her program in statistics and in 1945 
organized and became director of the Institute of Statistics, which combined the 
teaching of statistics at the University of North Carolina and at North Carolina State 
College. Even after her retirement from the Research Triangle Institute in 1965, 
Cox remained active as a consultant for government agencies and research groups. 

Cox was the first woman elected to the International Statistical Institute (1949), 
and she served as president of the American Statistical Association (1956). She 
was one of the founders and also president of the Biometric Society (1969), and 
was editor (1945-1955) of the Society's Biometrics Bulletin. She was a fellow of 
the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the Royal Statistical Society of 
England, and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1975. Her con- 
tribution to North Carolina State College (now North Carolina State University) 
has been honored with both a building and a scholarship in her name, and, in 
1986, the Caucus of Women in Statistics also established a Gertrude M. Cox 
Scholarship fund in her name. 

Further Resources 

American Statistical Association. Statisticians in History, http://www.amstat.org/about/ 
statisticiansinhistory /index. cfm?fuseaction=biosinfo&BioID=2. 

Crane, Kathleen 

b. 1951 
Oceanographer 

Education: B.S., Oregon State University, 1973; Ph.D., oceanography, Scripps 
Institution of Oceanography, 1977 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti- 
tution, 1977-1979; research scientist, Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, 



Crosby, Elizabeth Caroline | 325 

1979-1993; professor, ocean and earth sciences, Hunter College, City University 
of New York, 1985-2002; program manager, Arctic Research Office, National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2002- 

Concurrent Positions: director, Arctic Environmental Security Geographic Infor- 
mation System, Naval Research Laboratory, 1993-1998 

Kathleen Crane is an oceanographer, marine geologist, and ecologist who focuses on 
the Arctic region. She is program manager of the Arctic Research Office of NOAA, 
where she coordinates missions related to Arctic marine ecosystems and climate 
change and has been mission coordinator for two major expeditions (2004 and 
2009) of the Russian-American Long-term Census of the Arctic (RUSALCA). 
Crane received a doctorate in oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Ocean- 
ography in San Diego, California, where she studied geophysics and underwater 
thermal vents in the Galapagos. She studied mid-ocean ridges as a postdoctoral 
researcher at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, and then 
began an affiliation with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York. She 
was a director of an Arctic environmental research program at the Naval Research 
Laboratory and taught for many years at Hunter College in New York. 

Having originally studied waters and marine geology in the southern hemi- 
sphere, in the 1990s, Crane became interested in Arctic research. Her professional 
and personal lives came together after adopting her daughter from Siberia in 1996, 
and in 2002, she left academia to join NOAA as part of a U.S.-Russian collabora- 
tion on Arctic research. Crane has been an invited lecturer and visiting scientist at 
numerous institutions throughout the United States and Europe, including the 
University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of Hawaii; the University 
of Oslo, Norway; and the University of Paris, France. She has coordinated and been 
chief scientist of more than 18 international ocean expeditions as well. In 2003, she 
published an autobiography, Sea Legs: Tales of a Woman Oceanographer. 

Further Resources 

Delaney, Peggy, ed. 2005. "Autobiographical Sketches of Women in Oceanography." Ocean- 
ography 18(1): 65 246. (March 2005). The Oceanography Society, http://www.tos.org/ 
oceanography/issues/issue archive/issue pdfs/18 1/18.1 sketches.pdf. 

Crosby, Elizabeth Caroline 

1888 1983 
Neuroanatomist 

Education: B.S., Adrian College, 1910; M.S., University of Chicago, 1912, Ph.D., 
1915 



326 | Crosby, Elizabeth Caroline 

Professional Experience: principal and school superintendent, 1915-1920; 
instructor, anatomy, University of Michigan Medical School, 1920-1926, assistant 
to associate professor, anatomy, 1926-1936, professor, anatomy and consulting 
neurosurgeon, 1936-1960; professor emeritus, anatomy, University of Alabama, 
Birmingham, 1963-1983 

Elizabeth Crosby was recognized as one of the leading anatomists of her time. Her 
fields of research were neurobiology and neuroanatomy, or the anatomy of the 
brain, with a special focus on the brains of vertebrates. After completing her doc- 
torate at the University of Chicago, she worked as a public school administrator 
in Michigan before receiving an appointment as instructor at the University 
of Michigan. Over the course of her long career as a medical researcher, she 
co-authored several textbooks for neurosurgeons: A Laboratory Outline of Neurology 
(1918), The Comparative Anatomy of the Nervous System of Vertebrates, Including 
Man (1936), The Correlative Anatomy of the Nervous System (1962), and The 
Comparative Correlative Neuroanatomy of the Vertebrate Telencephalon (1982). 
She held many distinguished lectureships at the University of Pittsburgh, Yale Uni- 
versity, Mayo Clinic, Tulane University, and Emory University. After her retirement, 
she was an emeritus professor at both the University of Michigan and the 
University of Alabama, Birmingham, where she continued to direct the research of 
a new generation of neuroanatomists. She has been inducted into both the Michigan 
and Alabama Women's Hall of Fame. 

At the University of Michigan, Crosby rose steadily through the ranks to 
become the first woman to reach full professor at the Medical School. This was a 
significant accomplishment because she did not have a medical degree. Toward 
the end of her career, in 1958, she received an honorary M.D. from the University 
of Groningen in The Netherlands. She also received the Galen Award in 1956 for 
preclinical medical teaching and in 1979 was awarded the National Medal of Sci- 
ence under President Jimmy Carter. She received several awards in recognition for 
her studies on the comparative neurology of vertebrates and ultimately received 
nine honorary doctoral degrees, including from Smith College (1968), Woman's 
Medical College of Pennsylvania (1968), and the University of Michigan (1970). 

Further Resources 

Alabama Women's Hall of Fame. 2000. "Elizabeth Caroline Crosby (1888 1983)." http:// 
www.awhf.org/crosby.html. 



D 



Daly, Marie Maynard 



1921 2003 
Biochemist 

Education: B.S., Queens College, 1942; M.S., New York University, 1943; Ph.D., 
chemistry, Columbia University, 1948 

Professional Experience: instructor, physical sciences, Howard University, 
1947-1948; visiting investigator and assistant, general physiology, Rockefeller 
Institute, 1951-1955; associate, biochemistry, Goldwater Memorial Hospital, 
Columbia University, 1955-1959; assistant professor, biochemistry, Columbia 
University, 1960-1971; associate professor, biochemistry and medicine, Albert 
Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University, 1971-1986 

Concurrent Positions: American Cancer Society fellow, Rockefeller Institute, 
1948-1951; established investigator, American Heart Association, 1958-1963; 
career scientist, Health Research Council of New York, 1962-1972; Commission 
on Science and Technology, City of New York, 1986-1989 

Marie Daly was the first African American woman to receive a doctorate in chem- 
istry, and she is known for her research on the chemistry of the cell nucleus. She 
taught at Howard University for one year while she sought an American Cancer 
Society fellowship to conduct research at Rockefeller Institute. At the Institute, 
she examined the ways in which proteins are constructed within the cells of the 
body, in particular the cell nucleus. In 1952, James Watson and Francis Crick 
described the structure of DNA, the spiral molecules that carry the genetic code 
of every living thing. Daly was fortunate that this breakthrough led to an immedi- 
ate increase in the scientific study of the chemistry of the cell nucleus. When her 
research team moved to Columbia University, they undertook a long series of stud- 
ies related to the underlying causes of heart attacks. She focused on the blockage 
of arteries that supply oxygen and nutrition to the heart muscle and discovered that 
cholesterol was part of the problem. She studied the effects of sugar and other 
dietary products on the health of the arteries. Daly also did pioneering work on 
the effects of cigarette smoke on the functioning of the lungs. She continued this 
project when the team moved to Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and she also 



327 



328 | Darden, Christine V. Mann 

taught courses in biochemistry to medical students. She focused her research on 
the breakdown of the circulatory system caused either by advanced age or by 
hypertension. She also studied the biochemical aspects of kidney function. 

Daly was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the American Heart Association. 
She was a member of the American Chemical Society and the American Society of 
Biological Chemists, and sat on the board of governors for the New York Academy 
of Science. She was also committed to increasing the presence of minorities in the 
sciences, was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People, and started a scholarship fund at Queens College in her father's 
memory to support minority students in physics and chemistry. 



Darden, Christine V. Mann 

b. 1942 

Aeronautical Engineer 

Education: B.S., mathematics, Hampton Institute, 1962; M.S., applied mathematics, 
Virginia State College, 1967; D.Sc, engineering, George Washington University, 1983 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, 1962-1965; research assistant, 
physics, Virginia State College, 1965-1966, instructor, mathematics, 1966-1967; 
data analyst, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Langley 
Research Center, 1967-1973; aerospace engineer, NASA, 1973-1989; leader, 
Sonic Boom Team, NASA, 1989-1994; deputy program manager, high speed 
research, NASA/Langley Research Center, 1994-1999; senior project engineer, 
Advanced Vehicles Division, 1999-2001; director, Aeroperforming Program, 
2002-2003; director, Office of Communication and Education, NASA, 2004-2007 

Concurrent Positions: management trainee, Senior Executive Career Develop- 
ment Fellowship, Simmons College, Boston, 1994-1995 

Christine Darden is recognized as an expert on the effects of sonic booms or shock 
waves and the creator of a computer software program that is used across the 
United States for simulating a sonic boom in a wind tunnel. Other engineers at 
NASA were building models of aircraft to test them in wind tunnels, but Darden's 
computer program simulated the sound wave with the same results. The computer 
program was less expensive and more efficient, and Darden was promoted to 
leader of the Sonic Boom Team. One area of her research was to redesign the 
supersonic transport (SST) airplane to change the shape of the wing and to blunt 
the nose to minimize the sonic boom. Later, the federal government decided not 



Daubechies, Ingrid | 329 

to invest in the SST because of its expense, but the NASA project continued 
because military aircraft sometimes reach supersonic speeds as they fly across 
populated areas. U.S. federal regulations specify that the Concorde, built by the 
French and the British, cannot reach supersonic speeds in populated areas, so those 
planes do not fly in the United States because of the financial considerations of 
flying at lower speeds. Darden also led research into the environmental impact of 
supersonic flights, such as the effect on the ozone layer of the atmosphere. 

Darden's early interest in mathematics led her to teach high school math and then 
to studying math and physics in graduate school. She studied mathematics at the his- 
torically black Hampton Institute and, at Virginia State College, secured a research 
assistantship in the physics department on a project analyzing air quality and deter- 
mining the presence of specific kinds of pollutants. After receiving her master's 
degree, she obtained a job at NASA as a data analyst doing very routine calculations 
for the engineers. As the research became more computer-oriented, she wrote soft- 
ware programs for the engineers and started taking doctorate-level classes in both 
mathematics and engineering science. After successfully completing a difficult fluid 
mechanics course, she enrolled in the engineering program at George Washington 
University, where she received her Ph.D. in 1983. At the time, there were few black 
men and very few women of any race in engineering. 

Darden is a member of the National Technical Association (NTA) and the American 
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Her awards and honors include the 
A. T. Weathers Technical Achievement Award of the NTA (1985), the Candace 
Award for Science and Technology of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women 
(1987), and being named Black Engineer of the Year in Government by the Mobil Oil 
Council of Engineering Deans (1988). She also received NASA Certificates of 
Outstanding Performance from the Langley Research Center in 1989, 1991, and 
1992. Darden is active in her church community and was ordained as an elder in 
the Presbyterian church in 1980. 

Further Resources 

Warren, Wini. 1999. Black Women Scientists in the United States. Bloomington: Indiana 
University Press. 



Daubechies, Ingrid 

b. 1954 
Mathematician 

Education: B.S., physics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, 1975, Ph.D., physics, 
1980 



330 | Daubechies, Ingrid 




Professional Experience: research 
assistant, theoretical physics, Vrije 
Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, 1975- 
1984, research professor, 1984-1987; 
technical staff member, Mathematics 
Research Center, AT&T Bell Labora- 
tories, 1987-1994; professor, math- 
ematics and Program in Applied and 
Computational Mathematics, Prince- 
ton University, 1994-2004, director, 
Program in Applied and Computa- 
tional Mathematics, 1997-2001, 
William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor, 
Princeton University, 2004- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting pro- 
fessor, University of Michigan, 1990; 
professor, mathematics, Rutgers Uni- 
versity, 1991-1993 



Mathematician Ingrid Daubechies. (Princeton 
University, Office of Communications, Brian 
Wilson) 



Ingrid Daubechies is an applied math- 
ematician and theoretical physicist 
who specializes in time-frequency 
analysis and the construction of wavelets, which are used for data compression in 
applications such as digital image processing. Daubechies was born in Belgium 
and received her doctorate in physics from Vrije Universiteit (Free University) 
Brussels in 1980. She remained on as a researcher and faculty member in theoretical 
physics at Free University until relocating to the United States for a position with 
AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1987. She joined the faculty of mathematics at Princeton 
University in 1994 and served as director of the Program in Applied and Computa- 
tional Mathematics for four years. 

Daubechies was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1998 and is a 
fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Electri- 
cal and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a Foreign Member of the Royal Netherlands 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Mathematical 
Society, Mathematical Association of America, and Society for Industrial and 
Applied Mathematics. She was named the Josiah Willard Gibbs Lecturer of the 
American Mathematical Society (2005) and was the prestigious Emmy Noether 
Lecturer (2006). She has received numerous other honors and awards for her work, 
including a five-year Mac Arthur Foundation "genius" grant (1992-1997) and the 



Davis, Margaret Bryan | 331 

American Mathematical Society Steele Prize for Exposition (1994) for her book 
Ten Lectures on Wavelets. She also received the Louis Empain Prize for Physics 
for a young Belgian scientist (1984), the American Mathematical Society Ruth 
Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics (1997), the International Society for Optical 
Engineering Recognition of Outstanding Achievement (1998), the IEEE Informa- 
tion Theory Society Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation (1998), 
the Eduard Rhein Foundation Basic Research Award (2000), the Gold Medal 
(Gouden Penning) of the Flemish Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences, Belgium 
(2005), and the Pioneer Prize from the International Council for Industrial and 
Applied Mathematics (2008; co-recipient). In 2000 she was the first woman to 
receive the National Academy of Sciences Award in Mathematics. She has 
received honorary doctorates from universities in Belgium, Switzerland, France, 
and Italy. 

Further Resources 

Case, Bettye Anne and Anne Leggett, eds. 2005. Complexities: Women in Mathematics. 
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 

Agnes Scott College. "Ingrid Daubechies." Biographies of Women Mathematicians, http:// 
www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/daub.htm. 

Princeton University. Faculty website, http://www.pacm.princeton.edu/~ingrid/. 



Davis, Margaret Bryan 

b. 1931 

Paleoecologist, Palynologist, Ecologist 

Education: B.A., Radcliffe College, 1953; Ph.D., biology, Harvard University, 
1957 

Professional Experience: fellow, biology, Harvard University, 1957-1958; 
fellow, geoscience, California Institute of Technology, 1959-1960; research 
fellow, zoology, Yale University, 1960-1961; research associate, botany, Univer- 
sity of Michigan, 1961-1964, associate research biologist, Great Lakes Research 
Division, 1964-1970, associate professor, zoology, 1966-1970, research biologist, 
Great Lakes Research Division and professor, zoology, 1970-1973; professor, 
biology, Yale University, 1973-1976; professor, ecology and head, Department 
of Ecology and Behavioral Biology, University of Minnesota, 1976-1981, professor, 
1981-1983, Regents Professor, Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, 1983- 



332 | Davis, Margaret Bryan 




Paleoecologist, palynologist and ecologist, 
Margaret Bryan Davis. (Courtesy of the 
University of Minnesota) 



Margaret Davis is a distinguished pale- 
oecologist who is renowned for her 
analysis of ancient pollen to determine 
trends in plant growth and migration. 
Palynology is the study of pollen from 
ancient plants, and as an undergraduate 
at Radcliffe, she took a course on 
paleobotany and became intrigued by 
the vegetational history of the late 
Quaternary period, some 10,000 years 
ago. She believed that the best method 
to understand and interpret the history 
of ancient plant life is to understand 
the physiology and ecology of flora (or 
plants) rather than just the stratigraphic 
interpretation of pollen records. She 
received a Fulbright fellowship to study 
in Greenland, where she recorded plant 
pollen deposited during the interglacial 
period. 



Davis later focused on geology and studied the relationship between pollen in 
lake sediments and vegetation composition in order to enhance the precision of 
pollen records for describing past vegetation. In 1963, she attracted international 
attention with a paper published in the American Journal of Science on her theory 
of pollen analysis. Davis also compiled maps for eastern North America depicting 
the migration of various species of trees during the past 14,000 years. Her maps 
indicate that the temperate-forest trees moved at different rates and in different 
directions. Her work has implications for the current debate over global warming, 
and she predicted in 1989 that, in the next 100 years, sugar maple trees will disap- 
pear across the southern edge of their current range in the middle of the country 
and will shift eastward in Minnesota. Beech trees will disappear from the United 
States except in northernmost Maine, and scattered blocks of growth will open 
up in Canada. 

Davis was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1982. 
She has also served on numerous committees, such as on the International Union 
of Quaternary Research of the National Academy of Sciences and the National 
Research Council (1966-), as a delegate of the National Academy of Sciences to 
the International Union of Quaternary Research Congress (1969, 1973, 1977, 
and 1982), and as a member of the advisory panel for geological records of global 
changes of the National Science Foundation (198 1— ). She is a fellow of the 



Davis, Ruth Margaret | 333 

Geological Society of America and of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science. She is a member of the American Quaternary Association 
(president, 1978-1980), American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, Eco- 
logical Society of America (president, 1987-1988), and International Society for 
Vegetative Science. In 1993, she was awarded the Nevada Medal for "unlocking 
the history of environmental change and using it to understand present and future 
shifts in plant and animal communities." 

Further Resources 

University of Minnesota. Faculty website, http://www.cbs.umn.edu/eeb/faculty/ 
DavisMargaret/. 



Davis, Ruth Margaret 

b. 1928 

Computer Scientist, Mathematician 

Education: B.A., American University, 1950; M.A., University of Maryland, 
1952, Ph.D., mathematics, 1955 

Professional Experience: mathematician, U.S. National Bureau of Standards, 
1950; research associate, Institute of Fluid Dynamics and Applied Mathematics, 
University of Maryland, 1952-1955; mathematician, David Taylor Model 
Basin, 1955-1958, head, Operations Research Division, 1957-1961; staff assistant, 
Office of the Special Assistant for Intelligence and Reconnaissance, Office of the 
Director of Defense Research and Engineering, U.S. Department of Defense, 
1961-1967; associate director, Research and Development, National Library of 
Medicine, 1967-1968; director, Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Com- 
munications, 1968-1970; director, Center for Computer Science and Technology, 
National Bureau of Standards, 1970-1972; director, Institute for Computer Science 
and Technology, 1972-1977; Deputy to Secretary of Defense for Research and 
Engineering, U.S. Department of Defense, 1977-1979; Assistant Secretary for 
Energy, U.S. Department of Energy, 1979-1981; founder, president, and CEO, 
Pymatuning Group, Inc., 1981— 

Concurrent Positions: lecturer, University of Maryland, 1955-1956 and American 
University, 1957-1958; consultant, Office of Naval Research, 1957-1958; adjunct 
professor, engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 1981- 

Ruth Davis is a pioneer in computer science who is credited with programming 
three of the first digital computers— SE AC, ORDVAC, and UNIVAC I. She is also 



334 | DeFries, Ruth 

responsible for securing worldwide acceptance of a data encryption standard, ena- 
bling the United States to become a leader in robotics, and implementing a medi- 
cal literature retrieval system and a satellite hookup to link the sick in remote 
Alaska with doctors in the outside world. Her first two jobs involved working for 
the U.S. Navy in developing the first computer programs for nuclear reactor 
design. After receiving her undergraduate degree, she worked for the National 
Bureau of Standards before returning to school to complete her master's degree. 
Davis has since had a productive career working primarily in U.S. government 
positions before establishing her own company. 

Davis was later employed in the Office of the Director of Defense Research and 
Engineering, and then did pioneering research in information technology and 
indexing of medical articles for the National Library of Medicine between 1967 
and 1970. Davis was appointed director of the Institute of Computer Science and 
Technology at the National Bureau of Standards, where she developed standards 
for data encryption, or coding of data for computing. Working for the Department 
of Defense, she was involved in early work on robotics between 1977 and 1979. 
She concluded her government work as assistant secretary of resource applications 
for the Department of Energy. In 1981, she founded her own consulting firm, 
Pymatuning Group, Inc., in Virginia. 

Davis was the second woman to receive the "Man of the Year" award from the 
Data Processing Management Association (1966) — the first was the computer 
pioneer Grace Murray Hopper. Davis was elected to membership in the National 
Academy of Engineering in 1976. She has been a member of the board of directors 
of several companies, and received the Gold Medal of the Department of Commerce 
(1972), the Rockefeller Public Service Award for Professional Accomplishment 
and Leadership (1973), the National Civil Service League Award (1976), and the 
Ada Augusta Lovelace Award in Computer Science (1984). She is a fellow of 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Institute of 
Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Society for Information Display. She is a member 
of the American Mathematical Society, Mathematical Association of America, 
Council on Library Resources, and National Academy of Public Administration. 



DeFries, Ruth 

b. 1957 

Environmental Geographer 

Education: B.A., earth sciences, Washington University, 1976; Ph.D., geography 
and environmental engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 1980 



DeFries, Ruth | 335 

Professional Experience: hydrologist, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 1979-1980; 
research associate, Environmental Science and Engineering Group, Indian 
Institute of Technology, Bombay, India, 1981-1983; senior project officer, 
Committee on Global Change, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 
1983-1992; associate research scientist, geography, University of Maryland, 
College Park, 1992-1999, associate professor, geography and Earth System Science 
Center, 1999-2005, professor, 2005-2008; Denning Professor of Sustainable 
Development, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, 
Columbia University, 2008- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting scientist, Carnegie Institution, Department of 
Plant Biology, Palo Alto, California, 1998 

Ruth DeFries is an environmental geographer whose research focuses on how 
human activities impact the Earth's landscape, ecosystems, and biodiversity, and 
on the habitability of the Earth. She has written dozens of papers and book chap- 
ters on topics related to the environmental consequences of human land use, agri- 
cultural food production, urbanization, and carbon emissions, including habitat 
loss, deforestation, and climate change. She has used satellite images to make 
global scientific observations that can impact policy decisions. DeFries studied 
earth sciences as an undergraduate and received her doctorate in geography and 
environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 1980. She spent 
two years at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay and worked for the 
U.S. National Research Council before joining the faculty at the University of 
Maryland in 1992. She held joint appointments in geography and the Earth System 
Science Interdisciplinary Center at the University of Maryland until 2008, and 
moved to Columbia University as professor of ecology, evolution, and environ- 
mental biology. 

DeFries has been a member of several government advisory boards, including the 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Strategic Planning Com- 
mittee for Terrestrial Ecology Program (since 2001), the NASA Science Team for 
Land Use and Land Cover Change (since 1996), the Committee on Geography, 
Board on Earth Sciences and Resources, for the National Research Council 
(2001-2003), the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Center for Ecological 
Analysis and Synthesis (2001-2004), and a member of the International Satellite 
Land Surface Climatology Project (since 1999). She is also a fellow of the Aldo 
Leopold Leadership Program of the Ecological Society of America. 

DeFries was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2006. She is the 
recipient of a Performance Award of the National Research Council Commission 
on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources (1990), and in 2007 received a pres- 
tigious MacArthur "genius grant," a five-year $500,000 fellowship. 



336 | De Laguna, Frederica Annis 

Further Resources 

University of Maryland. Faculty website. http://www.geog.umd.edu/people/DeFries.html. 
Columbia University. Faculty website, http://www.columbia.edu/~rd2402/. 



De Laguna, Frederica Annis 

1906 2004 

Archaeologist, Anthropologist 

Education: B.A., Bryn Mawr College, 1927; Ph.D., anthropology, Columbia 
University, 1933 

Professional Experience: assistant and research associate, American section, 
University of Pennsylvania Museum, 1931-1935; associate soil conservationist, 
Pima Reservation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1935-1936; lecturer, Bryn 
Mawr College, 1938-1941, assistant professor to professor, 1941-1975 

Concurrent Positions: Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Naval Reserve, 1942-1945 

Frederica de Laguna was an archaeologist and anthropologist who led the first sur- 
vey of the Pacific Eskimo cultures. Both of her parents were philosophy teachers at 
Bryn Mawr, where she received her undergraduate degree. She went on to study 
under prominent pioneer of modern anthropology Franz Boas at Columbia Univer- 
sity, who encouraged her to study Arctic cultures. De Laguna received a European 
study fellowship from Bryn Mawr, studying in England and France before joining 
a six-month-long Danish expedition to Greenland in 1929 as an assistant in 
Eskimo archaeology, the first archaeological excavation of Greenland. De Laguna 
was part of the team that discovered a previously unknown Norse culture, the 
Inugsuk. She published The Archaeology of Cook Inlet, Alaska in 1934; it was 
deemed still relevant and reprinted more than 40 years later by the Alaska Historical 
Society. Among her other works is her three- volume masterpiece, Under Mount 
Saint Elias: The History and Culture of the Yakutat Tlingit (1972), also the subject 
of a 1997 documentary film, Reunion Under Mount Saint Elias. She later published 
a memoir of her first expedition, Voyage to Greenland (1977). 

De Laguna never married and, feeling she had to choose between her work and 
having a family, devoted herself to her career. Throughout the 1930s, she led 
anthropological expeditions to Alaska and the Yukon, primarily for the University 
of Pennsylvania Museum, as a research associate and expert on Eskimo and Pale- 
olithic art. She completed her Ph.D. at Columbia in 1933 and joined the faculty of 
Bryn Mawr College in 1938, where she established the Anthropology Department 



Delgado, Jane L. | 337 

and spent the remainder of her career. She rose through the ranks to full professor 
and secured funding for her work through grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, 
the Viking Fund, Inc., and the Danish government, among other sources. She 
served as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1945. 
Her experience as an American in the Arctic region was invaluable during World 
War II, since most exploration had been conducted by the Danes and Norwegians. 
When Greenland and Alaska became strategic points in protecting mainland North 
America, her data and observations were used by the American and Canadian 
armed forces. 

She was one of the first fellows of the Arctic Institute of North America, served 
as president of the American Anthropological Association (1967), and was elected 
to membership in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 1975, the same year 
as Margaret Mead. De Laguna and Mead were among the first generation of 
women to engage in professional field archaeology and were the first women 
anthropologists appointed to the NAS. When the federal government passed the 
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (1990), de Laguna was 
among those who saw the legislation, intended to protect burial sites and the rights 
of ancestors to cultural artifacts and human remains, as a setback for science. De 
Laguna also published mystery novels with anthropological themes. 

Further Resources 

Bryn Mawr Now. "Founder of BMC Anthropology Department Dies at 98." (21 October 
2004). http://www.brynmawr.edu/news/2004-10-21/delaguna.shtml. 

Gacs, Ute et al. 1988. Women Anthropologists: Selected Biographies. Westport, CT: 
Greenwood Press. 



Delgado, Jane L. 

b. 1953 
Psychologist 

Education: B.A., State University of New York at New Paltz, 1973; M.A., 
psychology, New York University, 1975; M.S., urban policy and sciences, 
W. Averell Harriman School, 1981; Ph.D., psychology, State University of New 
York at Stony Brook, 1981 

Professional Experience: clinical psychologist and children's talent coordinator, 
Children's Television Workshop, New York, 1973-1975; research assistant, State 
University of New York at Stony Brook, 1975-1979; staff member, Board of Co- 
operative Educational Services, Westbury, NY, 1977-1979; social science analyst, 



338 | Delgado, Jane L. 




Psychologist Jane L. Delgado has been 
president and chief executive officer of the 
National Alliance for Hispanic Health since 
1985. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



U.S. Department of Health and 
Human Services, 1979-1983, health 
policy advisor, 1983-1985; president 
and CEO, National Alliance for 
Hispanic Health, 1985- 

Concurrent Positions: psychologist, 
private practice, 1979- 

Jane Delgado is the president and 
chief executive officer of the only 
national organization that focuses on 
the improvement of health and human 
services for the nation's Hispanic 
population. The National Coalition 
of Hispanic Health and Human 
Services Organizations (now known 
as the National Alliance for Hispanic 
Health) was founded in 1985. 
Delgado oversaw the first national 
outreach program to educate and 
inform Hispanics about AIDS and 
brought women's health and environ- 



mental health issues to the forefront of the organization. She is often called upon 
by Congress to provide the latest health statistics on Hispanics. In conjunction 
with the National Hispanic Women's Health Initiative, she published the first com- 
prehensive health book by and about Latinas, jSalud! A Latina's Guide to Total 
Health — Body, Mind, and Spirit (1997, rev. ed. 2002), available in both English 
and Spanish. 

Delgado's family emigrated from Cuba to New York when she was just two years 
old. Although she had little knowledge of English when she entered kindergarten, 
she learned quickly and accelerated her studies, graduating from college by age 19. 
She began a master's degree program at New York University in social and person- 
ality psychology, and financed her studies by working as the children's talent 
coordinator for the television show Sesame Street. In this position, she developed a 
test to determine which children had good television personalities and initiated 
a movement to include handicapped children on the show. While in graduate school, 
she also worked as an instructor and consultant providing psychological and educa- 
tional services for bilingual children, their parents, teachers, and school officials. She 
directed a three-year study focusing on language development as a predictor of 



Delmer, Deborah | 339 

learning disabilities in children, simultaneously earning a doctorate in clinical 
psychology and a master's degree in urban policy and sciences. 

Delgado went on to a position with the U.S. Department of Health and Human 
Services, where she managed projects concerning Hispanics, black colleges, and 
undocumented workers, and gained experience advising on health policy issues 
and dealing with officials at the federal, state, and local levels. She brought this 
experience to her later position as president of the National Alliance for Hispanic 
Health, a group founded by health professionals concerned about the healthcare 
issues, costs, and insurance needs of more than 45 million Hispanic Americans 
in the United States and Puerto Rico. Delgado has also served as advisor for 
numerous committees and community organizations, especially related to patient 
and consumer rights and safety. She was a member of the National Advisory 
Council for Mrs. Rosalyn Carter's Task Force on Mental Health, Robert Wood 
Johnson's National Advisory Committee on Hospice and Palliative Care, and the 
Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Act Advisory Council. She has 
received many awards and honors, including the Surgeon General's Award 
(1992), the Community Leadership Award of the Puerto Rican Family Institute 
(1996), and the Florence Kelley Consumer Leadership Award of the National 
Consumer League (2003). 

Further Resources 

National Alliance for Hispanic Health, http://www.hispanichealth.org/. 



Delmer, Deborah 

b. 1941 

Plant Biologist 

Education: B.A., bacteriology, Indiana University, 1963; Ph.D., cellular biology, 
University of California, San Diego, 1968 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, University of California, 
San Diego, and University of Colorado, Boulder, 1968-1974; assistant to associate 
professor, Plant Research Laboratory, Michigan State University, 1974-1982; 
principal scientist, ARCO Plant Cell Research Institute, California, 1982-1986; 
professor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1987-1997; professor, plant biology, 
University of California, Davis, 1997-2001 ; Associate Director for Food Security, 



340 | Delmer, Deborah 

Rockefeller Foundation, New York City, 2002-2007; program director, BREAD, 
2009- 

Deborah Delmer is a plant biologist and biochemist whose research has been 
applied to agricultural and crop improvement related to international develop- 
ment. She was a science and policy advisor on food security at the Rockefeller 
Foundation, where she researched and advised on issues facing African farmers, 
such as poor soil quality, drought, pests, and plant diseases, and supported crop 
improvement initiatives specific to the developing world. Before joining the Rock- 
efeller Foundation and working on grant and policy issues in global agriculture, 
she had a long career in research and academia and taught at Michigan State Uni- 
versity, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the University of California, Davis. 
Her primary research was in cellular biology and plant biochemistry. 

Delmer studied microbiology and bacteriology as an undergraduate at Indiana 
University and went on to graduate study in marine biology at Scripps Institution 
of Oceanography in California. She decided against marine biology and ocean 
travel after becoming seasick and switched to the biology program at the Univer- 
sity of California, San Diego. She worked with a professor on a plant tissue culture 
project and became interested in plant biochemistry, receiving her Ph.D. in cellular 
biology in 1968. She held postdoctoral fellowships at UCSD and at the University 
of Colorado, Boulder before joining the faculty at Michigan State University's 
Plant Research Laboratory in 1974, where her research focused on how plants syn- 
thesize cellulose. She began working on a project in developing world agriculture 
that resulted in a major move to Jerusalem in 1987 to accept a position at Hebrew 
University. She spent 10 years in Jerusalem before returning to the United States 
and a position at the University of California, Davis. She left academia to join 
the Rockefeller Foundation. She retired from her Rockefeller position in 2007 
and continues to consult on issues related to developing world agriculture, includ- 
ing as program director for BREAD (Basic Research to Enable Agricultural 
Development), a project funded by the National Science Foundation and the Bill 
& Melinda Gates Foundation to support small farmers in the developing world. 

Delmer was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004. She is a 
member of the American Society of Plant Biologists (president, 1999-2000). 
She received the Anselme Payen Award from the American Chemical Society 
(2004). 

Further Resources 

Zagorski, Nick. 2005. "Profile of Deborah P. Delmer." Proceedings of the National Academy 
of Sciences. 102(44): 15736 15738. (1 November 2005). http://www.pnas.org/cgi/ 
content/fuU/102/44/15736. 



De Planque, E. Gail | 341 

De Planque, E. Gail 

b. 1945 
Physicist 

Education: B.A., mathematics, Immaculata College, 1967; M.S., Newark College 
of Engineering, 1973; Ph.D., physics, New York University, 1983 

Professional Experience: physicist, Atomic Energy Commission, 1967-1982; 
deputy director, Environmental Measurements Laboratory, U.S. Department of 
Energy, 1982-1987, director, 1987-1991; member, Nuclear Regulatory Commis- 
sion, 1991-1995; consultant, 1995- 

Concurrent Positions: chair, American National Standards Institute, Health Physics 
Society, 1973-1975, 1980-; co-chair, Committee for International Intercomparison 
of Environmental Dosimeters, 1974-; U.S. expert delegate, international committee 
for Development of an International Standard on Thermoluminescence Dosimetry, 
ca. 1977 

Gail De Planque is a renowned expert on radiation, problems of radiation protection, 
environmental radiation, and nuclear facilities monitoring. After receiving her 
undergraduate degree in mathematics, de Planque obtained a position as a research 
physicist with the Radiation Physics Division of what is now the Department of 
Energy. She was appointed deputy director in 1982 of the Environmental Measure- 
ments Laboratory and director in 1987. The Environmental Measurements Labora- 
tory is a direct descendant of the Manhattan Project and is particularly famous for 
its long-standing global radiation fallout programs as well as research on radiation 
dosimetry, radon, and radiation problems associated with nuclear facilities and 
weapons testing. As director, she was responsible for the guidance, direction, and 
management of the programs, activities, budget, and administrative functions of 
the laboratory. She currently works as an independent consultant. 

In 1997, de Planque was selected to chair the planning committee for a series of 
conferences to encourage women to become engineers. The project, called Celebra- 
tion of Women in Engineering, included establishing an educational outreach 
website called EngineerGirl to encourage engineering as a career choice for young 
women, and organizing a 1999 conference on the status of women in engineering. 
According to NAE data, only 9% of engineers are women, even though women 
receive as many as 20% of undergraduate engineering degrees. Her other profes- 
sional activities have included extensive participation in standards management 
and development both nationally and internationally. She is a member of the 
National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements and was chair of an 
International Atomic Energy Agency international advisory committee to study the 



342 | Densen-Gerber, Judianne 

radiological situation on the Mururoa and Fangataufa Atolls, the site of French 
nuclear weapons testing in the South Pacific. She was the U.S. expert delegate to a 
standards committee to develop an international standard on thermoluminescence 
dosimetry and a member of the visiting committee for the Department of Advanced 
Technology of the Brookhaven National Laboratory. She has served on the editorial 
board of Radiation Protection Dosimetry and on the scientific advisory and editorial 
committees of the series International Conferences on Solid-State Dosimetry. 

De Planque was elected a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for 
the term 1991-1995 and elected to membership in the National Academy of Engi- 
neering in 1995. She was elected a fellow of the American Nuclear Society and is 
a member of the American Physical Society, Association of Women in Science, 
Health Physics Society, and American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence. In 2003, she received the Henry DeWolf Smyth Statesman Award of the 
Nuclear Energy Institute, and in 2004, she was inducted into the Women in Tech- 
nology International (WITI) Hall of Fame. 

Further Resources 

EngineerGirl. http://www.engineergirl.org/. 

Women in Technology International Hall of Fame. "Honorable E. Gail de Planque, Ph.D." 
http://www.witi.com/center/witimuseum/halloffame/2004/gdeplanque.php. 



Densen-Gerber, Judianne 

1934 2003 
Psychiatrist, Physician 

Education: B.A., Bryn Mawr College, 1956; L.L.B., Columbia University, 1959, 
J.D., 1969; M.D., New York University, 1963 

Professional Experience: psychiatric resident, Bellevue Hospital, New York City, 
1964-1965, Metropolitan Hospital, 1965-1967; staff member, Addiction Services 
Agency, 1966-1967; founder, Odyssey House, 1966, researcher and clinical direc- 
tor, 1967-1969, executive director, 1967-1983 

Judianne Densen-Gerber was a psychiatrist known for her pioneering work in 
drug rehabilitation. She was also a practicing lawyer and an activist who took up 
serious social and legal issues, such as child pornography. She received her law 
degree with the intention of combining it with a medical degree so she could teach 
medical jurisprudence. However, when her second child died a week after birth, 
the resulting acute mental stress impelled her to change to psychiatry. She was in 



DeWitt-Morette, Cecile Andree Paule | 343 

her residency at Metropolitan Hospital in the mid-1960s and pregnant with her 
third child when she was working in the drug research unit. When some of her 
patients decided they wanted to quit using an experimental heroin substitute, the 
hospital administrators feared their research might be jeopardized and removed 
her from the drug addiction ward. Later, the patients asked her to continue to help 
them become drug-free, and she founded Odyssey House. 

Densen-Gerber theorized that the root cause of drug addiction was psychological, 
stemming from the individual's sense of hopelessness and lack of self-confidence, 
and could be addressed in group therapy. Although the communal rehabilitation set- 
ting, and preparing the individual to return to normal life, is now standard treatment, 
it was controversial in the 1960s and subject to a great deal of criticism. When the 
New York State Department of Social Welfare would not allow Odyssey House to 
admit anyone under the age of 16, Densen-Gerber pointed out the large number of 
teenagers who died from heroin overdoses and launched a local and national cam- 
paign to obtain funding for a separate juvenile program, which she established in 
1971. She continued to receive criticism and harassment from city officials, how- 
ever, and resigned as head of Odyssey House in 1983. She continued to work as a 
visiting physician, adjunct professor of law, and consultant. 

Densen-Gerber embraced other controversial causes as well. Her work with 
juvenile addicts drew her attention to the needs of sexually abused children, and 
she helped write the federal legislation that created the National Center on Child 
Abuse and Neglect in 1973. She testified on the problem of child pornography 
before Congress, and also proposed the legalization of marijuana to enable author- 
ities to concentrate on more serious problems, such as heroin addiction. She sup- 
ported legalization of prostitution for the protection of the women involved. She 
authored or co-authored several books, including Drugs, Sex, Parents, and You 
(1972), Child Abuse and Neglect as Related to Parental Drug Abuse and Other 
Antisocial Behavior (1978), Walk in My Shoes: An Odyssey into Womanlife 
(1976), and We Mainline Dreams: The Odyssey House Story (1973). She was a 
member of the American Medical Association, Society of Medical Jurisprudence, 
and American Psychiatric Association. 



DeWitt-Morette, Cecile Andree Paule 

b. 1922 
Theoretical Physicist 

Education: licence es sciences, University of Caen, 1943; diploma, University of 
Paris, 1944, Ph.D., theoretical physics, 1947 



344 | DeWitt-Morette, Cecile Andree Paule 

Professional Experience: member, Institute for Advanced Studies, Ireland, 
1946-1947; member, University Institute for Theoretical Physics, Copenhagen, 
1947-1948; member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, 1948-1950; 
teacher and researcher, Institut Henri Poincare, France, 1950-1951; research 
associate and lecturer, University of California, Berkeley, 1952-1955; visiting 
research professor, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1956-1967, direc- 
tor, Institute of Field Physics, 1958-1966, lecturer, physics, 1967-1971; professor, 
astronomy, University of Texas, Austin, 1972-1983, professor, physics, 
1983-1993, Jane and Roland Blumberg Centennial Professor of Physics, 1993-, 
professor emerita 

Concurrent Positions: visiting professor, Centro de Pesquisa Fisicas, Rio de 
Janeiro, 1949; director and founder, Summer School of Theoretical Physics, Les 
Houches, France, 1951-1972; visiting professor: Indian Institute of Science, 
Bangalore, 1977; Z.I.F. Universitat Bielefeld, 1984; Imperial College, London, 
1985; University of Warwick, 1985; Universidade da Madeira, 1991 

Cecile DeWitt-Morette is an internationally renowned theoretical physicist whose 
research includes the theory of field elementary particles, mathematical physics, 
and gravitation. She updated and stabilized physics education in France by found- 
ing a summer school of theoretical physics beginning in 1951 with a distinguished 
and international team of lecturers. L'Ecole de Physique des Houches has been the 
model for similar programs initiated, with her assistance, in Varenna, Italy, and in 
the United States as the Battelle Rencontres in Seattle. 

She was born in France and was attending college during the World War II 
German occupation of France. She studied physics, first at the University of Caen 
and then at the University of Paris, where she worked in a laboratory directed by 
Nobel Prize recipients Frederic Joliot and Irene Joliot-Curie. With the assistance 
of the Joliots and the Allied military authorities, she went to study in England in 
1946, and then spent a year in Ireland. After receiving her doctorate from the Uni- 
versity of Paris, she became a member of the University Institute for Theoretical 
Physics in Copenhagen for a year, and then was invited to the Institute for 
Advanced Study at Princeton for two years. In these assignments, she was able 
to meet and learn from most of the top theoretical physicists in the world at that 
time, including Richard P. Feynman. Also at Princeton she met her future husband, 
fellow physicist Bryce S. DeWitt, and they were married in 1951. That same 
year, she received funding from the French Ministry of Education to start 
the summer school of theoretical physics in the city of Les Houches, which she 
directed until 1972. 

She and her husband obtained positions at the University of California, Berkeley 
and then the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Anti-nepotism rules 



Diamond, Marian Cleeves | 345 

prevented her from obtaining a tenured position even though she had an international 
reputation and had been a director of a science institute. In 1972, the couple moved 
to the University of Texas, Austin, where they both were given tenured positions as 
full professors. Cecile was initially assigned to the astronomy department owing to 
fears of nepotism, but the couple continued to collaborate on research and, in 
1983, she moved to the physics department. 

Dewitt-Morette authored or co-authored several papers and important textbooks 
on the interplay between physics and mathematics. She received from the French 
government the Chevalier Ordre National Du Merite (1981) for establishing Les 
Houches, and she has also received the L' Ordre des Palmes Academiques (1991) 
and the Prix du Rayonnement Francais (1992). She was elected a fellow of the 
American Physical Society, and she is a member of the European Physical Society. 



Diamond, Marian Cleeves 

b. 1926 
Neuroscientist 

Education: B.A., biology, University of California, Berkeley, 1948; Certificate of 
Courses, University of Oslo, Norway, 1948; M.A., University of California, 
Berkeley, 1949, Ph.D., anatomy, 1953 

Professional Experience: research assistant, Harvard University, 1952-1953; 
instructor, Cornell University, 1955-1958; lecturer, gross anatomy and neuroanat- 
omy, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 1958-1960; 
lecturer, University of California, Berkeley, 1960-1965, assistant professor, 
anatomy and neuroanatomy, 1965-1974, professor, 1974- 

Concurrent Positions: assistant to associate dean, College of Letters and Science, 
University of California, Berkeley, 1967-1972; director, Lawrence Hall of Sci- 
ence, University of California, Berkeley, 1990-1996; Governor's Board, Rand 
Graduate School, 1985-1996 

Marian Cleeves Diamond is a neuroscientist who studies physical changes in the 
cerebral cortex area of the brain. She has shown how the cerebral cortex can be 
changed, positively or negatively, depending on emotions or mental state and on 
environmental conditions such as diet, exercise, and age. Her research has also 
shown that, while there are some structural differences between the male and 
female brains, the individual cortex can be altered and so is not fixed according 
to sex. Diamond is an affiliated faculty member with both the University of 



346 | Diamond, Marian Cleeves 

Berkeley and the University of San Francisco. Her privately funded project, 
Enrichment in Action, combines her neurological research with a humanitarian 
educational project at a Cambodian orphanage where she and her colleagues are 
attempting to improve the children's brain health and future prospects through 
dietary changes and physical and mental exercise. She has been an invited lecturer 
at institutions around the world and is the author of over 150 scientific papers and 
several books, including Magic Trees of the Mind: How to Nurture Your Child's 
Intelligence (1999). 

Diamond was born in Glendale, California. Her father was a physician, and she 
remembers seeing a human brain for the first time in a hospital laboratory when 
she was still in high school. She attended a local community college, where she 
first took an anatomy course, before transferring to the University of California, 
Berkeley, where she completed both her undergraduate and graduate education. 
She studied neuroanatomy with students enrolled in the medical program and 
earned a master's degree in anatomy with a study on pain patterns and sensations. 
In 1953, she was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in anatomy at Berkeley. 
Although she spent a few years on the East Coast, at Harvard (where her husband, 
a nuclear chemist, had an appointment) and as an instructor at Cornell University 
in New York, she returned to California as a lecturer at the University of California, 
San Francisco medical school and then returning to Berkeley as a lecturer in 1960. 
Between 1953 and 1962, she also gave birth to four children, the first of these the 
same month she received her doctorate. She took a tenure-track position in anatomy 
and neuroanatomy at Berkeley and advanced to full professor by 1974, where she 
remains on the faculty of the Department of Integrative Biology. In the 1990s, 
she spent five years as director of the Lawrence Hall of Science at Berkeley, where 
she developed exhibits about brains for the public. 

Diamond is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence and the California Academy of Sciences, and was named Alumna of the Year 
from the California Alumni Association. She has received numerous awards for 
her teaching, including California Professor of the Year by the Council for 
Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). She was named a Distinguished 
Senior Woman Scholar by the American Association of University Women, and 
has received the California Biomedical Research Association Distinguished 
Service Award, a University Medal of La Universidad del Zulia, Maracaibo, 
Venezuela, a Brazilian Gold Medal of Honor, and the Benjamin Ide Wheeler 
Service Award. 

Further Resources 

University of California, Berkeley. Faculty website, http://ib.berkeley.edu/research/interests/ 
research profile.php?person=57. 



Dicciani, Nance Katherine | 347 

Squire, Larry R., ed. 2006. The History of Neuroscience in Autobiography. Vol. 6. Society 
for Neuroscience. San Diego, CA: Academic Press (Harcourt). 

"Enrichment in Action." http://www.newhorizons.org/neuro/diamond cambodia.htm. 



Dicciani, Nance Katherine 

b. 1947 

Chemical Engineer 

Education: B.S., Villanova University, 1969; M.S., University ofVirginia, 1970; 
Ph.D., chemical engineering, University of Pennsylvania, 1977, M.B.A., 1986 

Professional Experience: superintendent of water treatment, City of Philadelphia, 
1972-1974; research engineer, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., 1977-1978, 
research manager, 1978-1981, director of research, process systems, 1981-1984, 
division director of research and development, 1984-1986, division general 
manager, 1986-1988, director of commercial development, 1988-1991; vice 
president and business director, Petroleum Chemicals Division, Rohm and 
Haas Company, 1991-2002; president and CEO, Specialty Materials Division, 
Honeywell, 2002- 

Nance Dicciani has been at the forefront of medical engineering research, making 
contributions to the application of new technologies in the areas of petrochemi- 
cals, energy, chemical processes, wastewater treatment, and catalysis of the pro- 
duction of commercially important petrochemicals. While still in graduate 
school, she explored new areas of applying chemical engineering to medical imag- 
ing; the result was a pioneering effort in developing the ultrasonic scanning devi- 
ces that now are used routinely to examine women during pregnancy. As early as 
the fifth grade, she planned a career in the sciences, and she pursued an under- 
graduate degree in chemical engineering because that allowed her to combine 
her love for mathematics with a deep interest in the hard sciences, especially 
physics and chemistry. After receiving her master's degree in chemical engineering, 
she worked for the Philadelphia Department of Public Works, serving three years 
as the city's superintendent of water treatment. She returned to graduate school 
at the University of Pennsylvania in the application of chemical engineering to 
medical imaging as part of a joint research project by the university, the National 
Science Foundation, and the government of the Soviet Union. She later returned 
to the University of Pennsylvania to receive an M.B.A. from Wharton Business 
School. Her dual background in science and business allowed her to rise rapidly 
through the ranks in corporate industry positions. In 2002, she was named 



348 | Dick, Gladys Rowena Henry 

President and CEO of Specialty Materials at Honeywell, where she oversees pro- 
duction of a variety of consumer and industry chemical products. 

Dicciani has also actively supported science education by serving as a member of 
the chemical engineering advisory boards at both the University of Virginia and the 
University of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the American Institute of Chemical 
Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers, and the former vice president of the 
Society of Chemical Industry. In 2006, she was appointed to the President's Council 
of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and in 2007 received the Distin- 
guished Leadership Award from the American Chemistry Council. 



Dick, Gladys Rowena Henry 

1881 1963 
Microbiologist, Physician 

Education: B.S., University of Nebraska, 1900; M.D., Johns Hopkins University, 
1907; University of Berlin, 1910 

Professional Experience: school teacher, 1900-1901; physician, 1907-1909; 
researcher, University of Chicago, 1911-1953 

Gladys Dick and her husband, George Dick, were celebrated for their joint research 
on the prevention and treatment of scarlet fever. In 1923, they proved that the hemo- 
lytic streptococci was the causative agent. They developed the "Dick test," a skin test 
to indicate susceptibility to or immunity from scarlet fever. The test involved injec- 
tion of a solution into the arm; development of a local redness of the skin indicated 
susceptibility. The test also was applied to pregnant women as an indication of their 
likelihood of developing puerperal infection. The Dicks were contenders for the 
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1925, but no prize was awarded that year. 
At that time, scarlet fever was endemic to North America and Europe; it struck chil- 
dren, causing crippling complications and a mortality rate of up to 25%. The couple 
took the unprecedented action of patenting their methods of toxin and antitoxin 
preparation in order to protect the quality of the preparations. In the late 1920s, they 
won a lengthy lawsuit against one company for patent infringement and improper 
toxin manufacture. The antibiotics that were developed during World War II super- 
seded the use of their test; however, the significance of their research cannot be over- 
looked even today. Gladys later conducted research on polio. 

After she received her undergraduate degree in 1900, Gladys spent three years 
persuading her mother to allow her to enroll in medical school. She taught high 
school biology for one year and enrolled in graduate courses at the University of 



Donnay, Gabrielle (Hamburger) | 349 



Nebraska. During her internship at 
Johns Hopkins, she was involved in 
research on experimental cardiac sur- 
gery and blood chemistry. She met 
her future husband and collaborator 
while working at the University of 
Chicago. After a short time in private 
practice as a physician, she joined her 
husband at the McCormick Memorial 
Institute for Infectious Diseases. She 
and her husband received the Cameron 
Prize of the University of Edinburgh in 
1933 and the Mickel Prize from the 
University of Toronto in 1926. She 
was co-author of the book Scarlet 
Fever (1938). She received an honorary 
degree from the University of Nebraska 
in 1925 and from Northwestern Uni- 
versity in 1928. 




Microbiologist and physician Gladys Dick. In 
the 1920s, Dick co-developed a vaccine for 
scarlet fever with her husband, George F. 
Dick. (National Library of Medicine) 



Donnay, Gabrielle (Hamburger) 



1 920 1 987 
Geologist, Mineralogist 

Education: B.A., chemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, 1941; Ph.D., 
crystallography, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1949 

Professional Experience: laboratory chemist, Massachusetts General Hospital, 
Boston, 1944-1945; staff member, Division of Industrial Cooperation, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology (MIT), 1945-1946; postdoctoral fellow, Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity, 1949-1950; crystallographer, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution 
of Washington, 1950-1969; professor, crystallography, Department of Geological 
Sciences, McGill University, Canada, 1970-1981 

Concurrent Positions: researcher, U.S. Geological Survey, 1952-1955; guest 
scientist, Johns Hopkins University 

Gabrielle "Gai" Donnay was a geologist and mineralogist and the first woman to 
receive a doctorate specifically in crystallography, earning her degree from MIT in 



350 | Downey, June Etta 

1949 with a thesis on the structure of tourmaline. That same year she married Jose 
D. H. Donnay, a professor of crystallography and mineralogy at Johns Hopkins 
University with whom she collaborated on dozens of projects and scientific papers 
for nearly four decades. The Donnays were internationally renowned crystallogra- 
phers and catalogers in the rapidly expanding field of crystallographic research, 
publishing two editions of Crystal Data (1954 and 1963) for use by scientists. In 
addition to her numerous scientific papers, in 1969 she compiled a history of the first 
50 years of the Carnegie Institution program in geology entitled Crystallography: 
Fifty Years ofX-Ray Crystallography at the Geophysical Laboratory, 1919-1969. 
A mineral, Gaidonnayite, is named for her. 

Gai Hamburger was born and received her early education in Germany. She passed 
the examinations to attend the University of Oxford but immigrated to the United 
States instead, enrolling at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 
1937. She was already interested in the structure of crystals as an undergraduate 
and received her bachelor's degree in chemistry with highest honors from UCLA in 
1941 . She worked briefly as a blood analyst at Massachusetts General Hospital before 
enrolling in graduate study in crystallography at MIT, using photographic methods to 
research the structure of minerals and crystal chemistry. Her research career was sub- 
sequently divided between U.S. and Canadian institutions. She held a postdoctoral 
fellowship at Johns Hopkins, and worked for three years with the U.S. Geological 
Survey (USGS), but otherwise she spent 20 years as a crystallographer in the 
Geophysical Laboratory at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C. She left 
Carnegie in 1970, after her husband retired from Johns Hopkins, and spent a decade 
as a professor of geological sciences at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She 
was a member of the National Committees for Crystallography in both countries 
and was the first woman named to the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars (1970). 

Further Resources 

Martin, Robert F. 1989. "Memorial of Gabrielle Donnay: March 21, 1920 April 4, 1987." 
American Mineralogist. 74:491 493. http://74.125. 155. 132/search?q=cache 
: VeJYJWWfGLcJ: www.minsocam.org/ammin/AM74/AM74 49 1 .pdf+gabrielle+donnay 
&cd= l&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us. 



Downey, June Etta 

1875 1932 
Psychologist 

Education: B.A., University of Wyoming, 1895; M.A., philosophy and psychology, 
University of Chicago, 1898, Ph.D., psychology, 1907 



Downey, June Etta | 351 

Professional Experience: instructor, English and philosophy, University of 
Wyoming, 1898-1905, professor, 1905-1915, professor, philosophy and psychology, 
1915-1932 

June Downey was the first woman to head a department of psychology in a state 
university, and she was honored for her development of one of the earliest scien- 
tific personality tests to assess character traits separate from the question of intel- 
ligence (popularly tested during her time with IQ tests). She was one of the first 
psychologists to approach the question of personality scientifically and her work 
earned her international recognition. Among Downey's other interests were crea- 
tivity, voluntary and involuntary motor controls, color-blindness, imagery, and 
esthetics. She spent her entire career at the University of Wyoming and contributed 
to the growth and development of that school and the program in psychology. 
During her tenure, she was one of the few faculty members in the school who 
had a doctorate and was actively engaged in research. The university had few 
graduate students at the time, but she was able to secure the enthusiastic assistance 
of undergrads in conducting her research. 

Downey studied both psychology and philosophy, but became interested in 
experimental procedures in psychology during a summer session spent at Cornell. 
She was not associated with a particular school of psychological thought and had a 
variety of research interests, but was particularly known for her early work on the 
analysis of personality through handwriting, the subject of her doctoral disserta- 
tion. Her research involved analysis of automatic phenomena, muscle reading 
(or body language), the reading and writing of mirror script, writing under distrac- 
tion, the retention of writing skill after lapse of practice, handwriting disguise, and 
pen lapses. These studies resulted in development of the Downey Individual Will- 
Temperament Test. The test does not result in a total score; the scores are plotted 
on a graph, resulting in a "will-profile" for each case. Downey determined that 
there were three main personality types: the "hairtrigger" or spontaneous type, 
the "willful" or decisive type, and the "accurate" or methodical type. The work 
was summarized in her books, Graphology and Psychology of Handwriting 
(1919) and The Will-Temperament and Its Testing (1924). 

Downey was one of the first women elected to the Society of Experimentalists, a 
select group of 50 eminent psychologists. She served on the Council of the American 
Psychological Association (1923-1925) and was a fellow of the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science. In addition to publishing 6 books and nearly 
70 scholarly papers, her literary output included numerous short stories, poems, 
and plays. Downey came from a pioneer Wyoming family. Her father was one of 
the founders of the University of Wyoming and president of the board of regents. 
She also wrote the song "Alma Mater" for the university in 1898. 



352 | Drake, Elisabeth (Mertz) 



Further Resources 



Hogan, John D. and Matthew S. Broudy. 2000. "June Etta Downey." The Feminist Psy- 
chologist, Newsletter of the Society for the Psychology of Women, Division 35 of the 
American Psychological Association. 27(2). (Spring 2000). http://www. psych 
.yorku.ca/femhop/June%20Etta%20Downey.htm. 



Drake, Elisabeth (Mertz) 

b. 1936 

Chemical Engineer 

Education: B.S., chemical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
1958, D.Sc, chemical engineering, 1966 

Professional Experience: staff consultant and engineer, cryogenics and chemical 
engineering, Arthur D. Little, Inc., 1958-1980, vice president of technological risk 
management, 1980-1982; professor and chair, chemical engineering, Northeastern 
University, 1982-1986; vice president and leader, safety, health, and environmental 
practice, Arthur D. Little, Inc., 1986-1988; independent consultant, technological 
risk management, 1988-1990; associate director of new technologies, Energy 
Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1990-2001 (director, 
1994-1995), emeritus staff, Laboratory for Energy and the Environment, MIT, 
2001-2007, emeritus staff, Energy Initiative, MIT, 2007- 

Concurrent Positions: lecturer, chemical engineering, University of California, 
Berkeley, 1971; visiting associate professor, chemical engineering, MIT, 1973- 
1974 

Elisabeth Drake is a chemical engineer who is known for her expertise in safety 
standards and other aspects of environmental safety. Very early in her career, in 
1972, she invented a fractionation method and apparatus. Fractionation separates a 
mixture into ingredients or into portions having different properties, and an appara- 
tus of this type is a valuable contribution to the chemical industry. After receiving 
her undergraduate degree, she accepted a position at Arthur D. Little, Inc., an 
international management and technology consulting firm. Her early work was 
involved in cryogenics, which is the branch of physics that deals with very low tem- 
peratures. The term "cryogenics" was coined about 1955 or 1960, which means that 
she was working on the cutting edge of research and development in this new field. 
Drake was promoted to the senior staff after she completed her doctorate. She 
switched fields to be manager of risk analysis and then vice president of technical 
risk management. Risk management is the technique of assessing, minimizing, 



Dreschhoff, Gisela Auguste-Marie | 353 

and preventing accidental loss to a business through the use of safety measures, 
insurance, and so forth. She accepted a position as chair of the Chemical Engineer- 
ing Department at Northeastern University in 1982, then returned to work at 
A. D. Little as vice president of technical risk management. She continued to con- 
sult for the company after she left in 1990 to join the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology as associate director of new technology in the Energy Laboratory, 
becoming director between 1994 and 1995. 

She has long been active in committees on safety standards. She was a member 
of the Technical Pipeline Safety Standards Committee of the U.S. Department of 
Transportation from 1980 to 1985 and a member of the managing board of the 
Center for Chemical Process Safety from 1988 to 1990. She has been vice chair 
of the committee that reviews and evaluates the U.S. Army's chemical stockpile 
disposal program of the National Research Council since 1993. 

She was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 
1992. She is a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and a 
member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the 
American Chemical Society. Her research interests include energy technology, 
risk assessment and control of hazardous material, liquefied natural gas technol- 
ogy and safety, cryogenic engineering, and risk management. 



Dreschhoff, Gisela Auguste-Marie 

b. 1938 

Radiation Physicist, Geophysicist 

Education: B.S., Technical University of Braunschweig, 1961, M.S., 1965, Ph.D., 
physics, 1972 

Professional Experience: staff scientist, radiation protection, Physikalisch 
Technisch Bundesanstalt, Germany, 1965-1967; research associate, nuclear waste 
disposal, Kansas Geological Survey, 1971-1972; deputy director, Radiation 
Physics Laboratory, Space Technology Center, University of Kansas, 1972-1984, 
co-director, 1984-, adjunct associate professor of geology 

Concurrent Positions: visiting assistant professor, physics, University of Kansas, 
1972-1974, adjunct assistant professor, 1974-; associate professional manager, 
Division of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation, 1978- 

Gisela Dreschhoff is a geophysicist whose areas of research include nuclear waste 
disposal, reactor radiation protection, and geophysics of the polar regions. She is 



354 | Dreschhoff, Gisela Auguste-Marie 

renowned for her research in Antarctica to survey for radioactive uranium, 
thorium, and potassium. Dreschhoff completed the requirements for her doctorate 
while working as a research associate and then as a visiting assistant professor of 
physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas. In 1972, she was appointed 
deputy director of the Radiation Physics Laboratory at Kansas, where she collabo- 
rated for many years with her husband, Edward Zeller, also a geophysicist, for 
whom the Zeller Glacier in Antarctica was named (Zeller died in 1996). In 1978, 
Dreschhoff was appointed by the National Science Foundation to coordinate and 
manage the airborne surveys for the entire geophysics program that the foundation 
sponsored there. The project was the start of a general radiometric survey to deter- 
mine the distribution of uranium, thorium, and radioactive potassium, if any, and 
formulate international policy to govern the future use of resources buried under 
the polar ice. The survey was planned to last at least five years, and the team exper- 
imented with a new system that combined airborne surveys with on-the-ground 
measurements. 

After completing her undergraduate training at Braunschweig, Dreschhoff 
obtained a position as a staff scientist at Physikalisch Technisch Bundesanstalt in 
Germany, where she was involved in safety procedures to be used around nuclear 
reactors. In 1965, she was measuring the levels of radioactive fission products in 
German air, soil, water, and plants. In 1967, when she attended a conference spon- 
sored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, she met an American scientist 
from the University of Kansas who was working on the effects of radiation on 
solid bodies in space. He had several contracts from the National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Air Force and offered her a job. 
Because she speaks fluent German as well as English and French, she was a valu- 
able participant in international research projects. 

Until the late 1960s, American women scientists were not permitted to conduct 
research in Antarctica, although women from other countries were permitted to do 
so by their respective governments. The reasoning behind the prohibition was that 
the only transportation to Antarctica was provided by the U.S. Navy, and that civil- 
ian women would not be transported, although there had been a few American 
women who had financed their own trips. At one point, she was the only woman 
living at a remote base during the research season with 15 other scientists and 
an equal number of naval personnel. Dreschhoff is a member of the American 
Physical Society, American Geophysical Union, American Polar Society, 
American Association for the Advancement of Science, Explorers' Club, and 
U.S. Naval Institute. 

Further Resources 

Land, Barbara. 1981. The New Explorers: Women in Antarctica. New York: Dodd, Mead. 



Dresselhaus, Mildred (Spiewak) | 355 

Dresselhaus, Mildred (Spiewak) 

b. 1930 
Solid-State Physicist 

Education: B.A., Hunter College, 1951; M.A., Radcliffe College, 1953; Ph.D., 
physics, University of Chicago, 1958 

Professional Experience: Fulbright fellow, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge 
University, 1951-1952; National Science Foundation fellow, Cornell University, 
1958-1960; staff member, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology (MIT), 1960-1967, Abby Rockefeller Mauze Visiting Professor, electrical 
engineering and computer science, 1967-1968, professor, 1968-1973, associate 
department head, 1972-1974, Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of Electrical 
Engineering, 1973-1985, director, Center for Materials Science and Engineering, 
1977-1983, professor, physics, 1983-1985, Institute Professor, MIT, 1985- 

Concurrent Positions: director, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy, 
2000-2001 

Mildred Dresselhaus is a physicist renowned for her research on electronic proper- 
ties of materials such as semiconductors and semimetals. Solid-state physicists 
deal with matter in a condensed state, not in gaseous or liquid form, a new area 
of research when Dresselhaus began her career in the 1950s. The launch of the 
Russian satellite Sputnik in 1957 sparked an interest in the United States in 
research on new materials, including superconductors, such as lead and tin. Her 
most important work, starting in the 1980s, was done on analyzing carbon. She 
and her associates found that carbon contained hollow clusters, each containing 
60 atoms. These clusters are called Buckminster Fullerenes (named for the scien- 
tist Buckminster Fuller), or Buckeyballs, because of their shape. They are impor- 
tant for their potential use as a delivery system for drugs and as an extremely 
strong form of wire tubing. 

After completing her doctorate at the University of Chicago, she married Gene 
Dresselhaus, a fellow physics student. He had already accepted a position at 
Cornell University, and she accepted a National Science Foundation fellowship to 
work there. After two years, the couple found joint appointments at Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, where, in 1977, she was named director of the Center 
for Materials Science and Engineering. She went on to hold a joint appointment as 
professor in engineering and physics. At MIT, she has also been committed to 
encouraging more women to pursue the sciences and engineering. 

Dresselhaus has the distinction of having been elected to membership in both 
the National Academy of Engineering (1974) and the National Academy of 



356 | Dunbar, Bonnie J. 

Sciences (1985). She is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sci- 
ences and the American Physical Society (president, 1984), and a member of the 
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Society of Women 
Engineers (SWE). She has received numerous honorary doctorates, and her other 
prestigious awards include the National Medal of Science (1990), the Weizmann 
Institute Millenial Lifetime Achievement Award (2000), the Nicholson Medal of 
the American Physical Society (2000), the Karl T. Compton Medal for Leadership 
in Physics from the American Institute of Physics (2001), the Founders Medal of 
the IEEE (2004), and the Heinz Award in Technology, the Economy, and Employ- 
ment (2005). In 2007, she was named the North American Laureate for the 
L'Oreal-UNESCO Awards for Women, and in 2009, she received the Vannevar 
Bush Award of the National Science Board for public service as a scientist. 

Further Resources 

Byers, Nina and Gary A. Williams. 2006. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth- 
Century Women to Physics. New York: Cambridge University Press. 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Faculty website, http://web.mit.edu/physics/ 
people/faculty /dresselhaus mildred.html. 



Dunbar, Bonnie J. 

b. 1949 

Biomedical Engineer, Ceramics Engineer, Astronaut 

Education: B.S., ceramic engineering, University of Washington, 1971, M.S., 
ceramic engineering, 1975; Ph.D., biomedical engineering, University of Houston, 
1983 

Professional Experience: staff engineer, Boeing Computer Services, 1971-1973; 
senior research engineer, Space Division, Rockwell International, 1976-1978; 
staff engineer, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 
1978-1980, astronaut, 1981-1998, assistant director, University Research and 
Affairs, 1998-2003; deputy associate director, Biological Sciences and Applica- 
tions, 2003-2005; associate director, Technology Integration and Risk Management, 
2005; president and CEO, Museum of Flight, 2005- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting scientist, Harwell Laboratories, England, 1975; 
adjunct assistant professor, mechanical engineering, University of Houston 

Bonnie J. Dunbar has spent more hours in space than any of the other women 
astronauts except Shannon Lucid. Dunbar joined NASA as a staff engineer in 



Dunbar, Bonnie J. | 357 



1978 and performed key guidance and 
flight control duties for the Skylab 
reentry mission in 1979. She was 
accepted for the astronaut training pro- 
gram in 1980, one of the eight original 
women astronauts. Her first shuttle 
flight was aboard STS-61-A Chal- 
lenger in October 1985. On STS-32 
in 1990, she had the major respon- 
sibility for the Remote Manipulator 
System (RMS) to retrieve a satellite. 
As payload commander for the 1992 
space shuttle Columbia flight, she 
oversaw experiments in materials 
science, fluid dynamics, combustion 
science, and biotechnology. She flew 
a fourth mission on STS-71 in 1995. 
Her last flight as an astronaut was as 
a member of the Endeavour crew 
that picked up David Wolf when he 
completed his Mir assignment in 
1998. Dunbar retired from NASA in 
2005 and became president and CEO 
of the Museum of Flight in Seattle, 

Washington, where, in 2008, she held an event called WomenFlyl to encourage 
and showcase careers of women in aerospace and aviation. Her husband, Ronald 
M. Sega, is also an astronaut, engineer, and physicist with NASA. 

Dunbar became fascinated with space flight as a child and, encouraged by a 
teacher, studied all of the math and science courses that were available in high 
school. At the University of Washington, there were only 6 women in the class 
of 2,000 engineering students. She originally planned to major in aeronautical 
engineering, but the head of the Ceramic Engineering Department, who had 
received a NASA contract to work on thermal insulation systems for the space 
shuttle, was recruiting students, and she switched to that program. As a graduate 
student, she had a short appointment as a visiting scientist at Harwell Laboratories 
in England to do research on turbine blades in aircraft engines, which must with- 
stand extremely high temperatures. She joined the Rockwell International Space 
Division, the prime contractor for the space shuttle, to help develop equipment 
and processes for the manufacture of the space shuttle's ceramic-tile heat shield. 




Astronaut Bonnie Dunbar prepares for a 
mission aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, 
1998. (NASA) 



358 | Dunbar, Bonnie J. 

After joining the NASA astronaut program, she went on to pursue her Ph.D. in 
bioengineering, studying the effect of space flight on bone strength and calcium. 
Dunbar was elected to the National Academy of Engineers in 2002. Among her 
numerous awards and honors, she has received the Rockwell International Engi- 
neer of the Year (1977), American Ceramic Society (ACS) Greaves- Walker Award 
(1985), NASA Space Flight Medals (1985, 1990, 1992, 1995, and 1998), NASA 
Exceptional Service Medal (1988, 1991, and 1996), National Engineering Award 
of the American Association of Engineering Societies (1992), Museum of Flight 
Pathfinder Award (1992), Design News's Engineering Achievement Award 
(1993), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Judith Resnik 
Award (1993), Society of Women Engineers Resnik Challenger Medal (1993), 
NASA Outstanding Leadership Award (1993), and James I. Mueller Award of 
the ACS (2000). She was a member of the National Science Foundation (NSF) 
Engineering Advisory Board (1993-1999) and has been inducted into the Women 
in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame (2000). She is a member of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Ceramic 
Society, Biomedical Engineering Society, Materials Research Society, National 
Institute of Ceramic Engineers, Arnold Air Society, and Angel Flight. 

Further Resources 

Kevles, Bettyann H. 2003. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. New York: 
Basic Books. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Bonnie J. Dunbar (Ph.D.)" http://www 
.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/dunbar.html. 



E 



Earle, Sylvia Alice 



b. 1935 

Marine Botanist, Oceanographer, Environmentalist 

Education: B.S., Florida State University, 1955; M.A., Duke University, 1956, 
Ph.D., botany, 1966 

Professional Experience: research biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 
1957; instructor, biology, St. Petersburg Junior College, 1963-1964; research asso- 
ciate, marine biology, Cape Haze Marine Laboratory, 1964-1965, resident director, 
1966-1967, senior research associate, 1967-; instructor, Tulane University, 1968; 
research fellow, Farlow Herbarium, Harvard University, 1967-1975, researcher, 
1975-; research scholar, Radcliffe Institute for Independent study, 1967-1969; 
research associate, botany, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 
1970-1975; research biologist and curator, California Academy of Sciences, 
1976-; research associate, University of California, Berkeley, 1969-1975; chief 
scientist, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 
1990-1992, advisor to the administrator, 1992-1993; founder, director, and officer, 
Deep Ocean Technology, Inc., and Deep Ocean Engineering, Inc., 1981-1990; 
founder and chair, Deep Ocean Exploration and Research (DOER), 1992-; direc- 
tor, Sustainable Seas Expeditions, National Geographic/NOAA/Goldman Founda- 
tion, 1999-2003; program director, Harte Research Institute for the Gulf of 
Mexico, Texas A&M University, 2000-; executive director, Global Marine Conser- 
vation, Conservation International, 2001- 

Concurrent Positions: fellow in botany, Natural History Museum, 1989-; direc- 
tor, Kerr-McGee Corporation, 1998-; explorer in residence, National Geographic, 
1998-; director, Common Heritage Corporation, 1999- 

Sylvia Earle is known internationally as a marine botanist and oceanographer. She 
was the first female chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration (NOAA); during her tenure there, she led investigations into the 
pollution of the Persian Gulf that resulted from Iraq's burning of the Kuwait oil 
refineries. She also studied the pollution of Prince William Sound, Alaska, after 



359 



360 | Earle, Sylvia Alice 

the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground there in 1989. Earle eventually earned 
the nickname "Her Deepness" for her record-breaking and numerous dives, 
including a 1979 dive to 1,250 feet in which she spent two and a half hours on 
the ocean floor. 

Earle spent part of her childhood on a farm in New Jersey, where she studied the 
aquatic life in a pond on the property. Later, when the family moved to Florida, she 
had the entire Gulf of Mexico as her backyard and learned to scuba dive at a time 
when very few people dove recreationally and marine biologists were just taking 
advantage of new diving technologies. Earle graduated from high school at 
16 and quickly went on to college and then graduate school at Duke University, 
where she studied algae. In 1964, she was invited to join an expedition to the 
Indian Ocean sponsored by the National Science Foundation, and in 1966, the year 
she received her Ph.D., she became resident director of the Cape Haze Marine 
Laboratory. 

In 1970, Earle was appointed team leader of the group of women oceanogra- 
phers who lived underwater for two weeks in Tektite II. The purpose was not only 
to observe the marine environment but also to determine the effects of isolation on 
aquanauts as a way for NASA to plan for the needs of astronauts on future space 
flights. The sponsors would not allow male and female scientists to live together 
and, although there were 16 tests involving all-male teams, the women's test 
received the most publicity. As team leader, Earle received invitations to give 
speeches and publish articles, providing important opportunities to talk about her 
research on the environment and marine life. 

In 1982, she formed a company, Deep Ocean Engineering, with Graham 
Hawkes, an engineer who had designed a special dive suit worn by Earle. Their 
company designed and manufactured the Deep Rover, an easily maneuverable, 
relatively inexpensive, one-person submersible capable of going to an ocean depth 
of 3,000 feet. Earle was one of the first three individuals to test it and, although she 
and Hawkes were married but then divorced, she remains involved in the operation 
of the company. In 1990, she became chief scientist at NOAA, but she left the 
position to work independently again. In 1999, she returned to a project sponsored 
by NOAA and National Geographic, a five-year study of the National Marine 
Sanctuary called the Sustainable Seas Expedition. 

In addition to her numerous magazine articles, ocean atlases, and children's 
books, Earle's other books include Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans (1996) 
and The World Is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One (2009). She is a 
corporate member of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and was the first 
woman to receive the Lowell Thomas Award of the Explorers' Club (1980). She is 
a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a 
member of the International Phycological Society, Phycological Society of 



Eastwood, Alice | 36 1 

America, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, American Institute 
of Biological Sciences, and Ecological Society of America. She was inducted into 
the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2000. She is listed as "Sylvia Mead" in some 
sources. 

Further Resources 

Harte Research Institute. "Dr. Sylvia Earle." http://www.harteresearchinstitute.org/ 
index. php?option=com content&view=article&id=98%3Adr-sylvia-earle-&catid=19 
%3 Aadvisory-board&Itemid=29 1 . 



Eastwood, Alice 

1859 1953 
Botanist 

Education: public schools 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, Denver, 1879-1890; curator of 
botany, California Academy of Sciences, 1892-1950 

Alice Eastwood was one of the most knowledgeable systematic botanists of her 
time. She was curator of botany at the California Academy of Sciences for more 
than 50 years and was a specialist on the flowering plants of the Rocky Mountains 
and the California coast. In a study of 100 prominent American botanists in 1903, 
she was one of only two women named. While teaching high school in Denver, she 
acquired an extensive knowledge of botany by exploring various areas of 
Colorado. She was invited in 1892 to join Kate Brandegee, curator of botany at 
the California Academy of Sciences, and later succeeded her as curator. Both were 
members of a group of prominent botanists who were working in California at the 
turn of the century. In 1 893, Eastwood published, at her own expense, Popular Flora 
of Denver, Colorado. In 1905, she wrote A Handbook of the Trees of California. In 
1932, she and J. T. Howell founded and edited the journal Leaflets of Western 
Botany. This was an important outlet for the active research that was being con- 
ducted in the western United States. She founded the California Botanical Club 
and directed its activities thereafter. In addition to her work at the Academy, she 
was able to perform extensive fieldwork in California and added hundreds of speci- 
mens to the collection. 

After the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906, Eastwood spent several 
years rebuilding the botanical collections at the California Academy of Sciences. 
She verified the descriptions of specimens by visits to the British Museum, the 



362 | Eastwood, Alice 



Kate Brandegee 

Mary Katharine Layne Curran Brandegee (1844-1920) was one of the outstand- 
ing women botanists in the United States in the nineteenth century and was a 
leading authority on California plants. After her first husband died in 1874, she 
obtained an M.D. from the University of California at San Francisco. The curricu- 
lum included training in the medicinal uses of plants and, after practicing medi- 
cine for a few years, she joined the California Academy of Sciences. She 
began actively collecting specimens and in 1883 became curator of the herba- 
rium, a position she held for 10 years, and one of the highest-level botany posi- 
tions for a woman at that time. In this post, she edited and published a series of 
botanical Bulletins. Later, with her husband Townshend Brandegee, a civil engi- 
neer and plant collector, she co-founded Zoe, a journal of the natural history of 
the west coast. In 1898, the Brandegees moved to San Diego, where they built 
their own botanical library and herbarium. They returned to San Francisco in 
1906 when Townshend Brandegee accepted a position as honorary curator at 
the University of California. They spent the rest of their lives at the herbarium, 
without salary, donating their library and collection of over 75,000 specimens 
to the university. 



Royal Botanic Gardens, the Natural History Museum at Paris, Harvard University, 
the New York Botanical Garden, and the National Herbarium. Between 1912 and 
her retirement in 1950, over 340,000 specimens were added to the herbarium. 
One of her goals was to verify the classification of tropical and subtropical exotics 
grown in California. She also was responsible for developing the Academy's vast 
botanical library, which included many volumes she contributed from her personal 
collection. 

Eastwood published about 300 scientific papers. Among the honors she received 
was being elected honorary president of the Seventh International Botanical 
Congress in Stockholm in 1950. She was a member of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, the Botanical Society of America, and the Ecological 
Society of America. Carol G. Wilson wrote a biography, Alice Eastwood's Wonder- 
land: The Adventures of a Botanist (1955). 

Further Resources 

Bonta, Marcia M. 1995. American Women Afield: Writings by Pioneering Women Natural- 
ists. College Station: Texas A&M University Press. 

Rudolph, Emanuel D. 1982. "Women in Nineteenth Century American Botany: A Gener- 
ally Unrecognized Constituency." American Journal of Botany. 69(8): 1346 1355. 



Edwards, Cecile Hoover | 363 

Edinger, Tilly 

1897 1967 
Paleontologist 

Education: University of Heidelberg and University of Munich, 1916-1918; 
Ph.D., natural philosophy, University of Frankfurt, 1921 

Professional Experience: research assistant, paleontology, University of Frankfurt, 
1921-1927; curator, vertebrate collection, Senckenberg Museum of Frankfurt, 
1927-1938; translator, 1939; research associate, Museum of Comparative Zoology, 
Harvard University, 1940-1967 

Tilly Edinger was the first person to perform systematic work on the study of fossil 
brains. She proved that the brain's evolution could be studied directly from fossils. 
She recognized that the evolution of the brain must be studied directly from the 
fossils and that mammals' brains are uniquely suited to such study. She theorized 
that the evolution of the brain was more complex than other paleontogists had 
stated. She worked for a number of years as curator of the vertebrate collection, 
without pay, in the museum in Frankfurt, Germany. Five years after the Nazis 
came to power, she was forced to flee the country due to her Jewish heritage. She 
came to Harvard because the school had designated funds for the temporary employ- 
ment of displaced European scholars. She spent the rest of her life at Harvard's 
Museum of Comparative Zoology. She published the first of her major works while 
still in Germany: Die Fossilen Gehirne (1929). Her second book, The Evolution of 
the Horse Brain (1948), was published while she was at Harvard. 

Edinger virtually established the field of paleoneurology, the study of fossil brains. 
Her father was a famous medical researcher who helped found the science of compa- 
rative neurology. She did not originally intend to follow in his footsteps. She planned 
to study geology but, fearing there were few employment opportunities in that field 
for women, she switched to vertebrate paleontology and ultimately ranked among 
the major figures in her field. She was elected president of the Society of Vertebrate 
Paleontology (1963-1964) and received honorary degrees from Wellesley College 
(1950), the University of Giessen (1957), and the University of Frankfurt (1964). 

Edwards, Cecile Hoover 

1926 2005 
Nutritionist, Biochemist 

Education: B.S., Tuskegee Institute, 1946, M.S., 1947; Ph.D., nutrition, Iowa State 
University, 1950; diplomate, human nutrition, American Board of Nutrition, 1963 



364 | Edwards, Cecile Hoover 

Professional Experience: research associate, nutrition, Iowa State University, 
1949-1950; assistant professor and research associate, foods and nutrition, Tuske- 
gee Institute, 1950-1956, department head, 1952-1956; professor, nutrition, North 
Carolina A&T State University, 1956-1971, department chair, home economics, 
1968-1971; department chair, home economics, Howard University, 1971-1974, 
dean, School of Human Ecology, 1974-1986, professor, nutrition, 1971-2000 

Concurrent Positions: dean, School of Continuing Education, Howard Univer- 
sity, 1986-1987; collaborator, Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics, 
Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1952-1955; 
adjunct professor, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1971; project direc- 
tor, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1985-1989 

Cecile Edwards was a researcher and educator who devoted her career to improv- 
ing the nutrition and well-being of disadvantaged people. She accepted a position 
at Howard University in 1971 as chair of the Department of Home Economics, but 
was assigned the task of designing a new curriculum for the School of Human 
Ecology. In 1969, Arthur Jensen had advanced the theory in a scientific paper that 
blacks were genetically inferior and that providing education, nutrition, and other 
resources could not bring them into equality. Edwards's major goal was to dis- 
prove the Jensen hypothesis. Her school evaluated programs that provided 
resources for low-income people and taught parenting, childcare, nutrition, budg- 
eting, and job skills as part of a comprehensive approach. She was ultimately 
responsible for helping to establish the Ph.D. program in nutrition at Howard 
University. 

Edwards enrolled in the Tuskegee Institute at the age of 15 with a major in 
home economics and went on to earn graduate degrees in nutrition and chemistry, 
in particular studying methionine, an essential amino acid. She returned to Tuske- 
gee as a faculty member and research associate and was appointed head of the 
Department of Foods and Nutrition in 1952. She later expanded her research to 
the amino acid composition of food, the utilization of protein from vegetarian 
diets, and the planning of well-balanced and nutritious diets, especially for low- 
income and disadvantaged people both in the United States and abroad. 

Starting in 1985, Edwards directed a five-year project sponsored by the 
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to study the nutri- 
tional, medical, psychological, socioeconomic, and lifestyle factors that influence 
pregnancy outcomes for low-income and minority women. She served on numer- 
ous commissions and committees involving human health and nutrition and was 
a member of the American Institute of Nutrition, American Home Economics 
Association, Society for Nutrition Education, and American Dietetic Association. 
In 1984, her home state of Illinois declared April 5 as "Dr. Cecile Hoover Edwards 



Edwards, Helen Thorn | 365 

Day," and in 2000, the Illinois legislature passed a resolution honoring Edwards 
upon her retirement from Howard University. 



Edwards, Helen Thorn 

b. 1936 
Accelerator Physicist 

Education: B.A., Cornell University, 1957, M.A., 1963, Ph.D., physics, 1966 

Professional Experience: research associate, Laboratory for Nuclear Studies, 
Cornell University, 1958-1970; research, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, 
1970-1987, head, Accelerator Division, 1987-1989; head and associate director, 
Superconducting Division, Superconducting Supercollider Laboratory, 1989- 
1992; guest scientist, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Office of Science, 
Department of Energy, 1992- 

Helen Edwards is an internationally renowned physicist who supervises the design 
and building of accelerators. She has been responsible for two of the largest in the 
United States: the Tevatron at Fermi Laboratory (Fermilab) in Illinois and the 
Superconducting Supercollider in Texas. Unfortunately, the latter project has 
never been completed due to lack of Congressional funding, but she divides her 
time between Fermilab (where her husband, Don Edwards, is also a physicist) 
and the Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg, Germany. Her 
goal is to develop an international superconducting linear collider to enable 
scientists to gather data on the nature of subatomic particles. The construction of 
a particle accelerator is a complicated operation requiring the effort of hundreds 
of people. Edwards has served as a chief designer, group leader, and project 
coordinator at these laboratories. 

Edwards pursued her graduate studies at Cornell due to the school's 
international reputation for pioneering work in the construction of particle acceler- 
ators. She was appointed a research associate in the Laboratory for Nuclear Stud- 
ies, where she was primarily responsible for commissioning (or ensuring that it 
was in operating order) the 12-GeV electron synchrotron. A synchrotron, which 
also is called an atom smasher or particle accelerator, is an electrostatic or 
electromagnetic device that produces high-energy particles and focuses them on 
a target. The GeV is a unit of measurement for the energy level of accelerated par- 
ticles equivalent to a billion electron volts. In 1970, Edwards was invited to join 
the research team at the Fermi Laboratory, where she was instrumental in commis- 
sioning the 400-GeV main accelerator and commissioning auxiliary equipment. 



366 | Ehrlich, Anne (Fitzhugh) Howland 

In 1987, she was one of the supervisors assigned to oversee the completion of the 
world's highest-energy superconducting particle accelerator, called the Tevatron. 
This accelerator can produce an energy level of 1 TeV, the equivalent of 1,000 
GeV, as it collides protons and antiprotons moving in opposite directions. 

Edwards was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1988. She has 
received the U.S. Department of Energy's Ernest O. Lawrence Award (1986) and a 
prestigious MacArthur Fellowship (1988). She was a co-recipient of the President's 
National Medal of Technology (1989) and in 2003 received the Robert R. Wilson 
Prize of the American Physical Society "for her pivotal achievement and critical 
contribution as the leader in the design, construction, commissioning and opera- 
tion of the Tevatron, and for her continued contributions to the development of 
high-gradient superconducting linear accelerators as well as bright and intense 
electron sources." 

Further Resources 

Byers, Nina and Gary A. Williams. 2006. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth- 
Century Women to Physics. New York: Cambridge University Press. 



Ehrlich, Anne (Fitzhugh) Howland 

b. 1933 

Environmental Scientist, Author 

Education: student, University of Kansas, 1952-1955 

Professional Experience: technician, entomology, University of Kansas, 1955; 
research assistant and biological illustrator, biological sciences, Stanford Univer- 
sity, 1959-1972, research associate, 1972-1975, senior research associate, 
1975-; associate director/policy coordinator, Center for Conservation Biology, 
Stanford University, 1987- 

Concurrent Positions: consultant, Council on Environmental Quality, 1977- 
1980; instructor, biology and environmental policy, Stanford University, 1981- 

Anne Ehrlich has had a great impact on the debates about population growth, food 
resources, extinction of species, and human ecology. In 1984, her husband, Paul R. 
Ehrlich, a professor of biological sciences and population studies, founded the 
Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University, and in 1987, Anne was 
appointed Policy Director. Anne Ehrlich has authored or co-authored more than 
10 books on controversial topics. In one of the couple's most recent books, 



Ehrlich, Anne (Fitzhugh) Howland | 367 




Betrayal of Science & Reason: How 
Anti- Environmental Rhetoric Threatens 
Our Future (1996), they argue that 
overpopulation, global warming, and 
natural resource limits continue to 
threaten human life and the planet. 

The Ehrlichs have been especially 
criticized for their population fore- 
casts and ominous warnings. In 
1968, when they published The Popu- 
lation Bomb, there were 3.5 billion 
human beings. The Ehrlichs warned 
that the planet could not support that 
number of people and predicted that 
in the 1970s, famines would result in 
millions of human deaths. In fact, 
their critics pointed out, the decade 
saw food production soar worldwide, 
prices dropped, and growers experi- 
enced a surplus. But the Ehrlichs issued 
a sequel, The Population Explosion, 
in 1990; by that time, world popula- 
tion was at 5.3 billion, and they stated that the excess numbers of people had over- 
loaded both the environment and human communities, and the result will be global 
warming, acid rain, a larger hole in the ozone layer, crime, viral epidemics, and 
homelessness. While it is difficult to find consensus on the extent or urgency of 
such problems as related to population increases, many of the environmental prob- 
lems the Ehrlichs warned about have become prominent concerns and political 
issues of the twenty-first century. 

Anne Ehrlich has served as a consultant for or member of numerous government 
and academic committees and organizations, including the White House Council on 
Environmental Quality's Global 2000 Report (1980), Conferences on the Fate 
of the Earth (1981-1984), the Center for Innovative Diplomacy (1981-1992), the 
President's Commission on Sustainable Development (1994-1995), the Rocky 
Mountain Biological Laboratory (1989-1999), the Ploughshares Fund (1990-2003), 
and the Sierra Club (1996-2002). She has also served on numerous advisory panels 
and was on the editorial board of Pacific Discovery, the journal of the California Acad- 
emy of Sciences (1998-1994). 

The Ehrlichs have received numerous honors and awards together, including the 
American Humanist Association Distinguished Service Award (1985), the United 



Anne Ehrlich is a biologist specializing in 
population issues. She is policy coordinator 
of the Center for Conservation Biology at 
Stanford University. (Stanford University) 



368 | Elders, (Minnie) Joycelyn (Jones) 

Nations Environment Programme Prize (1994), the Heinz Award for Environmental 
Achievement (1995), and the Distinguished Peace Leader Award of the Nuclear 
Age Peace Foundation (1996). When the couple won the Tyler Prize for Environ- 
mental Achievement (1998), they used a portion of their prize money to buy and 
restore a piece of eroded land in Costa Rica. Anne Ehrlich has also received sev- 
eral awards for her separate work, including being named to the Global 500 Roll 
of Honour for Environmental Achievement of the United Nations (1989). She is 
an honorary fellow of the California Academy of Science, an honorary lifetime 
member of the American Humanist Association, and a fellow of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has received honorary doctorates from 
Bethany College (1990) and Oregon State University (1999). 

Further Resources 

Center for Conservation Biology, Stanford University. Staff website. http://www 
.stanford.edu/group/CCB/Staff/anne.htm. 



Elders, (Minnie) Joycelyn (Jones) 

b. 1933 

Endocrinologist, Pediatrician 

Education: B.A., Philander Smith College, 1952; certified physical therapist, 
Brooks Army Medical School, 1954; M.D., University of Arkansas, 1960; diplo- 
mate, American Board of Pediatrics, 1964; M.S., biochemistry, University of 
Arkansas Medical School, 1967 

Professional Experience: intern, pediatrics, University of Minnesota Hospital, 
1960-1961; resident, Medical Center, University of Arkansas, 1961-1964, instruc- 
tor, 1964-1967, assistant professor, 1967-1971, associate professor, 1971-1974, 
professor of pediatrics, 1976-1987; Chief Public Health Director, Arkansas Depart- 
ment of Health, 1987-1993; Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and 
Human Services, 1993-1994; professor of pediatrics, College of Medicine, University 
of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, 1994-2002, emerita, 2002- 

Concurrent Positions: research fellow, National Institute of Child Health and 
Human Development, 1964-1967 

Joycelyn Elders was the second woman and the first African American to be 
appointed to the post of Surgeon General of the United States, succeeding the first 
woman to hold the post, Antonia Novello. Her medical specialty is endocrinology, 



Elders, (Minnie) Joycelyn (Jones) | 369 




Endocrinologist and pediatrician Joycelyn Elders was the second woman and the first 
African American to be appointed Surgeon General of the United States, 1994. (AP/Wide 
World Photos) 



which is the branch of biology dealing with the endocrine glands and their secre- 
tions; this includes the thyroid, the adrenal, and the pituitary. Elders was a share- 
cropper's daughter in rural Arkansas who worked as a maid to pay her way 
through undergraduate school. After completing her residency, she joined the 
pediatrics faculty of the University of Arkansas Medical Center. In 1987, then- 
governor Bill Clinton appointed her director of the Arkansas Department of 
Health. In this position, she established school-based health clinics to combat the 
state's teen pregnancy rate, which was the second-highest in the nation. 

President Clinton appointed her Surgeon General in 1993. Her responsibilities 
were primarily to disseminate information about widespread health problems 
such as smoking-related illnesses and sexually transmitted diseases. She also 
managed the commissioned corps, a uniformed service whose members are 
assigned to medical trouble spots as needed. She was also responsible for the 
Public Health Service's offices of population affairs, minority health, and women's 
health, and the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Her time as 
surgeon general was plagued by controversy due to her support for controversial 
measures such as widespread condom distribution, sex education, abortion rights, 



370 | Elion, Gertrude Belle 

imposing higher excise taxes on alcohol as well as on tobacco, and the medical 
use of marijuana. In 1994, she was forced to resign after just 15 months in office 
under pressure from conservatives amid controversy over public comments in 
which she said that masturbation "is a part of human sexuality." She returned to 
the University of Arkansas Medical Center as a professor of pediatrics, retiring 
in 2002. 

Elders is a member of the Society for Pediatric Research, Endocrinology Society, 
and American Federation for Clinical Research. Her autobiography is Joycelyn 
Elders, M.D.: From Sharecropper's Daughter to Surgeon General of the United 
States of America (1996). 

Further Resources 

"Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders." Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women 
Physicians. National Library of Medicine. National Institutes of Health, http:// 
www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography 98.html. 



Elion, Gertrude Belle 

1918 1999 
Biochemist 

Education: A.B., Hunter College, 1937; M.S., New York University, 1941 

Professional Experience: lab assistant, Biochemistry, School of Nursing, New 
York Hospital, 1937; assistant organic chemist, Denver Chemical Company, 
1938-1939; teacher, chemistry and physics, 1941-1942; analyst, food chemistry, 
Quaker Maid Company, 1942-1943; research chemist, Johnson & Johnson, 
1943-1944; senior research biochemist, Burroughs Wellcome Research Laborato- 
ries, 1944-1967, assistant to director, Chemotherapy Division, 1963-1967; head, 
Experimental Therapy, Burroughs Wellcome Company, 1967-1983, emerita sci- 
entist and consultant, 1983-1999 

Concurrent Positions: consultant, chemotherapy study section, U.S. Public 
Health Service, 1960-1964; adjunct professor, pharmacology and experimental 
medicine, Duke University, 1971-1983, research professor, 1983-1999 

Gertrude Elion was an organic chemist, pharmacologist, and leader in the field 
of purine antimetabolites for the treatment of cancer. Her research earned her 
the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1988. She and her collaborators 
developed drugs to interrupt the life cycle of abnormal cells while leaving 



Elion, Gertrude Belle | 371 




healthy cells unharmed, changing the 
course of pharmaceutical research. In 
her chemotherapy research, she syn- 
thesized and studied drugs used to 
treat leukemia and to ensure success- 
ful organ transplants. Her research 
was the basis for the development 
of AZT, the first drug approved by 
the Food and Drug Administration 
for AIDS patients, and she contrib- 
uted to the development of drugs for 
the treatment of malaria, gout, and 
viral and bacterial infections. She 
began working for Burroughs Well- 
come (now GlaxoSmithKline) in 
1944. Unlike many pharmaceutical 
companies, Burroughs Wellcome 
encouraged its scientists to publish 
their findings once patents had been 
registered, and she ultimately pub- 
lished more than 225 papers in her 
own name. 

Elion was one of the few scientists 
in the cancer research field, and one of the few Nobel Prize winners in science, 
who did not have a doctorate. She graduated from Hunter College summa cum 
laude, but 15 schools rejected her applications for a graduate assistantship because 
she was a woman. She held marginal jobs for several years until her great potential 
was recognized at Burroughs Wellcome. By that time, she had completed her 
master's degree and enrolled in classes toward her doctorate at Brooklyn Polytechnic 
Institute, which she attended for two years. The college expected her to enroll full- 
time, but she was unwilling to quit her job. She was awarded an honorary doctorate 
from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University in 1989, one of numerous 
honorary degrees she received in her lifetime. 

Elion was awarded the highest and most prestigious honors bestowed upon sci- 
entists. She was awarded the Garvan Medal in 1968, the Nobel Prize in 1988 
(awarded jointly with her colleague and mentor George Hitchings), and the 
Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Elion was elected to the 
National Academy of Sciences in 1990, and she was awarded the National Medal 
of Science in 1991. Also in 1991, she was the first woman inducted into the 
National Inventor's Hall of Fame. She was elected a fellow of the American 



George Hitchings, left, and Gertrude Elion, 
right, won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology 
or Medicine for their work developing drugs 
to fight cancer, AIDS, and other diseases. 
(AP/Wide World Photos) 



372 | Ellis, Florence May Hawley 

Academy of Pharmaceutical Scientists. She was a member of the American 
Chemical Society, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the American Society 
of Biological Chemists. 

Further Resources 

McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch. 1998. Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, 
and Momentous Discoveries. Secaucus, NJ: Birch Lane Press. 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 



Ellis, Florence May Hawley 

1906 1991 
Anthropologist 

Education: A.B., University of Arizona, 1927, M.A., 1928; Ph.D., anthropology, 
University of Chicago, 1934 

Professional Experience: research associate, Arizona State Museum, 1928-1929; 
instructor, anthropology, University of Arizona, 1929-1933; assistant to associate 
professor, anthropology, University of New Mexico, 1934-1953, professor, 
1954-1971 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct associate professor, University of Chicago, 1937 
and 1938-1940; adjunct professor, Eckerd College, 1973 

Florence Ellis was known for her pioneer work on the dating of ceramics of the 
Southwest. She published her first papers in the 1920s, becoming one of the first 
women to establish herself in the study of early American culture. She originally 
enrolled as a history major at the University of Arizona, but feeling there were 
too many dates to remember, she switched to anthropology. Her master's thesis 
featured ceramics from three closely successive stages found in excavated sites 
near her hometown of Miami, Arizona. She was able not only to separate the 
sequential stages but also to suggest the possible Mexican relationship. After 
receiving her master's degree, she taught at Arizona in the anthropology depart- 
ment and continued her research. In addition to her skill at dating ceramics, she 
developed expertise in tree-ring dating (dendrochronology). Due to her special 
skills, she was on loan half-time to the University of Chicago to teach dendrochro- 
nology between 1937 and 1940. After receiving her doctorate, she accepted a posi- 
tion at the University of New Mexico, where she remained until her retirement. 



Elmegreen, Debra Meloy | 373 

Fortunately for Ellis, very little work had been reported on the history and pre- 
history of the Native Americans of New Mexico. In the 1960s and 1970s, she 
assisted in the definition of ancient tribal areas for most of the New Mexico and 
Arizona Pueblo tribes and for the Navajos. She had a major role in the Wetherill 
Mesa project to establish relationships between prehistoric culture and living 
peoples. She did extensive work in ethnography and ethnology, particularly in 
Pueblo and Navajo ethnography. She had close relationships with many Native 
Americans, who often permitted her to investigate areas that were closed to other 
ethnologists due to religious principles. 

In addition to scientific papers, Ellis published four books: The Significance of 
the Dated Prehistory of Chetro Ketl, Chaco Canyon, N. M. (1934), Field Manual 
of Prehistoric Southwestern Pottery Types (1936), Tree Ring Analysis and Dating 
in the Mississippi Drainage (1941), and A Reconstruction of the Basic Jemez 
Pattern of Social Organization (1964). She was a member of the Society for 
American Archaeology, American Society for Ethnohistory (president, 1969), 
Tree-Ring Society, New Mexico Archaeological Society, and Northern 
Arizona Society for Science and Art. She was active in museum work in New 
Mexico as a member of the Museum of New Mexico Foundation Board, and a 
teacher and consultant at the Ghost Ranch Museum, which now houses her per- 
sonal library and archaeological finds at the Florence Hawley Ellis Museum of 
Anthropology. She published as both Florence M. Hawley and Florence Hawley 
Ellis. 

Further Resources 

Florence Hawley Ellis Museum of Anthropology, http://www.ghostranch.org/museums 
--activities/florence-hawley-ellis-museum-of-anthropology.html. 



Elmegreen, Debra Meloy 

b. 1952 
Astronomer 

Education: B.A., astrophysics, Princeton University, 1975; M.A., astronomy, 
Harvard University, 1977, Ph.D., astronomy, 1979 

Professional Experience: research assistant, Thermophysics Division, Goddard 
Space Flight Center, 1969, Laboratory of Cosmic Ray Physics, Naval Research 
Laboratory, 1971-1972, Spectres Division, National Bureau of Standards, 1973, 
Kitt Peak National Observatory, 1974, Arecibo Observatory, 1975; teaching 



374 | Elmegreen, Debra Meloy 

fellow, Harvard University, 1977; Carnegie postdoctoral fellow, Mt. Wilson and 
Las Campanas Observatory, 1979-1981; visiting astronomer, Royal Greenwich 
Observatory and Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University, 1981; visiting 
scientist, T. J. Watson Research Center, IBM Corporation, 1982-1988; assistant 
professor to professor, astronomy, Vassar College, 1985- 

Concurrent Positions: chair, Committee on Status of Women in Astronomy, 
American Astronomical Society; director, New York State Science Talent Search 

Debra Elmegreen is an astronomer whose research on spiral galaxies has resulted 
in a new method for classifying these galaxies. The primary feature of spiral 
galaxies is the waves that shape the spiral, waves that arise from the gravitational 
pulls within the galaxy. The Earth is part of a spiral galaxy, and researchers esti- 
mate that spiral galaxies represent about one-third of the estimated 100 billion gal- 
axies in the observable universe. The Earth's galaxy, typical of large spirals, 
contains about 200 billion stars spread mostly through its disk, which is 100,000 
light-years across and about 3,000 light-years thick. A gas, usually hydrogen 
gas, floats among the stars in the disk. Some of the gas forms clouds, with the 
largest clouds being concentrated in or near the spiral arms. In conjunction with 
her husband, astronomer Bruce Elmegreen, Debra Elmegreen has proposed a clas- 
sification scheme based on the size of the spiral arms, since all spirals have the 
same components. Because most galaxies seem to be tilted to our line of sight, 
the researchers use computer imaging to make the arms seem round and to 
enhance the contrast against the disk. 

After receiving her doctorate from Harvard University, she had a series of short 
appointments at several observatories and was a visiting scientist at IBM. Such a 
record of research often is just a reflection of the competition for employment in 
the field of astronomy, as astronomy and related fields receive small amounts of 
funding compared to the number of qualified people who are searching for posi- 
tions. She received an appointment as assistant professor of astronomy at Vassar 
College in 1985, and is now the Maria Mitchell Professor of Astronomy, named 
after the first American woman astronomer, Maria Mitchell, who served as the first 
director when the college's observatory was built in the 1860s. 

Elmegreen is a member of the American Astronomical Society, Royal Astro- 
nomical Society, and International Astronomical Union. Her textbook for under- 
graduate astronomy courses, Galaxies and Galactic Structure, was published in 
1998. Some of the images from her Hubble Telescope and National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration (NASA) Spitzer Space Telescope observations of spiral 
galaxies were selected as the Space Telescope Science Institute Heritage Image 
of the Month (November 1999) and the Astronomy Picture of the Day (1999 
and 2004). 



Emerson, Gladys Anderson | 375 

Further Resources 

Vassar College. Faculty website, http://faculty.vassar.edu/elmegree/. 

Clavin, Whitney. 2006. "Galaxies Don Mask of Stars in New Spitzer Image." Press 
release. http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2006-ll/release.shtml. 



Emerson, Gladys Anderson 

1903 1984 
Nutritionist, Biochemist 

Education: B.S., physics and chemistry, A.B., history and English, Oklahoma 
College for Women, 1925; M.A., history, Stanford University, 1926; Ph.D., nutri- 
tion and biochemistry, University of California, Berkeley, 1932 

Professional Experience: assistant, Stanford University, 1925-1926; teacher, 
social sciences, 1926-1929; assistant, Iowa State College, 1930-1931; research 
associate, Institute for Experimental Biology, University of California, Berkeley, 




Gladys Emerson in the labs at the UCLA School of Public Health. (National Library of 
Medicine) 



376 | Esau, Katherine 

1933-1942; department head, nutrition, Merck Institute of Therapeutic Research, 
1942-1957; professor and chair, home economics, University of California, Los 
Angeles, 1957-1961, professor, nutrition and head of division, School of Public 
Health, UCLA, 1962-1970 

Concurrent Positions: advisory board member, Quartermaster Food & Container 
Institute, 1948-1949; research associate, Sloan-Kettering Institute of Cancer 
Research, 1950-1953; board member, food and nutrition, National Research 
Council, 1959-1964 

Gladys Emerson was a nutritionist and biochemist who researched amino acids and 
vitamins and was recognized as the co-isolator of vitamin E while at the University 
of California, Berkeley in the late 1930s. As an undergraduate, she received a joint 
degree in both science and history. After receiving a master's degree in history, she 
taught school for several years. Changing directions in her career, she obtained a 
fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, where she received a doctorate 
in nutrition and biochemistry in 1932. She received an appointment as a research 
associate at the Institute for Experimental Biology at Berkeley, where she started 
the research that resulted in isolating vitamin E from wheat germ oil. In 1942, she 
joined the Merck Institute of Therapeutic Research as head of the department of 
nutrition. At the University of California, Los Angeles, she became professor and 
head of the department of home economics and then professor of nutrition and head 
of the division of the School of Public Health at Los Angeles. She held concurrent 
positions as a member of the advisory board for the Quartermaster Food & Container 
Institute (1948-1949), research associate at Sloan-Kettering Institute of Cancer 
Research (1950-1953), and member of the food and nutrition board of the National 
Research Council (1959-1964). 

Emerson was also associate editor of the Journal of Nutrition from 1952 to 1956. 
She received the prestigious Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society in 
1952. She was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence, the American Institute of Nutrition, and the New York Academy of Sciences. 



Esau, Katherine 

1898 1997 
Botanist 

Education: Golitsin Women's Agricultural College, Moscow, 1916-1917; Agri- 
cultural College of Berlin, 1919-1922; Ph.D., botany, University of California, 
Davis, 1931 



Esau, Katherine | 377 

Professional Experience: staff, Sloan Seed Company, Oxnard, California, 1923- 
1924; plant breeder, Spreckels Sugar Company, 1924-1927; assistant, botany, Uni- 
versity of California, Davis, 1928-1931, instructor, 1931-1937, assistant professor 
to professor, botany, 1937-1963; professor, botany, University of California, Santa 
Barbara, 1963-1965 

Concurrent Positions: junior botanist to botanist, agricultural experiment station, 
University of California, Davis, 1931-1968; Guggenheim fellow, Harvard Univer- 
sity, 1940; lecturer, Botanical and Plant Research Institute, University of Texas, 
1956; Prather Lecturer, Harvard University, 1960; lecturer, Walker Conference 
on Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1968; Powell Lecturer, 
American Academy of Art and Science, 1973 

Katherine Esau was recognized for her work on the effects of viruses on the 
structure and development of plant tissues, and was an authority on the food- 
conducting tissue of plants and plant-host virus relationships. Born in Russia, 
Esau received college degrees from agricultural schools in Moscow and in Berlin 
before her family immigrated to the United States in 1922. The family wanted to 
settle in California to be near a Mennonite community that shared their religious 
beliefs. California's agricultural economy was the ideal place for Katherine to find 
work, and she spent a year on a seed-production ranch in southern California 
before being hired as a plant breeder by the Spreckels Sugar Company near 
Salinas. Her primary research task was to develop a hybrid sugar beet that was 
resistant to a viral disease spread by insects, which caused the plant leaves to curl 
and wilt. When the head of the botany department at the University of California, 
Davis visited the Spreckels project, he offered Esau an assistantship at the univer- 
sity to continue her research on sugar beets. She worked with an entomologist at 
Berkeley to infect her beet plants with the virus-spreading insects and soon moved 
from a focus on creating a virus-resistant strain of beets to studying the effect of 
the virus on the plant, or plant pathology. The school determined her previous edu- 
cation in Russia and Germany to be the equivalent of a master's degree, and she 
went on to receive her doctorate through a joint program with Davis and Berkeley 
in 1931. After that, she held a joint position as faculty member and botanist with 
the agricultural experiment station. 

In 1963, Esau moved to the Santa Barbara campus of the University of California 
to continue collaborative research on plant development and anatomy, especially of 
crop or food plants. She authored several books, including two of the most widely 
used and influential botany textbooks, Plant Anatomy (1953) and Anatomy of 
Seed Plants (1960), which went through multiple editions through the 1970s. 
She also authored Plants, Viruses, and Insects (1961), Vascular Differentiation in 
Plants (1965), and Viruses in Plant Hosts (1968). Although she officially retired in 



378 | Estrin, Thelma Austern 

1965, Esau continued her research for another 30 years. She died in 1997 at the 
age of 99. 

Esau was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1957. 
She was also an elected member of Phi Beta Kappa and of the Swedish Royal 
Academy of Sciences. She was president of the Botanical Society of America in 
1951, was awarded a Certificate of Merit from the Botanical Society of America 
in 1956, and in 1989, she received the National Medal of Science from President 
George H. W. Bush "[i]n recognition of her pioneering research, both basic and 
applied, on plant structure and development, which has spanned more than six 
decades . . . and for providing a special role for women in science." She was a 
member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Art 
and Science, the International Society of Plant Morphologists, and the Botanical 
Society of America, which has established a Katherine Esau Award for graduate 
students in her name. 

Further Resources 

Evert, Ray F. 1985. "Katherine Esau." Plant Science Bulletin. 31(5). (October 1985). 
http://www.botany.org/bsa/misc/esau.html. 

University of California. "Katherine Esau, Biological Sciences: Santa Barbara." http:// 
content. cdlib.org/xtf/view?docld=hb7tlnb4v2&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00026 
&toc.depth= 1 &toc.id. 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press. 



Estrin, Thelma Austern 

b. 1924 

Computer Scientist, Biomedical Engineer 

Education: B.S., University of Wisconsin, 1948, M.S., 1949, Ph.D., electrical 
engineering, 1951 

Professional Experience: researcher, Neurological Institute, Columbia Presby- 
terian Hospital, New York City, early 1950s; researcher, Weizmann Institute of 
Science, Israel, 1953-1955; research engineer, Health Science Center, University 
of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 1960-1970, director, Data Processing Labo- 
ratory, Brain Research Institute, 1970-1980; director, Division of Electronic Com- 
puter and Systems Engineering, National Science Foundation, 1982-1984; 
professor of engineering, Computer Science Department, UCLA, 1980-1991, 



Estrin, Thelma Austern | 379 

assistant dean, School of Engineering and Applied Science, 1984-1991, director, 
Department of Engineering and Science Extension, 1984-1991, emeritus professor 

Concurrent Positions: Fulbright fellow, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 
Israel, 1963; principal investigator, U.S. Public Health Service grant, Data Process- 
ing Laboratory, Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, 
1970-1980, adjunct professor, anatomy and computer science, 1978-1980 

Thelma Estrin is a biomedical engineer renowned for her research in the applica- 
tion of computer technology to neurophysiological research. Her work has been 
applied by medical researchers to create brain maps of patients based on external 
imaging and for identifying the epileptic foci in the brain. She was the first woman 
to be certified as a clinical engineer. She participated in designing and building the 
first computer in the Middle East at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel 
from 1953 through 1955, and she was one of the team leaders who designed and 
established the first general -purpose computer for brain research at UCLA in 1961. 

She and her husband were history majors during World War II when they were 
recruited for the war effort. Her husband enlisted in the army and, after an inten- 
sive engineering assistant course at the Stevens Institute of Technology, Thelma 
was placed at a tool and model shop called Radio Receptor Company. After the 
war, both enrolled at the University of Wisconsin, where they obtained degrees 
in electrical engineering. Her husband, Gerald Estrin, went to Princeton to design 
and build the first digital electronic computing machine, but few universities were 
interested in hiring women as engineers in the 1950s. Thelma obtained a research 
position in the electroencephalography (EEG) Department of the Neurological 
Institute at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York, conducting research on 
the electrical activity of the brain. 

In 1953, Israeli scientists invited Gerald to build a version of his digital com- 
puter for the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Thelma participated in building 
the first computer in the Middle East. The couple returned to Los Angeles, where 
Gerald taught engineering at UCLA and Thelma was affiliated with the medical 
school, where she helped establish the first computer facility for brain research, 
called the Data Processing Laboratory, in 1961. Her work was funded by National 
Institutes of Health, and in 1970, Estrin was appointed director of the laboratory 
and principal investigator. She later designed an online analog-to-digital system 
and studied interactive graphics as a brain research tool. She eventually joined 
UCLA's School of Engineering and Applied Science, and one of her graduate stu- 
dents in the 1980s developed a microcomputer version of the concept of artificial 
intelligence (AI). 

Estrin officially retired in 1991, but she remains very active in promoting the 
role of women in science and engineering, and mentoring younger women in their 



380 | Evans, Alice Catherine 

careers. All three of Estrin's own daughters have excelled in the sciences; two are 
computer engineers and one is a physician. Estrin has served on numerous com- 
mittees and as president of the Biomedical Engineering Society. She is a fellow 
of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (vice president, 1992), 
and was inducted into the Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of 
Fame (1999). She is a member of the Institute for the Advancement of Engineers, 
American Association for the Advancement of Science, Alliance for Engineering 
in Medicine and Biology, and Association for Computing Machinery. She received 
the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award (1981) for her work in 
biomedical engineering. 

Further Resources 

University of California, Los Angeles. Faculty website, http://www.cs.ucla.edu/csd/ 
people/faculty pages/testrin.html. 

Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. "Oral History: Thelma Estrin." http:// 
www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Oral-History :Thelma Estrin. 



Evans, Alice Catherine 

1881 1975 
Microbiologist 

Education: B.S., Cornell University, 1909; M.S., bacteriology, University of 
Wisconsin, 1910 

Professional Experience: public school teacher, 1901-1905; dairy bacteriologist, 
Bureau of Animal Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), staff, agri- 
cultural experiment station, Madison, Wisconsin, 1910-1913, bacteriologist, 
USDA, Washington, D.C., 1913-1918; U.S. Public Health Service, 1918-1945 

Alice Evans was a microbiologist employed by the federal government, and her 
work on brucellosis is cited as one of the outstanding achievements in medical sci- 
ence in the early twentieth century. Working in the dairy division of the USDA, 
she studied the bacterial contamination of milk products. She led pioneering stud- 
ies on the common origin of brucellosis in both cattle and humans. Prior to that, 
the assumption was that these were two separate diseases; the human form was 
called undulant fever. Many scientists and physicians would not accept her conclu- 
sions and refused to support her campaign for the pasteurization of milk. It was 
unthinkable that a pure product such as unpasteurized milk could cause disease, 



Evans, Alice Catherine | 381 



and she was a woman scientist who 
did not have a doctorate or a medical 
degree. Transferring to the U.S. Pub- 
lic Health Service in 1918, Evans 
worked on epidemic meningitis, 
influenza, and streptococcal infec- 
tions. By that time, her theories on 
brucellosis were gaining wide accep- 
tance because human brucellosis was 
being reported throughout the world 
and from diverse animal sources. In 
the 1930s, the dairy industry was 
forced to begin pasteurizing all milk. 
Evan taught public school for four 
years before enrolling in a nature 
study course for rural teachers at Cor- 
nell. She continued taking courses at 
Cornell to earn her undergraduate 
degree, then went on to receive her 
master's degree in bacteriology from 
the University of Wisconsin. She 
later received an honorary M.D. from 
the Woman's Medical College of 
Pennsylvania (1934) and an honorary 

doctorate from Wilson College (1936). In 1928, she became the first woman 
elected president of the Society of American Bacteriologists. In 1975, she was 
elected an honorary member of the American Society for Microbiology. 




Microbiologist Alice Evans identified the 
organism causing undulant fever, which led to 
laws mandating milk pasteurization. (National 
Library of Medicine) 



Further Resources 

Burns, Virginia Law. 1993. Gentle Hunter: A Biography of Alice Evans, Bacteriologist. 
Laingsburg, MI: Enterprise Press. 



F 



Faber, Sandra (Moore) 



b. 1944 

Astronomer, Cosmologist 

Education: B.A., Swarthmore College, 1966; Ph.D., astronomy, Harvard Univer- 
sity, 1972 

Professional Experience: assistant professor to professor and astronomer, Lick 
Observatory, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1972- 

Concurrent Positions: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation fellow, 1977-; science advi- 
sory committee, National New Technology Telescope, 1983-1984; board of trust- 
ees, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1985-; chair, Keck Telescope Science 
Steering Committee, 1987-1990; member, Hubble Space Telescope Strategy 
Panel, 1990, Users Committee, 1990, Wide-Field Camera Team, 1985- 

Sandra Faber is known internationally for her research on the origin of the uni- 
verse and of galaxies in particular, a special branch of astronomy called "cosmol- 
ogy." She has discovered correlations between galaxies' features — called scaling 
laws — that enable astronomers, having measured some features, to predict others. 
One of the more prominent, called "the Faber-Jackson law," is that larger elliptical 
galaxies have stars that are orbiting more rapidly than those in smaller ones. She 
theorized that much of the matter in the universe is in the form of massive, invis- 
ible halos surrounding galaxies, and that this cold, dark matter has played a deter- 
mining role in the origin and development of galaxies. Previously, scientists 
believed the universe was formed by hot matter. 

Faber majored in physics and minored in mathematics and astronomy at 
Swarthmore College, where she was mentored by the renowned observatory direc- 
tor Sarah Lee Lippincott. The limited opportunities faced by Lippincott, who did 
not hold an advanced degree and was not a regular faculty member, inspired Faber 
to pursue the Ph.D. Faber went on to Harvard, then moved to Washington, D.C., 
where her husband had a job. She was able to use the computers at the Carnegie 
Institution's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism to compile data for her thesis 
and received her Ph.D. in Astronomy from Harvard in 1972. The couple moved 
to California, where Faber obtained a position at the Lick Observatory at the 



383 



384 | Farquhar, Marilyn (Gist) 

University of California, Santa Cruz. She was the first female faculty member at 
Lick, where she and Robert Jackson, a fellow graduate student, developed the 
Faber-Jackson scaling law. Faber and six associates formed a collaboration called 
the Seven Samurai in the 1980s. The team identified the Great Attractor, the near- 
est huge supercluster of galaxies, and estimated the distance of different galaxies 
by creating a map of all of the elliptical galaxies surrounding the Earth in space. 
Faber helped establish the Keck Observatory and 10-meter telescope at Mauna 
Kea, Hawaii, currently the largest optical telescope in the world. She was part of 
the team responsible for the Wide-Field Planetary Camera for the Hubble Space 
Telescope and helped diagnose the problem with the telescope's mirror and pre- 
pare a plan to fix it. 

Faber was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1985. 
She has received numerous prizes, such as the Bart J. Bok Prize of Harvard 
University (1978), the Heineman Prize of the American Astronomical Society 
(1986), a Harvard Centennial Medal (2006), and the Bower Award of the Franklin 
Institute (2009). Faber has been invited to give guest lectures throughout the world 
and is a member of the International Astronomical Union, American Astronomical 
Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science. Her research involves formation and evolution of 
normal galaxies, stellar populations in galaxies, galactic structure, stellar spectros- 
copy, cluster of galaxies, and cosmology. She has participated in several documen- 
taries on public television, such as "Mysteries of Deep Space" (1997). 

Further Resources 

University of California, Santa Cruz. Faculty website, http://www.ucolick.org/~board/ 
faculty/faber.html. 



Farquhar, Marilyn (Gist) 

b. 1928 

Cell Biologist, Experimental Pathologist 

Education: B.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1949, M.A., experimental 
pathology, 1953, Ph.D., experimental pathology, 1955 

Professional Experience: junior research pathologist, University of California, 
1953-1954; research assistant, anatomy, University of Minnesota Medical School, 
1954-1955; assistant research pathologist, University of California, San 
Francisco, 1956-1958; research associate, cell biology, Rockefeller University, 



Farquhar, Marilyn (Gist) | 385 

1958-1962; associate research pathologist to professor, University of California, 
San Francisco, 1962-1970; professor, cell biology, Rockefeller University, 1970- 
1973; professor, cell biology and pathology, Yale University School of Medicine, 
1973-1989; professor, pathology, Division of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, 
University of California, San Diego, 1990- 

Marilyn Farquhar is a pioneer cell biologist who studies the mechanisms of renal 
disease and protein trafficking within cells. Her research has yielded a number of 
discoveries in basic biomedical research, including the mechanisms of kidney dis- 
ease, the organization of functions that attach cells to one another, and the mecha- 
nisms of secretions — that is, the mechanisms by which cells produce and release 
their products. 

She grew up in the central valley farmlands of California and majored in zoology 
before becoming one of only three women in her medical school class at the 
University of California, San Francisco. She became fascinated with the nature 
of diseases and shifted to a program in experimental pathology instead of 
obtaining a medical degree. She married another medical student in 1951 and also 
felt that research would allow more flexibility in raising a family. She was fortu- 
nate to work with a professor who had the only electron microscope in the entire 
medical center, allowing her to be involved in the very beginning of applications 
of electron microscopy in the new field of cell biology. 

After receiving her Ph.D., she conducted kidney research at the University of 
Minnesota and then Rockefeller University, where she joined the laboratory of 
George Palade, the most active and productive team working in cell biology in 
the country. She took a faculty position in San Francisco for eight years before 
returning to Rockefeller as a professor of cell biology, the only woman professor 
at the institution. She divorced her first husband and married George Palade in 
1970. The couple moved to Yale University School of Medicine in 1973 as full pro- 
fessors to start a new department of cell biology. In 1974, Palade received the Nobel 
Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of ribosomes, the cell organ that 
synthesizes proteins. In 1990, both were actively recruited to move to the Univer- 
sity of California, San Diego, where they started and became co-directors of the 
new Division of Cellular and Molecular Medicine in the Medical School. 

Farquhar was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1984. She has received numerous honors and awards, including the E. B. Wilson 
Medal of the American Society for Cell Biology (1987), the Homer Smith Award 
of the American Society of Nephrology (1988), the Distinguished Scientist Medal 
of the Electron Microscopy Society of America (1987), the National Institutes of 
Health Merit Award (1988), and the Federation of American Societies of Experi- 
mental Biology (FASEB) Award for Excellence in Science (2006). She is a 



386 | Farr, Wanda Kirkbride 

member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Society for 
Cell Biology (president, 1981-1982), American Association of Pathologists, 
American Association of Anatomists, American Society of Nephrology, Endo- 
crine Society, and Histochemical Society. 

Further Resources 

University of California, San Diego. Faculty website, http://cmm.ucsd.edu/farquhar/ 
index.html. 



Farr, Wanda Kirkbride 



1895 1983 
Cytologist 

Education: B.S., Ohio University, Athens, 1915; A.M., Columbia University, 
1918 

Professional Experience: assistant, botany, Ohio University, 1915-1916; instructor, 
Kansas State College, 1917-1918; instructor, Agricultural and Mechanical College 
of Texas, 1918-1919; research associate, Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Clinic, 
St. Louis, 1926-1927; instructor, Shaw School of Botany, St. Louis, 1928; investiga- 
tor, plant physiology, Boyce Thompson Institute, 1928-1929; associate cotton 
technologist, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 1929-1936; director, Cellu- 
lose Laboratory, Chemical Foundation, Boyce Thompson Institute, 1936-1940; 
research chemist, American Cyanamid Company, 1940-1943; Research Division, 
Celanese Corporation of America, 1943-1954; Marie Curie lecturer, Pennsylvania 
State University, 1954-1955; research consultant, 1956-1983 

Concurrent Positions: associate professor, botany and cytochemistry, University 
of Maine, consultant, 1957-1960 

Wanda Farr discovered the source for cellulose in research she and her first 
husband had started several years previously. She had planned to study medicine 
when she attended college, but her family refused to permit it because her health 
was somewhat frail. She then decided to study science and focus on research. 
She completed her undergraduate degree in three years and went to Columbia 
University for her master's degree. There she met Clifford Farr, who was complet- 
ing his doctorate. She interrupted her master's program to teach at Kansas State 
while he was teaching at Texas A&M. After their marriage, the couple moved 
to Washington, D.C., where he was on special assignment to the USDA during 



Fausto-Sterling, Anne | 387 

World War I, She obtained a position in the botany department when they returned 
to Texas, and when they moved to St. Louis, she obtained a position at the Barnard 
Free Skin and Cancer Clinic, where she assisted in research on living cells of ani- 
mal organisms. 

When her husband died in 1928, she was invited to continue his university bot- 
any classes even though she did not hold a doctorate. She was, however, familiar 
with his work, and she was able to continue their research on root hairs of plants 
under her own name. Some contemporaries questioned the originality of her con- 
tributions due to her taking over her husband's work, but she was able to secure 
important grants and move on to other employment based on her own merits. After 
working briefly for Boyce Thompson, Farr moved to the USDA to perform 
research on cotton. This research applied to her individual project on root hairs, 
which led to her discovery of the source for cellulose. She later obtained signifi- 
cant appointments at Boyce Thompson and two chemical companies, American 
Cyanamid and Celanese Corporation, and started her own research firm, Farr 
Cytochemical Laboratories, in 1956. Farr was elected a fellow of the Royal Micro- 
scopical Society and was a member of professional societies such as the Botanical 
Society of America and the Torrey Botanical Club. 



Fausto-Sterling, Anne 

b. 1944 
Embryologist 

Education: B.A., University of Wisconsin, 1965; Ph.D., developmental genetics, 
Brown University, 1970 

Professional Experience: instructor, medical science, Brown University, 1971-1972; 
assistant professor to professor, Division of Biology and Medicine, Brown University, 
1972- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting professor, University of Amsterdam, 1986 

Anne Fausto-Sterling researches biological theories about women from the per- 
spective of the formation, development, structure, and functional activities of 
embryos. As a scientist and a feminist, she criticizes those who link biology to gen- 
der assumptions, such as the myths that sex-related hormones control one's destiny 
as a man or a woman, assumptions that females possess an inherently inferior abil- 
ity to perceive spatial relations among objects, or that hormonaily induced mood 
fluctuations affect a woman's ability to function in society. Fausto-Sterling argues 
that the political goal to relegate women to subordinate positions within society 



388 | Fedoroff, Nina Vsevolod 

has influenced much of the research conducted in both biology and genetics. In 
1985, she published Myths of Gender: Biological Theories about Women and Men, 
in which she raised doubts about the validity of scientific studies that support tradi- 
tional gender roles, pointing out the underlying social biases, inadequate evidence, 
and faulty methods in scientific research on sex differences. An updated edition of 
the book was published in 1992 to include new research on the brain and homo- 
sexuality. Her work has, not surprisingly, generated controversy and criticism. 

Fausto-Sterling received her doctorate from Brown University in 1970 and has 
remained at Brown as a faculty member since that time. Her initial research was 
based on Drosophila, the fruit fly, and on the evolution and regeneration of fresh- 
water flatworms called Planaria. She discovered these flatworms have five differ- 
ent modes of reproduction, three asexual and two sexual. She became aware of 
gender bias even in scientific studies of animals and began to examine the research 
on human reproduction and sexuality. Many of her articles and books have reached 
a mainstream audience. Her essay on "The Five Sexes" was an honorable mention 
among The Best American Essays of 1994. Among her other works is the book 
Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality (2000). 

She has received many honors, including a National Science Foundation grant 
(1971) and a Wellesley Center for Research on Women Mellon fellowship 
(1980-1981). She was a fellow of Pembroke Center for Research and Teaching 
on Women (1982) and is a member of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, the Society for Developmental Biology, and the International 
Society for Developmental Biology. 

Further Resources 

Ambrose, Susan A. et al. 1997. Journeys of Women in Science and Engineering: No 
Universal Constants. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. 

Brown University. Faculty website. http://bms.brown.edU/faculty/f/afs/afs home.html. 



Fedoroff, Nina Vsevolod 

b. 1942 
Molecular Biologist 

Education: B.S., Syracuse University, 1966; Ph.D., molecular biology, Rockefeller 
University, 1972 

Professional Experience: assistant professor, biology, University of California, 
Los Angeles, 1972-1974, Damon Runyan- Walter Winchell Cancer Research Fund 
Fellow in molecular biology, School of Medicine, 1974-1975; professor, biology, 



Fedoroff, Nina Vsevolod | 389 

Johns Hopkins University, 1979-1994; director, Biotechnical Institute, Pennsylvania 
State University, 1995-, professor, life sciences, 1995— 

Concurrent Positions: National Institutes of Health fellow, Carnegie Institution of 
Washington, 1975-1977, research associate, 1977-1978, staff scientist, 1978-1994. 

Nina Fedoroff is renowned for her success in duplicating and analyzing the trans- 
posable genetic elements in maize (corn) first identified by the American geneti- 
cist Barbara McClintock. After meeting McClintock at a conference, Fedoroff 
became so intrigued with the idea of transposable elements that she not only repli- 
cated McClintock's work but also discovered that the transposable elements were 
mobile in plants other than maize. Other molecular biologists quickly picked up 




Molecular biologist Nina Fedoroff receiving the National Medal of Science from President 
George W. Bush, 2007. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



390 | Ferguson, Angela Dorothea 

the system of cloning from her work and used the maize transposable elements to 
mark and clone genes in other plants. She is the author of the book Dynamic 
Genome: Barbara McClintock's Ideas in the Century of Genetics (1992). 

While still an undergraduate, Fedoroff received a National Science Foundation 
grant to spend the summer at Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, where 
she was inspired to pursue scientific research. After receiving her Ph.D. in Molecu- 
lar Biology, she taught classes and conducted research on ribonucleic acid (RNA) 
under cancer research grants and a fellowship from the National Institutes of 
Health (NIH). Her early work on the replications of viruses that destroy bacteria 
shed light upon ribosomes, the principal sites of protein synthesis. She then turned 
to cloning and molecular genetic analysis of maize transposable elements. These 
elements, known as "jumping genes," were of interest because of their ability to 
move to new positions on the chromosome. Her work has contributed substantially 
to the development of the entire field of plant molecular biology and to debates 
about introducing genetically engineered organisms into the environment. In 
2004, she co-authored with Nancy Marie Brown the book Mendel in the Kitchen: 
A Scientist's View of Genetically Modified Foods. 

Fedoroff was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1990 and was honored by the New York Academy of Sciences as an outstanding 
woman scientist in 1992. The U.S. government has acknowledged her work with 
a 2006 National Medal of Science, and in 2007, Secretary of State Condoleezza 
Rice named Fedoroff a national science and technology advisor. She has been a 
member of the Science Advisory Panel on Applications of Genetics, Office of 
Technological Assessment, U.S. Congress, the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory 
Committee, and the Council on Life Science and Board of Basic Biology. She is 
a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science. 

Further Resources 

Pennsylvania State University. Faculty website, http://www.lsc.psu.edu/lsc/fedoroff.html. 



Ferguson, Angela Dorothea 

b. 1925 
Pediatrician 

Education: B.S., Howard University, 1945, M.D., 1949 

Professional Experience: instructor, pediatrics, Howard University School of 
Medicine, 1953-1959, associate pediatrician, Freedmen's Hospital, 1953-1970, 



Ferguson, Angela Dorothea | 391 

assistant professor, 1959-1963, professor, 1963-1990, head, University Office of 
Health Affairs, 1970-1979, associate vice president for health affairs, 1979-1990 

Concurrent Positions: staff member, District of Columbia General Hospital, 
1963-1990 

Angela Ferguson has been recognized for her research on the symptoms and treat- 
ment of sickle-cell anemia, a hereditary disease that overwhelmingly affects peo- 
ple of African descent. She was born in Washington, D.C., and although her 
father was a public school teacher, the family lived on the edge of poverty. In 
elementary school, she worked in the cafeteria in exchange for her school meals. 
In high school, she first focused on business courses because she felt she would 
be unable to attend college, but by her second year of high school, she had discov- 
ered that she liked science and math courses and that she was intelligent enough to 
do well in them. She enrolled in Howard University so she could live at home 
while attending school. Her parents paid her tuition the first year, but she received 
scholarships after that. By the second year of college, her interests had shifted 
from chemistry and mathematics to biology, and she began considering medical 
school. She wanted to become both a researcher and a physician. In medical 
school, she majored in pediatrics, which involves the treatment of infants and 
young children. 

After completing her residency, she started a private pediatrics practice, but she 
found that she was unable to answer parents' questions about their children 
because all research on developmental physiology had been conducted on children 
with European backgrounds, not on African American children. She obtained a 
research position at Howard University's School of Medicine and its teaching hos- 
pital, Freedmen's Hospital, to gather data on the physiology of children from the 
well-baby clinics around the United States. The data on height and weight from 
these records could be used to estimate the expected size at each age level. In 
examining the records, she found that a large number of black children suffered 
from sickle-cell anemia, a hereditary disease that causes red blood cells to func- 
tion improperly. Healthy red blood cells are doughnut- shaped, but diseased red 
blood cells are folded into a sickle shape, which affects the easy flow of blood in 
veins and arteries. 

In attempting to develop a method for detecting the disease in young children, 
Ferguson found that the early symptoms closely resemble many other medical 
conditions. In infants, the symptoms resemble those of arthritis; between the ages 
of 2 and 6, the symptoms look like a shortage of certain vitamins in the diet; 
between 6 and 12 years, most children show no symptoms or only very mild ones; 
and after 12 years of age, the disease can return, with the most common symptom 
being skin ulcers. She started giving each newborn infant a blood test to detect the 



392 | Ferguson, Margaret Clay 

condition at the earliest possible time. If a patient required surgery, he or she could 
be given oxygen after coming out of the anesthesia. For five-year-olds, the severe 
symptoms could be reduced by drinking water with baking soda on a daily basis. 

In the 1960s, she decided to shift her focus to administrative work. She was 
instrumental in developing plans to build a new teaching hospital, one that included 
a children's wing, to replace the outdated Freedmen's Hospital. In 1970, she was 
appointed to be in charge of the University Office of Health Affairs, which included 
responsibility for facility development, student health services, research, and 
advanced instruction for all degree programs at the Howard University Medical 
School. The new Freedmen's Hospital opened in 1975, and in 1979, she was named 
the associate vice president for health affairs. 

Among her awards are two Certificates of Merit from the American Medical 
Association. She is a member of the Society for Pediatric Research, Society of 
Nuclear Medicine, National Medical Association, and New York Academy of 
Sciences. 



Ferguson, Margaret Clay 



1863 1951 
Botanist 

Education: student, Wellesley College, 1889-1891; B.S., Cornell University, 
1899, Ph.D., botany, 1901 

Professional Experience: public school teacher and principal, 1877-1888; private 
school teacher, 1892-1893; instructor, botany, Wellesley College, 1894-1896, 
1901-1904, associate professor, 1904-1906, head of botany department, 1904-1930, 
research professor, 1930-1932 

Concurrent Positions: director, botany greenhouses and gardens, Wellesley, 
1922-1932 

Margaret Ferguson was recognized as one of the most productive women bota- 
nists of her time. As head of the department at Wellesley, she trained more 
women botanists than anyone else. After teaching school and obtaining a limited 
amount of education, she became a special student at Wellesley in botany and 
chemistry. She taught school again before returning to Wellesley as an instructor 
in botany. She completed her formal education at Cornell, receiving her doctor- 
ate in 1901. In her research at Cornell, she initiated important work on the 
reproductive process and life history of a species of native pine (Pinus strobes). 



Fink, Kathryn Ferguson | 393 

Her research was published in the Proceedings of the Washington Academy of 
Sciences in 1904 and gained wide attention. The study was one of the first to 
give a detailed analysis of the functional morphology and cytology of a pine 
native to North America. Returning to Wellesley in 1901, she rose in rank to 
professor and head of the department in 1904. As department head, she helped 
make it one of the leading undergraduate centers in the nation for the study of 
plant science. She emphasized laboratory work and added coursework in chem- 
istry, physics, and zoology to botanical studies. She also helped build the plant 
specimen collection and the science library at Wellesley. She was able to com- 
bine research with her teaching and administrative responsibilities and to secure 
funds to build new college greenhouses and a botany building, allowing space 
for students to grow their own plants and conduct experiments. During the 
1920s, the focus of her research and advanced courses shifted to genetics, help- 
ing to classify previously confused horticultural varieties. She discovered that 
flower color and pattern were not necessarily hereditary traits, findings that 
would not be confirmed by other researchers until the 1970s. Although she offi- 
cially retired in 1932, she continued her research under a grant from the 
National Research Council and was able to present her work at the Sixth 
International Congress of Genetics. 

Ferguson was elected vice president of the American Microscopical Society in 
1914, and was elected the first female president of the Botanical Society of 
America in 1929. She was elected a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences 
in 1943 and was also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science. She received an honorary degree at Mount Holyoke College's centen- 
nial in 1937. Wellesley honored her by naming for her the greenhouses that she 
had designed and directed. 



Fink, Kathryn Ferguson 

1917 1989 
Biochemist 

Education: B.A., University of Iowa, 1938; Ph.D., biochemistry, University of 
Rochester, 1943 

Professional Experience: research technician, Mayo Institute of Experimental 
Medicine, 1938-1939; research associate, Manhattan Project, University of Rochester, 
1943-1946, Atomic Energy Project, 1946-1947; associate clinical professor, bio- 
physics, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 



394 | Fischer, Irene (Kaminka) 

1948-1963, associate research professor, biophysics and nuclear medicine, 
1964-1966, professor, 1966-1967, professor of medicine, 1967-1989, assistant 
dean, 1976-1989 

Concurrent Positions: research biochemist, Veterans Administration Hospital, 
1947-1961 

Kathryn Fink was a pioneer in the field of nuclear medicine. After receiving her 
doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Rochester in 1943, she held a 
National Research Council fellowship to work on the Manhattan and Atomic 
Energy Projects during World War II. The Manhattan Project proved to be a boon 
to the careers of numerous women scientists, since the federal government's accel- 
erated program to develop atomic power required huge scientific staffs. It also saw 
the creation of the field of nuclear medicine. After the war, Fink moved to California 
as a faculty member in biophysics and nuclear medicine at the UCLA School of 
Medicine. For many years, she held a joint appointment as a researcher at the 
Veterans Administration Hospitals in Van Nuys and then Long Beach. In 1967, 
she was the first Ph.D. (instead of M.D.) to be appointed full professor of medicine 
at the UCLA medical school. She served as an assistant dean of student affairs at 
the school during the last decade of her career. 

Fink published numerous scientific papers in collaboration with her husband, 
Robert Fink, a professor of biological chemistry. Fink was named UCLA Woman 
of Science (1971) and Los Angeles Times Woman of the Year in Science (1971). 
She was a member of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, and 
the American Society of Biological Chemists. 

Further Resources 

University of California. "Kathryn Ferguson Fink, Medicine: Los Angeles." http:// 
content, cdlib.org/xtf/view ?docld=hb4p30063r&doc.view=frames&chunk. id 
=divOOO 1 7&toc.depth= 1 &toc.id=. 



Fischer, Irene (Kaminka) 

1907 2009 

Geodesist, Mathematician 

Education: M.A., mathematics, University of Vienna; M.A., descriptive geom- 
etry, Vienna Institute of Technology, 1931; postgraduate study, University of 
Virginia and Georgetown University, 1950-1957 



Fischer, Irene (Kaminka) | 395 

Professional Experience: secondary school teacher, mathematics, description 
geometry, and engineering drawing, Vienna, Austria, 1931-1938; researcher, 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1942-1944; mathematician, Geodesy 
Branch, U.S. Army Map Service, 1952-1958, geodesist, 1958-1962, supervisory 
geodesist, 1962-1965, supervisory research geodesist, 1965-1977, branch chief, 
1962-1977 

Concurrent Positions: teacher, various secondary schools and colleges, United 
States, 1941-1945 

Irene Fischer was an expert in her field, although much of her research was classi- 
fied as military secrets. She was a mathematician and geodesist, a scientist who 
deals with the measurement of the shape and area of large tracts of country, the 
exact positions of geographical points, and the curvature, shape, and dimensions 
of the Earth. Born and educated in Austria, her family fled the Nazis and came 
to the United States during World War II. She taught mathematics at a variety of 
schools and colleges before taking a research position at MIT. After two years at 
MIT, she obtained a position as a mathematician with the U.S. Army Map Service 
(later the Defense Mapping Agency Topographic Center), where she held research 
and supervisory positions. She contributed data used for the Mercury, Gemini, and 
Apollo projects, which were among the first experimental flights conducted by 
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA required 
precise topographical data on both the Earth and the seas in order to plan and 
execute these experimental flights. 

Fischer wrote two books, Geometry (1965) and Basic Geodesy: The Geoid — 
What's That? (1973), in addition to hundreds of articles in professional journals 
and a self-published memoir, Geodesy: What's That? My Personal Involvement 
in the Age-Old Quest for the Size and Shape of the Earth (2005). In the 1950s 
and 1960s, she published a series of papers in the Journal of Geophysical Research 
on work conducted at the Defense Mapping Agency on the geoid, an imaginary 
surface that coincides with mean sea level in the ocean and its extension through 
the continents. In the 1970s, she published papers on bathymetry, which is the 
measurement of the depth of oceans, and marine geodesy. During her years of 
employment at the agency, she was involved in using all of the new technology, 
from the introduction of computers to satellite observations. In 1969, she was a 
member of the committee that compiled South American data for the Pan- 
American Institute of Geography and History. She was also a member of the spe- 
cial study group on the history of geodesy for the International Association of 
Geodesy. Much of Fischer's early work was conducted before the use of satellites, 
which would later confirm her models and measurements. 



396 | Fisher, Anna L. 

Fischer was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 
1979. Among the awards she received were the Meritorious Civilian Service 
Award, Department of the Army (1957), the Bronze Leaf Cluster (1966), the 
Research and Development Achievement Award (1966), a Decoration for Excep- 
tional Civilian Service (1967); the Distinguished Civilian Service Award, Depart- 
ment of Defense (1967), Outstanding Career Woman, Defense Mapping Agency 
(1975), the Meritorious Service Medal (1977), a National Civil Service League 
Career Award (1976), and the designation of Federal Retiree of the Year (1978). She 
was a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, a member of the International 
Association of Geodesy, and inducted into the National Imagery and Mapping 
Agency Hall of Fame. Fischer lived to be 102 years old. 

Further Resources 

Straight, Wendy J. W. 2005. "Irene K. Fischer, Geodesist." Newsletter No. 2/05, Joint 
Commission Working Group on Under-Represented Groups in Surveying, International 
Federation of Surveyors, http://www.fig.net/pub/underrep news/200502/newsletter 
200502.htm#Irene. 



Fisher, Anna L. 

b. 1949 

Physician, Astronaut 

Education: B.S., chemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, 1971, M.D., 
1976, M.S., chemistry, 1987 

Professional Experience: emergency room physician, Los Angeles area hospitals, 
1977-1978; mission specialist, National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
(NASA), 1978-1979, astronaut, 1980-1989, Chief, Operations Planning/Training, 
Space Station Branch, 1997-1998, Deputy, Operations/Training, Space Station 
Branch, 1998-1999, Chief, Space Station Branch, Astronaut Office 

Anna Fisher was one of the first group of women astronauts selected in 1978 and 
has the distinction of being the first mother to fly in space. She decided at age 13 
that she would like to be an astronaut, and began by pursuing a career in medicine. 
She earned her medical degree and was working as an emergency room specialist 
when NASA announced that a new group of astronauts with revised requirements 
would be selected. She and her then-fiance both applied for admission to the 
program; a week after she married William F. Fisher (who was selected for the 
astronaut program in 1980), she found out she was chosen. Her duties as an 



Fisher, Anna L. | 397 




astronaut included developing and 
testing the Remote Manipulator Sys- 
tem (RMS), verifying flight software, 
and providing medical backup in res- 
cue helicopters. She and her husband 
served as emergency physicians for a 
number of the launchings and land- 
ings, and she was on-orbit capsule 
communicator for the STS-9 mission. 
Her first space flight was on Novem- 
ber 8, 1984, on the second flight of 
the orbiter Discovery, which she flew 
when her first child was barely one 
year old. The crew accomplished the 
first space salvage in history, retriev- 
ing the Palapa B-2 and Westar VI sat- 
ellites. In her later work in the Space 
Station Support Office, she became 
the crew representative for space- 
station development training, opera- 
tions concepts, and health maintenance. She also tested a shuttle-tile repair kit in 
which epoxy was sprayed into the place of a lost or broken thermal tile — which 
proved to be unnecessary after the first and second flights of Columbia. She helped 
Martin-Marietta test and develop the manned maneuvering unit (MMU), the 
rocket-powered backpack that allows an astronaut to propel himself or herself 
around while wearing a space suit. 

Between 1989 and 1996, Fisher took a leave of absence from NASA to focus on 
raising her family before returning to a position in the Operations Planning Branch 
in support of the International Space Station and then as deputy for procedures and 
training of astronauts and engineers related to the Space Station Program. Fisher 
has also worked in the Shuttle Branch and awaits assignment to either a shuttle 
mission or to the International Space Station. She is the recipient of a NASA Space 
Flight Medal, Lloyd's of London Silver Medal for Meritorious Salvage Opera- 
tions, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Professional Achievement 
Award, UCLA Medical Professional Achievement Award, and NASA Exceptional 
Service Medal (1999). 



Astronaut Anna Fisher prepares for training, 
1980. (NASA) 



Further Resources 

Kevles, Bettyann H. 2003. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. New York: 
Basic Books. 



398 | Fitzroy, Nancy (Deloye) 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Anna L. Fisher, (M.D.)." http://www 
.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/fisher-a.html. 



Fitzroy, Nancy (Deloye) 

b. 1927 
Engineer 

Education: B.ChE., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1949 

Professional Experience: assistant engineer, Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, 
1950-1952; development engineer, Hermes Missile Project, General Electric 
Company, 1952-1953, development engineer, 1953-1963, heat transfer engineer, 
Advanced Technology Laboratories, 1963-1965, consultant in heat transfer, 
Research and Development Center, 1965-1971, manager, heat transfer consulting, 
1971-1974, strategy planner, 1974-1976, advanced concepts planner and proposal 
manager, 1976-1979, program development manager, Gas Turbine Division, 
1979-1982, manager, energy and environment programs, Turbine Market and 
Projects Division, 1982-1987; consultant in fields of gas turbines, nuclear energy, 
and space vehicles, 1987— 

Nancy Fitzroy is known for her research in the properties of materials, heat trans- 
fer, and fluid flow that she conducted at General Electric Company, where she 
worked for more 30 years. She was first assigned to a team to solve a thorny heat 
transfer problem: how to keep the high temperatures produced by an atomic reac- 
tion from escaping the nuclear reactor of an atomic generator or a nuclear subma- 
rine. Later she worked on keeping the delicate electronic equipment in space 
satellites at room temperature while the skin of the satellite was being alternately 
superheated and supercooled. She has also designed more standard consumer- 
type products such as toasters and microwave ovens. She says that toasters can 
present more problems than missiles and satellites because outer space is basically 
uniform, but no two pieces of bread are alike. 

Fitzroy was one of the first to study heat transfer surfaces in nuclear-reactor 
cores, and she holds a patent in the area of cooling integrated circuits, having 
invented a thermal chip that is used to measure temperatures in such circuits. 
She also developed a thermal protection system for hardened radar antennae that 
was used in the U.S. early-warning system. Her work reflects the interdisciplinary 
nature of engineering, as she can be considered both a chemical and a mechanical 
engineer. In the 1970s, she took on more administrative and management respon- 
sibilities at GE. She taught in the GE employee Advanced Engineering Course and 



Flanigen, Edith Marie | 399 

is the author of the GE Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Data Books (1955-1974), 
which were used throughout industry and academia. 

Fitzroy was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 
1995. She received the Achievement Award of the Society of Women Engineers 
(1972), the Federation of Professional Women Award (1984), the Demers Medal 
of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1975), and the Centennial Medallion of the 
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (1980). In 1999, she was inducted into 
the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Alumni Hall of Fame. She was, in fact, the 
first female chemical engineering student at Rensselaer, and her alma mater later 
acknowledged her with an honorary doctorate. She helped establish the Nancy 
Fitzroy Scholarship Fund for female students in science and technology. She is a 
fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and was the first female 
president of that organization (1986-1987). She was also a member of the American 
Institute of Chemical Engineers, National Society of Professional Engineers, and 
Society of Women Engineers. 



Flanigen, Edith Marie 

b. 1929 
Inorganic Chemist 

Education: B.A., D'Youville College, 1950; M.S., Syracuse University, 1952 

Professional Experience: research chemist, Union Carbide Corporation, 
1952-1960, senior research chemist, 1960-1962, research associate, 1962-1967, 
senior research associate, 1967-1969, senior research scientist, 1969-1973, cor- 
porate research fellow, 1973-1982, corporate senior research fellow, 1982-1988; 
senior research fellow, UOP, Inc. (Union Carbide-Allied Signal joint venture), 
1988-1994; consultant, UOP, 1994- 

Edith Flanigen is renowned for her research on synthetic molecular sieves 
and synthetic zeolites, which are used in industry as catalysts. Molecular sieves 
are compounds with molecule-size pores, such as sodium aluminum silicate; 
zeolites are hydrated silicates of aluminum with alkali metals. In the 1970s, she 
developed a synthetic emerald for industrial use. Lincoln Laboratory had con- 
tracted with Union Carbide, where Flanigen was employed as a research chemist, 
to make synthetic emeralds for masers, which were microwave forerunners of 
lasers. Although zeolites are found in nature, scientists, including Flanigen, have 
found ways to make naturally and nonnaturally occurring structures by heating 
aqueous alumina-silica gels at 100 degrees Celsius to 450 degrees Celsius. 



400 | Flugge-Lotz, Irmgard 

Flanigen devised a process to make emeralds by using temperature and pressure to 
control the different solubilities of aluminum, silicon, beryllium, and chromium 
oxides in aqueous gels. Union Carbide later marketed these as synthetic gemstones 
for use in jewelry. 

Flanigen was first introduced to chemistry in high school, and she and her two 
sisters all majored in chemistry at D'Youville College. All three sisters eventually 
worked at Union Carbide. Edith Flanigen invented or co-invented more than 200 
new synthetic materials and holds more than 100 U.S. patents. Her work has also 
had environmental applications in water purification and oil refining, and in 2004, 
she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Flanigen advanced 
through the researcher ranks at Union Carbide and, in 1982, was named a corporate 
senior research fellow, the first woman to achieve that distinction. In 1983 she 
received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, D'Youville College. 

Flanigen was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 
1991 and has received two of the primary awards in chemistry: the Perkin Medal of 
the Society of Chemical Industry (1992, the first woman to receive that award), the 
Garvan-Olin Medal of the American Chemical Society (1993), International Zeolite 
Association Award (1994), and the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award 
(2004). She is a member of the Mineralogical Society of America, American 
Chemical Society, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Further Resources 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Edith Flanigen: 2004 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime 
Achievement Award Winner." http://web.mit.edu/invent/a-winners/a-flanigen.html. 



Flugge-Lotz, Irmgard 

1903 1974 
Engineer 

Education: Diplom Ingenieur, Hannover Technische Hochschule, 1927, Doktor 
Ingenieur, 1929 

Professional Experience: junior research engineer to department head, Theoreti- 
cal Aerodynamics, Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt, Gottingen, 1929-1938; 
consultant, aerodynamics and dynamics of flight, Deutsche Versuchsanstalt fur 
Luftfahrt, 1938-1945; chief, research group in theoretical aerodynamics, National 
Office for Aeronautical Research, France, 1946-1948; lecturer, engineering 
mechanics and research supervisor, Stanford University, 1949-1960, professor, 
aeronautical engineering and engineering mechanics, 1960-1968 



Flugge-Lotz, Irmgard | 401 



Irmgard Flugge-Lotz was among the world's leading authorities on fluid mechan- 
ics. She received international recognition for her many important mathematical 
contributions to aerodynamics and automatic control theory. She began her career 
at an aerodynamics research institute in Germany cataloging reprints. After she 
developed an equation for one of her bosses, she was appointed head of a group 
dealing with theoretical dynamics. The work she performed in 1931 on the lifting 
force of wings of various shapes, known as the Lotz method, was recognized as a 
fundamental contribution throughout her lifetime. The only other women on the 
staff were "computers" who performed calculations for research engineers. After 
she married Wilhelm Flugge, an authority on thin-shell construction, in 1938, they 
moved to Berlin and both worked for Deutsche Versuchsanstalt fur Luftfahrt. 
There she conducted research on electronic automatic control theory that had 
implications for development of simple automatic flight-control equipment for air- 
craft. Although they were known to have anti-Nazi views, they survived the war 
due to their scientific expertise. When Germany collapsed in 1945, the Flugges 
found work for the National Office for Aeronautical Research in Paris for two 
years and then emigrated to the United States for faculty positions at Stanford. 

Although there were few graduate students who were interested in fluid dynam- 
ics, from nearby Ames Research Center, Flugge-Lotz drew a large group of 
research engineers who were working toward advanced degrees from Stanford. 
She developed another new area of research in the theory of automatic controls, 
a topic she had first investigated in the 1940s. In 1960, she was the only woman 
delegate from the United States at the First Congress of the International Federa- 
tion of Automatic Control in Moscow, an honor that resulted in her appointment 
as full professor. After her retirement from teaching, she continued her research 
on problems of satellite control, heat transfer, and draft of high-speed vehicles. 

In 1971, Flugge-Lotz became the only woman ever to be selected to present a 
von Karman Lecture, which is sponsored by the American Institute of Aeronautics 
and Astronautics. She also was the first woman to reach a full professorship in the 
engineering college at Stanford. In addition to more than 50 technical papers, she 
published two books: Discontinuous Automatic Control (1953) and Discontinuous 
and Optimal Control (1958). The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronau- 
tics in 1970 elected her a fellow, only the second woman to be so honored. She 
also was a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and 
the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. 

Further Resources 

Agnes Scott College. "Irmgard Flugge-Lotz." Biographies of Women Mathematicians. 
http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/lotz.htm. 



402 | Fossey, Dian 



Fossey, Dian 



1932 1985 

Primatologist, Zoologist, Anthropologist 

Education: B.A., occupational therapy, San Jose State College, 1954; Ph.D., 
Cambridge University, 1976 

Professional Experience: occupational therapist, Kosair Crippled Children's 
Hospital, Louisville, Kentucky, 1955-1966; scientific director, Karisoke Research 
Centre, Ruhengeri, Rwanda, 1967-1980 and 1983-1985 

Concurrent Positions: visiting associate professor, anthropology, Cornell University, 
1980-1982 

Dian Fossey was the international authority on the mountain gorilla at the time of 
her death in 1985. One of the unsolved mysteries in science is who murdered her at 
her research station in Rwanda. Fossey attracted controversy for her work in politi- 
cally unstable areas and, while several people or groups were suspected, there was 
only a cursory investigation by the understaffed Rwanda police. One of her 




Primatologist Dian Fossey plays with a group of young mountain gorillas in Rwanda, 1982. 
(AP/Wide World Photos) 



Fossey, Dian | 403 

associates and several native employees were accused of the crime, but the con- 
sensus is that she was targeted by poachers angry over her efforts to protect goril- 
las. She was buried on the mountain in the graveyard that she had established for 
her gorillas. 

Fossey had a lifelong interest in animals. She enrolled in the preveterinary 
medicine program at the University of California, Davis, but transferred to San 
Jose State after two years and earned a degree in occupational therapy. She real- 
ized her dream to see the gorillas that the primatologist George Schaller had 
described in his book, The Mountain Gorilla: Ecology and Behavior (1963), when 
she took out a three-year bank loan in 1963 for $8,000 to finance a seven-week 
safari. Her first stop was the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania to visit renowned archae- 
ologists and anthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey. Fossey also stopped in the 
Congo (or Zaire) to see the mountain gorillas and returned to the United States 
to continue her work, pay off the loan, and keep up contacts with Leakey. 

Fossey became known as one of "Leakey's Ladies" — along with Jane Goodall 
and Birute Galdikas — all of whom were mentored by Louis Leakey and conducted 
research on the three major primate groups — gorillas, chimpanzees, and orang- 
utans, respectively. The three women did not work together (and only met as a 
group three times over the course of their careers), but collectively changed the 
way primatologists conduct research by studying animals as individuals with life 
histories, as humans are studied. Leakey and Fossey were interested in not only 
sponsoring research on gorillas but also protecting them from further encroach- 
ments. Leakey offered Fossey a position with this project in 1966 in Zaire. When 
civil war broke out in that region, the rebels sought to expel all Westerners, and 
Fossey was held prisoner for several weeks until she escaped across the border into 
Uganda. Leakey helped her reestablish a center in Rwanda's Pare National des 
Volcans, a remote area in a high rain forest. Here Fossey developed a unique 
research methodology: Rather than observing the animals from a distance, she 
gradually habituated them to her presence by imitating their sounds and behavior. 

Her research was funded by the Leakey Foundation, the Wilkie Foundation, and 
the National Geographic Society. Leakey arranged for her to attend Cambridge 
University to complete her doctorate, as her work was attracting international atten- 
tion. She began training graduate students in 1970 to see her gorillas. She accepted 
graduate students starting in 1970, and her group prepared a census of the gorilla pop- 
ulation in 1981, indicating the number had declined 50% since Schaller's 1963 book 
that first inspired Fossey. She became increasingly focused on protecting the gorillas 
and their habitat, making her the enemy of local poachers and farmers. In 1980, she 
accepted a visiting associate professorship at Cornell University, where she wrote 
her book Gorillas in the Mist (1983). When she returned to the research station, she 
continued her war against the poachers and farmers until she was murdered in 1985. 



404 | Fowler-Billings, Katharine Stevens 

Fossey received the Franklin Burt Award from the National Geographic Society 
(1973) and the Joseph Wood Krutch Medal from the Humane Society of the United 
States (1984), and in 1988, her book, Gorillas in the Mist, was made into a feature 
film starring Sigourney Weaver, now the Honorary Chairperson of the Dian Fossey 
Gorilla Fund International. There are numerous books about Fossey's life and work. 

Further Resources 

The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, http://www.gorillafund.org/. 



Fowler-Billings, Katharine Stevens 

1902 1997 
Geologist 

Education: A.B., geology and biology, Bryn Mawr College, 1925; M.A., Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin, 1926; Ph.D., geology, Columbia University, 1930 

Professional Experience: geologist/prospector, Maroc Gold Company, Africa, 
1931-1932; instructor, geology, Wellesley College, 1935-1938; instructor, geology, 
Erskine Junior College, Boston, 1941; instructor, geology, Tufts College, 
1942-1943; geologist, New Hampshire Planning and Development Commission, 
1943-1944; associate geologist, New England Museum of Natural History, 
1940-1947; private research, 1947-1997 

Katharine Fowler-Billings was one of a handful of women employed as a field 
geologist and explorer in the first half of the twentieth century, and her research 
spanned the globe. While pursuing her master's degree at the University of 
Wisconsin, she conducted research in the Black Hills and Glacier National Park. 
After receiving her Ph.D. from Columbia in 1930, she divided her time between 
teaching appointments and research expeditions to collect data for geological map- 
pings, studying the anorthosites of the Laramie Mountains, Wyoming (the subject 
of her doctoral thesis); iron ores and molybdenite in Sierra Leone, West Africa; 
and the geology of the Cardigan Quadrangle of New Hampshire, Monadnock, and 
Mount Washington regions. While attending the International Geological Congress 
in South Africa in 1929, she met and married her first husband, James Lunn, also 
a geologist. When she was forbidden by local authorities to accompany Lunn to 
the Gold Coast of West Africa, she went anyway. She wrote a book about her 
adventures in Gold Missus: A Woman Prospector in Sierra Leone (1938). She also 
encountered sexism in the United States and had to disguise herself as a boy in 
order to be admitted to Western mines. She remarried in 1938 to prominent 



Fox, Marye Anne (Payne) | 405 

geologist and Harvard professor Marland Pratt Billings. The couple had two chil- 
dren, and Fowler-Billings combined childrearing with her continued research 
trips, attendance at international conferences (in Russia and Copenhagen), and 
teaching appointments. She spent several years as an instructor in geology at 
Wellesley, Erskine Junior College, and Tufts College, and later worked for the 
state of New Hampshire and for the New England Museum of Natural History, 
but eventually spent most of her career engaged in private research. 

Fowler-Billings was elected a fellow of the Geological Society of America, and 
she was a member of the Society of Women Geographers and an honorary member 
of the New Hampshire Geological Society. Her autobiography, Stepping Stones: 
The Reminiscences of a Woman Geologist in the Twentieth Century, was published 
in 1996, just before her death. She was actively writing up until her death at the 
age of 95, her last scientific article appearing in the March 1997 issue of The 
Granite State Geologist. She co-authored several publications with her husband, 
Marland Pratt Billings, with whom she traveled the world. In 1996, the Mount 
Washington Observatory established a Marland Pratt and Katharine Fowler- 
Billings Fund for Research in New England Geology to continue the legacy of 
their work. 



Fox, Marye Anne (Payne) 

b. 1947 

Organic Chemist, Physical Chemist 

Education: B.S., Notre Dame College, 1969; M.S., Cleveland State University, 
1970; Ph.D., organic chemistry, Dartmouth College, 1974 

Professional Experience: instructor, physical science, Cuyahoga Community 
College, 1970-1971; postdoctoral fellow and research associate, chemistry, 
University of Maryland, 1974-1976; assistant to associate professor, chemistry, 
University of Texas, Austin, 1976-1985, professor, chemistry, 1985-1991, direc- 
tor, Center for Fast Kinetics Research, 1986-1991, Waggoner Regents Chair in 
Chemistry, 1991-1998, Vice President for Research, 1994-1998; Chancellor and 
Professor of Chemistry, North Carolina State University, 1998-2004; Chancellor 
and Professor of Chemistry, University of California, San Diego, 2004- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting scholar, Harvard University, 1989; Professeur 
Invitee, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, 1992; visiting professor, Chemistry 
Research Promotion Center, National Science Council, Taipei, Taiwan, 1993; visit- 
ing scholar, University of Iowa, 1993; visiting professor, University of Chicago, 
1997; Distinguished Visitor, Biomedical Research Council, Singapore, 2005 



406 | Fox, Marye Anne (Payne) 

Marye Anne Fox is renowned for her research to solve major problems in organic 
photochemistry and electrochemistry, the branch of chemistry that deals with 
chemical changes produced by electricity and the production of electricity by 
chemical changes. She and her team members have pioneered the interdisciplinary 
field of organic photoelectrochemistry and mastered problems in physical, inor- 
ganic, and analytical chemistry. She was one of the first researchers to apply the 
research techniques of physical organic chemistry to reactions occurring on surfa- 
ces and to recognize semiconductor particles as ideal microenvironments for 
initiating controlled redox (or oxidation reduction) chemistry. 

Fox says she had no qualms about deciding on science as a career while in high 
school because, at the time, almost everyone who was reasonably bright was inter- 
ested in science. She chose chemistry because that field enabled her to steer clear 
of the messy aspects of biology as well as the extreme emphasis on math that is 
found in physics. She married a medical student after receiving her undergraduate 
degree, and since he was in Ohio, she entered the master's program at Cleveland 
State so she could complete her degree in one year even while supporting her hus- 
band. She accomplished this feat by teaching at the local community college. She 
was then able to pursue her own professional development successfully while she 
followed her husband around the country. When her husband received a residency 
in New Hampshire, she entered the doctoral program at Dartmouth. She was preg- 
nant her second year at Dartmouth and had to decide whether to continue her studies 
or put a hold on a scientific career. Instead of leaving the program, she completed 
her doctorate in three years. 

Fox has had a distinguished career as an administrator and teacher, as well as 
researcher. She has received numerous honors for teaching and mentoring graduate 
students. She has authored or co-authored more than 100 scientific articles and a 
textbook, Organic Chemistry (1994). She has been a member of the editorial advi- 
sory boards of numerous industry and academic journals, and was associate editor 
of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (1986-1995). She has been a con- 
sultant and advisor on numerous civic, corporate, corporate, and government proj- 
ects and committees, including the National Science Board (1991-1996), 
executive committee of the National Academy of Sciences (1996-1999), National 
Research Council Governing Board (1997-1999), Women in Science and Technol- 
ogy Alliance National Board (1999-2002), and National Institute for the Environ- 
ment (2001-2004). 

Fox was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1994. 
Her numerous awards and honors include the Garvan Medal (1988), the Arthur C. 
Cope Scholar Award (1989), and the Parsons Award for Public Service (2005), 
all of the American Chemical Society. She is a fellow of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 



Free, Helen (Murray) | 407 

Electrochemical Society, American Philosophical Society, and American Society 
for Photobiology. 

Further Resources 

University of California, San Diego. "Marye Anne Fox (Brief Biography)." http://www 
.chancellor.ucsd.edu/biographybrief.html. 



Free, Helen (Murray) 

b. 1923 
Clinical Chemist 

Education: B.A., College of Wooster, 1944; M.A., Laboratory Management and 
Health Care Administration, Central Michigan University, 1978 

Professional Experience: control chemist, Miles Laboratories Corporation, 
1944-1946, research chemist, Biochemical Section, 1946-1959, associate research 
biochemist and group leader, Ames Research Laboratories, 1959-1964, Ames Prod- 
uct Development Laboratory, 1964-1966, Ames Technical Service, 1966-1969, new 
product manager, clinical test systems, Ames Growth and Development, 1969-1974, 
senior new product manager, microbiological test systems, 1974-1976, director, 
special test systems, Ames Division, 1976-1978, director, clinical laboratory and 
reagents, Research Division, 1978-1982, consultant, Diagnostic Division, Bayer 
Healthcare (formerly Miles, Inc.), 1982- 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct professor, biochemistry, Goshen College; adjunct 
professor, management, Indiana University, South Bend 

Helen Free is a pioneer in the field of diagnostic chemistry who has been involved 
in the development of convenient test systems involving chemical reagents and the 
instrumentation to accompany those tests. Her research led to the development of 
the convenient tablet tests for urinalysis and to the introduction and development 
of easy dip-and-read tests for various urinary conditions, as well as tests for blood 
chemistry and histology. Clinical laboratory diagnostic methods and devices were 
comparatively primitive in the 1940s and 1950s, and her pioneer research at Miles 
Laboratories (later known as Bayer) contributed greatly to modern test procedures 
that are used in clinical laboratories throughout the world. 

Free initially majored in Latin before changing to chemistry. She was employed 
at Miles Laboratory as a chemist right after college and remained with Miles (and 
its acquisition, Ames Laboratories) throughout her career, eventually obtaining a 
supplemental degree in management and administration, which helped her 



408 | Friend, Charlotte 

advance through the company ranks. Free holds seven patents and is the author or 
co-author of more than 200 papers, many of them written with her husband, Alfred H. 
Free, who was also a chemist at Miles. The Frees co-authored the book Urinalysis 
in Clinical Laboratory Practice (1976), which is still considered the standard text 
on the subject. Helen Free also edited Modern Urine Chemistry (1986), which was 
published by Miles. 

Free has received two honorary doctorates, and in 1980, she was awarded the 
Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society as well as the Distinguished 
Alumni Award of the College of Wooster. She served as president of the American 
Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) in 1990 and president of the American 
Chemical Society in 1993. In that role, she urged members to participate in outreach 
to students and citizens to bring chemistry into their everyday lives. In 1995, she was 
the first recipient of the Helen M. Free Public Outreach Award. In 2006, the AACC 
presented her with the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Clinical Chemistry. 
She was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2000 for her work with 
her husband on "laboratory urinalysis and the more consumer-oriented 'dip-and- 
read' tests that first enabled diabetics to easily and accurately monitor their blood 
glucose levels on their own." 

Further Resources 

Hall of Fame. "Helen Free." http://www.invent.org/Hall Of Fame/63. html. 



Friend, Charlotte 

1921 1987 

Medical Microbiologist 

Education: B.A., Hunter College, 1944; Ph.D., bacteriology, Yale University, 1950 

Professional Experience: associate professor, microbiology, Sloan-Kettering 
Division, Medical College of Cornell University, 1952-1966; professor and director, 
Center for Experimental Cell Biology, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, 1966-1987 

Concurrent Positions: associate member, Sloan-Kettering Institute, 1949-1966 

Charlotte Friend pioneered the idea that a virus causes cancer and a vaccine could 
be developed against it. Her major research focused on childhood leukemia, but 
she paved the way for a large number of other avenues of research into other types 
of cancer. She was the first to show that animals could be immunized with retrovi- 
rus preparations and protected against developing the disease. Her theory was 
initially scorned, and it was not until an internationally known scientist replicated 



Fromkin, Victoria Alexandria (Landish) | 409 

her work and assisted her in publishing the paper that researchers would even con- 
sider her ideas. Her experiments indicating that such protection is possible were 
later used by researchers trying to develop a vaccine against the human immuno- 
deficiency virus (HIV). 

Friend might have been motivated to work in the field of microbiology by the 
death of her father from bacterial endocarditis when she was three years old; when 
she was 10, she wrote a paper for a school assignment on why she wanted to be a 
bacteriologist. To help with family expenses, she worked in a physician's office 
during the day and took college classes at night. After college, she joined the 
Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Services (WAVES), the women's divi- 
sion of the U.S. Navy at the time, and worked in a naval hospital hematology lab. 
Upon her discharge, she used the GI Bill to obtain a doctorate from Yale and began 
researching the theory that leukemia was caused by a virus. She vaccinated mice by 
injecting them with a weakened form of the virus, now called "the Friend virus." She 
accepted appointments where she did not have to teach so that she could devote her 
time to research. In 1972, she announced the discovery of a method to alter a leu- 
kemia mouse cell in a test tube so that it would no longer multiply. Through chemical 
treatment, the malignant red blood cell could be made to produce hemoglobin, as do 
normal cells. Friend herself was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1981, but very few 
people knew of the diagnosis, as she did not want reviews of grants or manuscripts 
to be influenced by her illness. She continued to conduct research in the lab while 
undergoing therapy, but succumbed to the disease in 1987. 

Friend received two honorary doctorates and many awards during her career, 
including the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Cancer Research and an award from the 
American Cancer Society in 1962. She was elected to the National Academy of 
Sciences in 1963. She received the Presidential Medal Centennial Award of Hunter 
College ( 1 970), the Virus-Cancer Program Award of the National Institutes of Health 
(1974), and the Jacobi Medallion of Mt. Sinai Medical Center (1984). She was a 
member of the American Association for Cancer Research (president, 1976), New 
York Academy of Sciences (president, 1978), American Association of Immunologists, 
American Society of Hematology, and Tissue Culture Association. 



Fromkin, Victoria Alexandria (Landish) 

1923 2000 

Linguist, Neurolinguist 

Education: B.A., economics, University of California, Berkeley, 1944; M.A., 
University of California, Los Angeles, 1963, Ph.D., linguistics, 1965 



410 | Fromkin, Victoria Alexandria (Landish) 

Professional Experience: assistant professor, English, California State University, 
1965; assistant professor, speech, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 
1966-1967, assistant professor, linguistics, 1967-1969, acting director, phonetics 
lab, 1968-1969, professor, linguistics, 1969-ca.l990, chair, department of linguis- 
tics, 1972-1976, dean of graduate division and vice chancellor of graduate affairs, 
1979-1989 

Concurrent Positions: linguistics delegate to China, National Academy Science, 
1974; member, linguistics panel, National Science Foundation; visiting professor, 
University of Stockholm, 1977; member of executive board, Center for Applied Lin- 
guistics; visiting fellow, Wolfson College, Oxford University, 1983-1987; Ida Beam 
Professor, Departments of Neurology, Psychology, and Linguistics, University of 
Iowa, 1985; Cecil H. and Ida Green Visiting Professor, University of British Columbia, 
1986; chair of Council of Graduate Deans, University of California, 1985-1986; 
McMaster University Centennial Lecturer and Learned Society Visitor, 1987 

Victoria Fromkin was a linguist who conducted research in the brain mechanisms 
underlying language and cognition, including neurological problems, speech pro- 
duction, and perception studies. Linguistics is the science of language that encom- 
passes phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and the 
history of linguistics. After receiving her doctorate, she accepted a position at 
UCLA in the Linguistics Department. She advanced quickly through the ranks to 
professor of linguistics and performed a range of administrative responsibilities as 
department chair, dean of the graduate division, and vice chancellor for academic 
programs, the first woman vice chancellor at the university. In addition to her teach- 
ing and administrative duties, Fromkin was a prolific scholar and writer, serving as a 
member of the editorial boards of Brain and Language, Studies in African Linguis- 
tics, and the Journal of Applied Psycholinguistics. She investigated many aspects of 
the subject in her books, including the bestselling textbook An Introduction to 
Language (1974), which has been translated into six languages. Her other books 
included Language, Speech, and Mind (1988), Speech Errors as Linguistic Evi- 
dence (1974), and Errors in Linguistic Performance: Slips of the Tongue, Ear, Pen, 
and Hand (1980), and published papers on her research on dyslexia. For her 
research on how the brain processes language, but also partly for her own amuse- 
ment, she kept a notebook recording the thousands of slips of the tongue and verbal 
mistakes she heard in everyday speech. In 1988, an edited collection was published 
dedicated to her work and influence entitled Festschrift: Language, Speech and 
Mind: Studies in Honor of Victoria A. Fromkin. 

Even after her retirement in the early 1990s, Fromkin continued to serve on 
numerous distinguished committees and to stay involved with professional organi- 
zations. She was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 



Fuchs, Elaine V. | 411 

1996, and was a member of the linguistics panel of the National Science Founda- 
tion (1976-1978); linguistics delegate to the National Academy of Science of 
China (1974); member of the National Institutes of Health Sensory Disorder and 
Language Section (1982-1984); member of the National Research Council Com- 
mittee on Basic Research Behavior and Social Sciences (1982-1988); and U.S. del- 
egate and member of the executive board of the International Permanent 
Committee on Linguistics. She was a member or fellow of the Linguistics Society 
of America (president, 1985), the American Association of Phonetic Sciences, 
the Linguistics and the Language Sciences section of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science (secretary, 1994-1997, and chair, 1997-1998), 
the Acoustical Society of America, the American Psychological Society, and the 
New York Academy of Sciences. She was the recipient of both a UCLA Distin- 
guished Teaching Award and a UCLA Professional Achievement Award, and was 
active in mentoring female students and in promoting the role of women scientists, 
including being a member of the National Science Foundation Advisory Panel on 
Faculty Awards for Women in Science and Engineering (1990-1991). 

Further Resources 

University of California, Los Angeles. Faculty website, http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/ 
people/fromkin/fromkin.htm. 



Fuchs, Elaine V. 

b. 1950 

Cell Biologist, Molecular Biologist, Biochemist, Geneticist 

Education: B.S., chemistry, University of Illinois, 1972; Ph.D., biochemistry, 
Princeton University, 1977 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral research fellow, biochemistry, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, 1977-1980; assistant professor, biochemistry, University 
of Chicago, 1980-1985, associate professor, molecular and cell biology and 
biochemistry, 1985-2002; professor, cell biology and development, Rockefeller 
University, New York, 2002- 

Concurrent Positions: investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Maryland, 
1988- 

Elaine Fuchs is renowned for her research in molecular genetics and on the stem 
cells of skin and hair. She has researched the normal development of skin and hair, 
which originate from the same stem cell, as well as abnormalities that can lead to 



412 I Fuchs, Elaine V. 




Biologist Elaine Fuchs is presented with the National Medal of Science by President Barack 
Obama, 2009. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



disorders and diseases of the skin, including skin cancer. She has focused on under- 
standing the biochemical mechanisms that regulate genes during the growth and 
differentiation of the inner or basal epidermis cells. During differentiation, the 
basal cells stop multiplying, migrate to the skin's surface, and then undergo mor- 
phological and biochemical changes, the most pronounced being the production 
of keratin proteins. A malfunction of this process characterizes many skin diseases. 
In basal-cell carcinomas, for example, the cells do not differentiate or specialize at 
all, creating abnormal cell or tissue growth. Her research may also provide clues to 
other problems, such as abnormal or inhibited hair growth. She has published 
numerous research papers and has served on the editorial board of several journals, 
including the Journal for Cell Biology, Genes and Development, Developmental 
Cell, Cell, and Stem Cell. She currently holds positions as an investigator at the 
prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and professor and head of the labo- 
ratory of mammalian cell biology and development at Rockefeller University in 



Furness, Caroline Ellen | 413 

New York, overseeing numerous research projects related to skin and follicle 
development, wound-healing, and skin cancer, using both mouse and human cells. 
Fuchs was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1994 and the National Acad- 
emy of Sciences in 1996. She is a fellow of the American Philosophical Society, 
New York Academy of Sciences, German Society of Dermatology, and the Ameri- 
can Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was recognized early on in her career by 
being named a Presidential Scholar (1982); her numerous other awards and honors 
include the Searle Scholar Award (1981 and 1991), career development award of 
the National Institutes of Health (1982-1987), Bensely Award of the American 
Association of Anatomists (1988), Montagna Award of the Society of Investiga- 
tive Dermatology (1995), Women in Cell Biology Senior Women's Career 
Achievement Award (1997), Richard Lounsbery Award of the National Academy 
of Sciences (2001), Cartwright Award from Columbia University (2002), Novartis 
Drew Award in Biomedical Research (2003), Dickson Prize in Medicine (2004), 
and Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Award for Scien- 
tific Excellence (2006). 

Further Resources 

Rockefeller University. Faculty website, http://www.rockefeller.edu/research/abstract.php 
?id=42. 

Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "Elaine Fuchs, Ph.D." http://www.hhmi.org/research/ 
investigators/fuchs bio .html. 



Furness, Caroline Ellen 

1869 1936 
Astronomer 

Education: A.B., Vassar College, 1891; Ph.D., Columbia University, 1900 

Professional Experience: high school instructor, 1891-1894; assistant, Vassar 
College Observatory, 1894-1903, instructor, 1903-1911, associate professor and 
acting director, 1911-1915, Maria Mitchell Professor of Astronomy, 1915-1936 

Caroline Furness was one of the pioneer women astronomers who contributed to 
our knowledge of comets and minor planets. After matriculating at Vassar and 
teaching high school for several years, she was invited by professor Mary Whitney 
to return to Vassar as an assistant in the observatory. At the time, Whitney was car- 
rying a heavy teaching load of eight different astronomy courses with a total of 
160 students. With her own funds, she hired Furness as a teaching and research 



414 | Furness, Caroline Ellen 



assistant between 1894 through 1910. 
Furness later succeeded her mentor 
and employer as professor of astron- 
omy. Furness and Whitney also col- 
laborated on the observation of comets 
and minor planets and, after 1909, on 
variable stars. After Whitney retired, 
Furness was acting director of the 
observatory and was named the Maria 
Mitchell Professor of Astronomy. 
During her tenure, the college trained 
a large number of women astronomers, 
and other observatories around the 
country looked to Vassar when they 
wanted to hire women. 

Furness emphasized the use of 
photography in astronomical research, 
and her students were actively engaged 
in the research. She was particularly 
interested in cataloging the stars of the 
North Pole, and she edited Observa- 
tions of Variable Stars Made at Vassar 
College (1901-1912). She also published on the history of astronomy, including the 
relationship between religion and astronomy. Furness made several trips abroad, 
working at the astrophysical laboratory at the University of Groningen in 1908 and 
visiting scientific institutions throughout the world, including as a delegate to the 
Pan-Pacific Congress in Japan in 1926. She was also politically active, attending 
the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Amsterdam in 1908 and petitioning the 
U.S. Congress to pass a suffrage amendment. Furness was elected a fellow of the 
Royal Astronomical Society in 1922 and was also a member of the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science, Association of Variable Star Observers, the 
British Astronomical Association, and the Astronomische Gesellschaft. 




Astronomers Caroline Furness of Vassar, left 
and Annie Jump Cannon of Harvard 
Observatory, right, at a meeting of the 
American Astronomical Society in 1930. 
(Bettmann/Corbis) 



G 



Gaillard, Mary Katharine (Ralph) 



b. 1939 

Theoretical Physicist 

Education: B.A., Hollins College, 1960; M.S., physics, Columbia University, 
1961; D.ScL, theoretical physics, University of Paris-Sud, Orsay, 1968 

Professional Experience: research assistant, Centre National de Recherche Sci- 
entifique (CNRS), Geneva, 1964-1968, research associate, 1968-1973, head of 
research, 1973-1979, director of research, 1980-1981; professor, physics, Univer- 
sity of California, Berkeley, 1981— 

Concurrent Positions: visiting scientist, European Center for Nuclear Research 
(CERN), Geneva, 1964-1981; Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Illinois, 
1973-1974, 1983; Institute for Theory of Physics, University of California, Santa 
Barbara, 1985; principal investigator, National Science Foundation grant, 1982-; 
faculty senior scientist, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, 1981— 

Mary Gaillard is known internationally for her research in theoretical physics, 
specifically on gauge theories, supergravity, physics of the early universe, super- 
collider physics, and effective theories of particle physics based on superstring 
theories. She has held distinguished appointments with the Centre National de 
Recherche Scientifique in Paris and at laboratories in the United States, such as 
Fermilab and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Although she was born in New Jer- 
sey, and educated at two American universities, she received her doctorate in 
France and spent the early part of her career employed primarily in Europe. She 
found it difficult to secure a research position in France, but was briefly employed 
by her husband, also a physicist, to work in his lab until the couple moved to 
Geneva where she worked at the French National Center for Scientific Research. 
During this time, she also had an unpaid visiting position at the European Center 
for Nuclear Research and, discouraged by the lack of a regular position and the 
low salary at CNRS, in 1981, she accepted an offer as professor of physics at the 
University of California, Berkeley, the first woman faculty member in the depart- 
ment. In addition to her numerous scientific papers and publications, Gaillard 
has edited two books: Weak Interactions (1977) and Gauge Theories in High 



415 



416 I Gantt, Elisabeth 

Energy Physics (1983). Although she had a good science education and supportive 
family and teachers, she has said that, as a woman, she was still discouraged from 
pursuing theoretical physics because it was "too difficult." She encourages young 
women to take more difficult mathematics courses in high school and college to 
prepare for scientific careers. 

Gaillard was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1991. She has received numerous awards and honors, including the Prix Thibaud 
of the Academy of Arts and Sciences of Lyons, the E. O. Lawrence Memorial 
Award of the U.S. Department of Energy, and the J. J. Sakurai Prize of the American 
Physical Society. She has held distinguished lectureships at institutions around the 
world and has served on important academic and governmental committees, such 
as the High-Energy Physics Advisory Panel, U.S. Department of Energy (1983 and 
1991-1994); Astrophysics Advisory Committee (1985-1988) and Physics Advisory 
Committee (1986-1990), Fermilab; advisory committee, Theoretical Advanced 
Study Institute of Elementary Particle Physics (1983-1988); Subcommittee on Over- 
sight Review, National Science Foundation Theoretical Physics Program (1988); and 
review committee, Argonne National Laboratory High Energy Physics Division 
(1988-1990). In 1996, President Clinton appointed her to a six-year term on the 
National Science Board. She has been active in professional associations and chaired 
the Committee on the Status of Women in Physics of the American Physical Society 
in 1985. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the 
American Physical Society, and a member of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science. 

Further Resources 

University of California, Berkeley. Faculty research website. http://www. physics 
.berkeley.edu/research/faculty/gaillard.html 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 

Byers, Nina and Gary A. Williams. 2006. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth- 
Century Women to Physics. New York: Cambridge University Press. 



Gantt, Elisabeth 

b. 1934 
Botanist 

Education: B.A., Blackburn College, 1958; M.Sc, Northwestern University, 
1960, Ph.D., biology, 1963 



Gantt, Elisabeth | 4 1 7 



Professional Experience: National 
Institutes of Health (NIH) research 
associate in microbiology, Dartmouth 
College Medical School, 1963-1966; 
NIH research associate in microbiol- 
ogy, Radiation Biology Laboratory, 
Smithsonian Institution, 1966-1988; 
professor, cell biology and molecular 
genetics, University of Maryland, 
1988- 

Elisabeth Gantt is noted for her work 
on plant physiology and biological 
structure, including the structures of 
photosynthetic apparatus, localiza- 
tion and characterization of phycobi- 
liproteins, and membrane structure. 
For many years, her research has 
focused on examining the process of 
photosynthesis, which, especially in 
plants, is defined as the synthesis of 
complex organic materials, especially 
carbohydrates, from carbon dioxide, 
water, and inorganic salts using sun- 
light as the source of energy and with 

the aid of chlorophyll and associated pigments. Her particular focus has been on 
photosynthesis and algae. Born in Yugoslavia, Gantt immigrated to the United 
States and received degrees from Blackburn College and Northwestern University. 
After receiving her doctorate from Northwestern University, she was an NIH 
research associate in microbiology, first at Dartmouth College Medical School 
and then at the Radiation Biology Laboratory of the Smithsonian Institution. She 
then joined the faculty of University of Maryland in botany and cell biology, 
where she is now Distinguished University Professor. 

Gantt was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1996. 
She has received numerous awards and honors, such as the Darbaker Prize of the 
Botany Society of America (1958) and the G. M. Smith Medal of the National 
Academy of Sciences (1994). She was a member of the board of fellows and asso- 
ciates of the National Research Council (1973-1976) and has been active in pro- 
fessional organizations, serving as president of the Phycological Society of 
America (1978) and the American Society of Plant Physiologists (1989). She is a 




Botanist Elisabeth Gantt. (Courtesy of Scott 
Suchman, University Publications, University 
of Maryland) 



418 | Gardner, Julia Anna 

fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a 
member of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, American Society for 
Photobiology, and Japan Society of Plant Physiologists. She has been active 
in the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB), serving as secretary (1985— 
1987) and president (1988). In 2007, she was named an ASPB Fellow, an exclusive 
honor for long-term members of the profession. 

Further Resources 

University of Maryland. Faculty website. http://www.life.umd.edu/CBMG/faculty/gantt/ 
gantt2.html. 



Gardner, Julia Anna 

1882 I960 
Geologist 

Education: A.B., Bryn Mawr College, 1905, A.M., 1907; Ph.D., geology, Johns 
Hopkins University, 1911 

Professional Experience: public school teacher, 1906; assistant paleontologist, 
Johns Hopkins, 1911-1915; volunteer, Red Cross and American Friends Service 
Committee, France, 1917-1919; paleontologist, U.S. Geological Survey, 1920- 
1924, geologist, 1924-1952 

Julia Gardner was an expert in the paleontology of the Coastal Plain, and her pri- 
mary interest was in the mollusks found in sedimentary and other rocks. She was 
one of the few women geologists of the early twentieth century and one of the first 
women employed by the U.S. Geological Survey. She volunteered to serve in 
France with the Red Cross in World War I and was injured in the line of duty. 
She joined the U.S. Geological Survey after the war, and her research on the oil- 
bearing formations of the Coastal Plain, published in Correlation of the Cenozoic 
Formations of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain and the Caribbean Region 
(1943), was of particular importance to petroleum geologists. By the 1940s, her 
work in stratigraphic paleontology was of national and international importance, 
contributing especially to studies of economic geology in the Western hemisphere. 
During World War II, she provided strategic and tactical information through 
analyses of maps, serial photographs, and other sources for use by the armed 
forces. One of her contributions was that she was able to identify some of the Jap- 
anese beaches from which incendiary balloons were being launched by identifying 
the origin of the shells in the sand ballast of the balloons. After her official 



Garmire, Elsa (Meints) | 419 

retirement, she was rehired on a yearly contract basis for a project to prepare geo- 
logical maps of the islands of the western Pacific. 

Gardner received the Department of the Interior's Distinguished Service Award 
in 1952. That same year, she served as president of the Paleontological Society. 
She also was a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists 
and the Geological Society of America. 



Garmire, Elsa (Meints) 

b. 1939 

Physicist, Electrical Engineer 

Education: B.A., physics, Radcliffe College, 1961; Ph.D., physics, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, 1965 

Professional Experience: research fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
1965-1966; research scientist, Electronics Research Center, National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration (NASA), 1965-1966; senior research fellow, electrical 
engineering and applied physics, California Institute of Technology, 1966-1973; 
senior research scientist, Center for Laser Studies, University of Southern 
California, 1974-1978, professor, electrical engineering and physics, and director, 
1975-1995; dean and professor, Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth 
College, 1995-1997, professor, engineering sciences, 1997- 

Concurrent Positions: president and founder, Laser Images, Inc., 1971-1973; 
visiting scientist, ITT Standard Telecom Labs, 1973-1974; visiting scientist, 
Thomson CSF, France, 1974; consultant, The Aerospace Corporation, 1975- 
1992; visiting professor, Sydney University, Australia, 1994-1995; visiting 
professor, Telebras and University of Sao Paolo, Brazil, 1992; visiting professor, 
electrical engineering and computer science, University of California, Berkeley, 
2000-2001; Jefferson Science Fellow, U.S. Department of State, 2007-2008 

Elsa Garmire has had a distinguished career in laser research since receiving her 
doctorate in nonlinear optics under Charles H. Townes, who received the Nobel 
Prize in Physics. The term "laser" is an acronym for light amplification by stimu- 
lated emission of radiation; the term was coined about 1960. Her research is 
focused on lasers, integrated optics, nonlinear optics, spectroscopy, and quantum 
electronics. Throughout her career, she has been on the front lines of research 
and innovations in the field of laser and optical studies. She holds 10 patents and 
has been a delegate to several international symposiums on lasers and optics. 



420 | Gast, Alice P. 

Garmire has published more than 200 papers in scientific journals and has been 
associate editor of both Optics Letters and Fiber and Integrated Optics. 

Garmire was appointed a senior research scientist at the Center for Laser 
Studies at the University of Southern California in 1974 and was soon promoted to 
professor of electrical engineering and physics, associate director of the Center for 
Laser Studies, and then director of the center. She was the first woman to be 
appointed to the engineering faculty at the University of Southern California and, 
in 1995, she became the dean of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth 
College, the first woman dean of engineering in an Ivy League school. Garmire's 
expertise and reputation are reflected in the number of visiting scholarships and con- 
sultancies she has held outside of academia and around the world. 

Garmire was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 
1989 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996. She is a fellow 
of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Physical 
Society, the Optical Society of America (director-at-large, 1983-1986; president, 
1995), and the Society of Women Engineers, which honored her with an Achieve- 
ment Award in 1994. Her service to professional and scientific boards has been 
extensive and includes membership on the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board 
(1985-1989) and the Presidential Medal of Science Selection Committee (1996- 
1998), as well as chairing the National Academy Committee to Assess Techno- 
logical Literacy (2002-2006); most recently, she has been named a Councilor to 
the National Academy of Engineering (2002-2008). 

Further Resources 

Dartmouth College. Faculty website, http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/faculty/regular/ 
elsagarmire .html . 



Gast, Alice P. 

b. 1958 

Chemical Engineer 

Education: B.S., chemical engineering, University of Southern California, 1980; 
M.A., chemical engineering, Princeton University, 1981, Ph.D., chemical engi- 
neering, 1984 

Professional Experience: assistant professor, chemical engineering, Stanford 
University, 1985-1990, associate professor, chemical engineering and chemistry 
(by courtesy), 1991-1995, professor, chemical engineering and chemistry 



Gast, Alice P. | 42 1 




(by courtesy), 1995-2001; vice 
president, research, and associate 
provost, Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology (MIT), 2001-2006, and 
Robert T. Haslam Professor of 
Chemical Engineering, 2001-2006; 
president, Lehigh University, Penn- 
sylvania, 2006- 

Alice P. Gast is a chemical engineer 
who is currently the president of 
Lehigh University in Bethlehem, 
Pennsylvania, the first female president 
in that institution's history. She previ- 
ously taught chemical engineering 
and chemistry at Stanford University 
and at MIT, where her research inter- 
ests included the physics of complex 
fluids, colloidal suspensions, and 
micelles and emulsions, and she has 
been acknowledged for her commit- 
ment to engineering education. Gast 
received her doctorate in chemical 
engineering from Princeton University 

in 1984 and spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow at the Ecole Superieure de Physique 
et de Chimie Industrielles in Paris, where she returned as a visiting professor years 
later. She has been an invited lecturer at numerous universities and was an affiliated 
faculty at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (1994-2002). She has sat 
on committees and advisory boards for the National Research Council Committee 
for Science, Technology, and the Law; the National Research Council Committee 
on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy; the National Council for Science and 
the Environment; the Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Com- 
mittee; and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. 

Gast was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2001 and is a fel- 
low of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, International Council for Science, and Canadian Insti- 
tute for Advanced Research. She is also a member of the American Chemical 
Society, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American Physical Society, 
International Polymer Colloids Group, and Materials Research Society. Among 
her awards and honors are the National Academy of Science Award for Initiative 



Chemical engineer and President of Lehigh 
University, Alice P. Gast, 2008. (Courtesy of 
Lehigh University) 



422 | Gayle, Helene Doris 

in Research (1992), Allan P. Colburn Award of the American Institute of Chemical 
Engineers (1992), Alexander von Humboldt Award (1998), and American Chemi- 
cal Society Award in Colloid and Surface Chemistry (2006). She is married to 
Bradley J. Askins, a computer scientist who also teaches at Lehigh. 

Further Resources 

Lehigh University. "Office of the President: Alice P. Gast." http://www3.lehigh.edu/ 
president/default. asp. 



Gayle, Helene Doris 

b. 1955 

Pediatrician, Epidemiologist 

Education: B.A., psychology, Barnard College, 1976; M.D., University of 
Pennsylvania, 1981; M.S., public health, Johns Hopkins University, 1981 

Professional Experience: resident, Children's Hospital Medical Center, 
Washington, D.C., 1981-1984; resident, Epidemic Intelligence program, Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1984-1986, medical epidemiologist 
and coordinator, Division of HIV/AIDS, 1984-1995; medical researcher, AIDS Divi- 
sion, U.S. Agency for International Development, 1992-1995; director, National 
Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention, CDC, 1995-2001; director, HIV, TB, and 
Reproductive Health Program, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2001-2006; 
Assistant Surgeon General and Rear Admiral, U.S. Public Health Service, 2001-; 
president and CEO, CARE USA, 2006- 

Helene Gayle is a renowned epidemiologist of infectious diseases such as acquired 
immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and 
tuberculosis. She has worked with international organizations on issues of disease 
prevention and control. Gayle majored in psychology as an undergraduate before 
attending medical school, and after hearing a noted researcher speak about small- 
pox eradication, she became interested in public health. She began her career in 
the 1980s, when AIDS was reaching epidemic proportions. At the CDC, she con- 
centrated on the effect of AIDS on children, adolescents, and their families, both 
in the United States and worldwide, and she found that the African American com- 
munity, especially black women, were at especially high risk for contracting HIV. 
Without an available vaccine, she focused her attention on educating the popula- 
tions of both the United States and Africa on ways to prevent HIV infection, the 
virus that causes AIDS. By the late 1990s, HIV/AIDS had gained more public 



Geiringer (Von Mises), Hilda | 423 




American pediatrician, epidemiologist, and President of the International AIDS Society, 
Helene Gayle speaks in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2005. (AP/Wide World Photos) 

attention and research funding, but Gayle was among those who warned against a 
premature sense that the threat of the virus had been lessened. 

Gayle has received numerous awards, such as the U.S. Public Health Service 
achievement medal. She has been a guest lecturer to numerous universities and 
organizations and a consultant to international health organizations such as WHO, 
UNICEF, the World Bank, and UNAID. She was the editor of Global Mobilization 
for HIV Prevention: A Blueprint for Action (2002). 

Further Resources 

CARE USA. "Helene D. Gayle: President and CEO." http://www.care.org/about/bio 
gayle. asp. 



Geiringer (Von Mises), Hilda 

1893 1973 
Mathematician 

Education: Ph.D., mathematics, University of Vienna, 1917 



424 | Geiringer (Von Mises), Hilda 

Professional Experience: editorial assistant, Fortschritte der Mathematik 
(Advances in Mathematics), 1919-1920; assistant, Institute of Applied Mathematics, 
University of Berlin, 1921-1927, lecturer, 1927-1933, professor emeritus, 1956— 
1973; research associate, Institute of Mechanics, University of Brussels, 1933— 
1934; professor, mathematics, University of Istanbul, 1934-1939; lecturer, Bryn 
Mawr College, 1939-1944; professor and chair, mathematics department, Wheaton 
College, Massachusetts, 1944-1959; research fellow, mathematics, Harvard 
University, 1955-1959 

Concurrent Positions: instructor, mechanics/engineering science, Brown 
University, Rhode Island, 1942; research fellow, mathematics, Harvard University, 
1954-1973 

Hilda Geiringer was a mathematician who worked on statistics and probability 
theory, and developed the fundamental Geiringer equations for plane plastic dis- 
tortions. Her parents helped support her financially while she studied mathematics 
for a Ph.D. at the University of Vienna. At the Institute of Applied Mathematics at 
Berlin, she worked as an assistant to renowned mathematician Richard Von Mises, 
who would later become her second husband. After receiving her doctorate from 
the University of Vienna in 1917, she was on the staff of a review journal for three 
years. It was unusual for a woman mathematician to find a teaching position in the 
1920s in Germany, but she was appointed an assistant at the University of Berlin 
in 1921 and a member of the staff starting in 1927. Once Hitler came to power, 
however, Jews were prohibited from employment in universities (among other 
positions), and she was forced to flee Germany in 1933 with her child along with 
other Jewish professionals. She went to Brussels, where she found a position at 
the Institute of Mechanics, and then followed Von Mises on to the University of 
Istanbul. Much of her early work was published while in Turkey, where she 
became interested in mathematical applications for the new theories of genetics. 
In this work, she was an unacknowledged pioneer and precursor to the fields of 
genetic mapping, bioinformatics, and genetic engineering. 

In 1939, she came to the United States with an appointment as a lecturer at Bryn 
Mawr College. In 1943, she married Richard Von Mises, who now had a faculty 
position at Harvard. Geiringer relocated to Massachusetts to be near Von Mises 
and to take a permanent position as professor and chair of the mathematics 
department at Wheaton College. The position at Wheaton included heavy teaching 
and administrative duties, and Geiringer continued to apply for a research position 
at other universities. Having escaped from Germany because of persecution against 
Jews, she now faced discrimination against women at the higher research institu- 
tions. To a professor at Princeton University, she wrote, "I hope there will be better 



Geller, Margaret Joan | 425 

conditions for the next generations of women. ... In the meantime, one has to go on 
as well as possible." After Von Mises's death in 1953, she continued to teach at 
Wheaton until retiring in 1959, but also spent several years as a research fellow at 
Harvard, editing Von Mises's work for publication and conducting her own research. 
She published new editions of his books, including her supplementary addition of 
new material, including Probability, Statistics, and Truth (1957) and Mathematical 
Theory of Probability and Statistics (1964). 

Geiringer became a renowned mathematician with an international reputation. 
She became a friend and correspondent with Albert Einstein. She was named pro- 
fessor emerita by University of Berlin in 1956, more than 20 years after she fled 
Germany. She received an honorary degree from Wheaton in 1960, and in 1967, 
the University of Vienna made a special presentation on the occasion of the fiftieth 
anniversary of her graduation. She was elected a fellow of the American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences. Twice-married, she used the name Geiringer professionally, 
although in some sources she is identified as Hilda Von Mises or under her first 
married name, Hilda Pollaczek. 

Further Resources 

Agnes Scott College. "Hilda Geiringer von Mises." Biographies of Women Mathematicians. 
http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/mises.htm. 



Geller, Margaret Joan 

b. 1947 

Astrophysicist, Cosmologist, Astronomer 

Education: B.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1970; M.A., Princeton Uni- 
versity, 1972, Ph.D., Physics, 1975 

Professional Experience: National Science Foundation predoctoral fellow, 
Princeton University, 1970-1973; postdoctoral fellow, Center for Astrophysics, 
1974-1976; research fellow, Harvard College Observatory, 1976-1978, research 
associate, 1978-1980; lecturer, Harvard University, 1977-1980, assistant profes- 
sor, 1980-1983; astronomer, Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, 
1983-1991, senior astronomer, 1991- 

Concurrent Positions: senior visiting fellow, Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge 
University, 1978-1980 



426 | Geller, Margaret Joan 




Margaret Geller is one of the foremost 
cosmologists of the twentieth century. 
Cosmology is the branch of astronomy 
that deals with the general structure 
and evolution of the universe; since 
the 1980s, she has worked on surveys 
of the distribution of galaxies in the 
universe. She and her team constructed 
three-dimensional maps that revealed, 
for the first time, that galaxies such as 
the Earth's own Milky Way are 
arranged in very large patterns resem- 
bling soapsuds. In the nearby universe, 
thin walls marked by thousands of gal- 
axies surround vast dark regions in 
which there are very few galaxies. In 
1989, Geller and her collaborator, John 
Huchra of Harvard, discovered "the 
Great Wall," a huge arc of galaxies 
spanning the area the scientists sur- 
veyed. The wall is a chain of galaxies on the order of 500 million by 200 million by 
15 million light-years in extent; this is the largest coherent structure yet seen in the 
universe. 

Geller was inspired by the sciences when, as a child, she accompanied her 
father, a graduate student in crystallography, to his x-ray lab. She received a 
National Science Foundation fellowship while pursuing her master's, and went 
on to become only the second woman to earn a doctorate in physics from Prince- 
ton. While visiting the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University, she 
decided to examine the large-scale structure of the universe, of which little was 
known. She joined forces with Huchra, who specialized in using telescopes to 
gather the necessary data for these explorations, to complement her theoretical, 
analytical view. She was only the second woman astronomer to receive tenure 
at Harvard; the first was Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. In addition to Geller's scien- 
tific publications, she has prepared two films for the general public. The video 
Where the Galaxies Are (1991), which premiered at the National Air and Space 
Museum, is a general description of her work; the film So Many Galaxies . . . So 
Little Time (1992) provides insights into the lives and work of scientists and their 
students. She was also interviewed for the television program "Mysteries of Deep 
Space" in the NOVA series on public television in 1997. 



Astrophysicist, astronomer, and cosmologist 
Margaret Joan Geller, 1993. (Roger 
Ressmeyer/Corbis) 



Gerry, Eloise B. | 427 

Geller was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1992. In 1990, she 
received a prestigious five-year MacArthur "genius grant." Other awards included 
the Newcomb-Cleveland Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 
(1990) and the Helen Sawyer Hogg Prize of the Royal Astronomical Society of 
Canada (1993), named for the woman who cataloged variable stars in globular 
clusters. In 1997, Gellar won a Library Lion award from the New York Public 
Library, and in 2002, she received the ADION Medal from Nice Observatory in 
France. She has published widely in scientific journals and has been on the edito- 
rial review board for Science since 1991. She is a fellow of the American Physical 
Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, International 
Astronomical Union, and American Astronomical Society. 

Further Resources 

Harvard University. Faculty website, http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~mjg/. 



Gerry, Eloise B. 

1885 1970 
Botanist 

Education: A.B., Radcliffe College, 1908, A.M., 1909; M.S., Smith College, 
1909-1910; Ph.D., plant physiology, University of Wisconsin, 1921 

Professional Experience: expert, Forest Products Laboratory, U.S. Forest 
Service, 1910-1911, microscopist, 1911-1928, senior microscopist, 1928-1947, 
technologist, Forest Products, 1947-1955 

Concurrent Positions: lecturer, forest products, University of Wisconsin, 
1911-1955 

Eloise Gerry was an international expert on the properties of forest woods. She 
was the first woman appointed to the professional staff of the U.S. Forest Service 
at Madison, Wisconsin and one of the first women to specialize in forest products 
research. After receiving her master's degree from Smith College, she joined the 
staff of the newly opened Forest Products Laboratory, where she spent her entire 
career. She joined the department as a wood microscopist and was ultimately pro- 
moted to forest products technologist. She had developed a highly specialized 
method for cutting wood specimens and preparing photomicrographs, but when 
she arrived at the new laboratory, the equipment she needed was not yet available. 
The botany department at the University of Wisconsin temporarily provided space 



428 | Giblett, Eloise Rosalie 

and the equipment for her work. Her first project for the U.S. Forest Service was to 
collect wood samples from throughout the United States. After the samples were 
collected and analyzed, she moved to other research projects. Her first paper was 
published in 1914 on tyloses, the plugging of wood cells that restricts the move- 
ment of liquid. In 1916, over the objections of lab administrators, she took her 
microtome and microscope to Mississippi and Florida to gather and analyze core 
samples from living trees for a project on naval stores. As a result of this research, 
she became a national expert in naval stores and wrote a book, Naval Stores 
Handbook (1935). 

During World War II, Gerry worked on projects of selecting wood suitable for 
packing supplies to ship to the armed services in a variety of climates all over 
the world. After the war, her research involved foreign woods, on which she pre- 
pared 56 reports in the Foreign Wood Series of the Forest Products Laboratory. 
She published more than 120 papers in technical and trade journals, in FPL publi- 
cations as well as those of the Forest Service and the U.S. Department of Agricul- 
ture. She was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science, and was a member of the American Chemical Society, the American 
Forestry Association, the Society of American Foresters, the Forest History Soci- 
ety, and the International Association of Wood Anatomists. 



Giblett, Eloise Rosalie 

1921 2009 
Hematologist, Geneticist 

Education: student, Mills College, 1939-1940; B.S., University of Washington, 
1942, M.S., microbiology, 1947, M.D., 1951 

Professional Experience: intern and resident, University of Washington, 
1951-1952, postdoctoral fellow, 1953-1955, clinical associate, School of Medi- 
cine, 1955-1957, clinical instructor to associate professor, 1957-1967, research 
professor, medicine, 1967-1987; associate director, Puget Sound Blood Center, 
1967-1979, executive director, 1979-1987, emerita 

Concurrent Positions: postdoctoral fellow, Medical School, University of Lon- 
don, 1953-1955 

Eloise Giblett discovered that an inadequate supply of two specific enzymes causes 
inherited deficiencies in the body's immune system and led the research on gene 
therapy to treat these deficiencies. She also discovered a wide range of new genetic 



Gibson, Eleanor Jack | 429 

markers, including blood groups and serum proteins, and did important research in 
blood group antibodies. Giblett published more than 200 papers and textbook chap- 
ters on various aspects of inherited characteristics, particularly those in human blood. 
These include iron kinetics, red-cell destruction owing to isoantibodies, detection of 
variants in blood group antigen, serum protein, red-cell enzyme genetic systems, and 
changes in red-cell antigens associated with marrow stress. She is the author of the 
book Genetic Markers in Human Blood (1969). 

After college, Giblett joined the Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency 
Services (WAVES), the women's branch of the U.S. Navy at the time, as a medical 
technician. She then used funds from the GI Bill to attend medical school, receiv- 
ing a master's in microbiology and then an M.D. degree, specializing in hematol- 
ogy and human genetics. She has participated on many significant committees and 
commissions as a member of the National Institutes of Health Genetics Study Sec- 
tion; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Research Review Committee; the 
National Blood Resources Committee; and the Food and Drug Administration 
Toxicology Advisory Committee. In the 1960s, she was associate editor of the 
journals Transfusion and American Journal of Human Genetics. In addition to 
teaching at the University of Washington, she served for 20 years as the director 
of the Puget Sound Blood Center. In 2004, she was the keynote speaker at the Cen- 
ter's sixtieth-anniversary celebration. 

Giblett was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1980 and received 
the Emily Cooley Award (1975), the Karl Landsteiner Award (1976), and the 
Philip Levine Award (1978). She was a member of the American Society of Hem- 
atology, American Society of Human Genetics (president, 1973), American Asso- 
ciation of Immunologists, and Association of American Physicians. 



Gibson, Eleanor Jack 

1910 2002 
Psychologist 

Education: A.B., Smith College, 1931, A.M., 1933; Ph.D., psychology, Yale Uni- 
versity, 1938 

Professional Experience: assistant, psychology, Smith College, 1931-1933, 
instructor, 1933-1940, assistant professor, 1940-1949; research associate, Cornell 
University, 1949-1966, professor, psychology, 1966-1980 

Concurrent Positions: visiting professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
1973; University of California, Davis, 1978; University of Pennsylvania, 1984; 



430 | Gilbreth, Lillian E. Moller 

University of South Carolina, 1987; University of Connecticut, 1988; Emory 
University, 1988-1990; Center for Advanced Behavioral Studies, University of 
Minnesota; Salk Institute 

Eleanor Gibson was recognized as an expert in the psychology of learning and 
was most well-known for her studies of perception in young children. In the late 
1950s, she designed a "visual cliff" experiment to study depth perception in 
infants and toddlers. The experiment involved placing the child on a wooden table 
with a large plate of glass attached, and encouraging them to crawl off the "edge" 
of the table onto the glass, which most of the children would not do. Gibson 
repeated her experiment with kittens and other animals, and concluded that our 
sense of depth prevents falls and injuries. In 1961, she co-authored (with her col- 
league Richard D. Walk) the book A Comparative and Analytical Study of Visual 
Depth Perception. Their work received media attention (it was reported in Life 
magazine) and was reprinted in psychology textbooks. 

Gibson began her teaching career at Smith College where, after receiving her 
Ph.D. from Yale, she was promoted to assistant professor. While still a graduate stu- 
dent, she married another psychologist, James Gibson, with whom she often collabo- 
rated. But she faced discrimination as a woman and as a married woman when it 
came to her career. At Yale, she was denied use of the laboratories and libraries as 
well as admission to some seminars, and some of her work was published under a 
lab director's name. When James Gibson moved to Cornell, Eleanor was unable to 
secure a faculty position there and worked as his research associate until 1966, when 
the rules about hiring married couples changed and she was appointed professor of 
psychology. Before and even after her retirement, she held numerous research posi- 
tions and visiting professorships at other institutions. In 1982, she was invited to 
China to mentor psychologists there on her methods and research. 

Gibson was the author or co-author of five books, including her memoir, Perceiv- 
ing the Affordances: A Portrait of Two Psychologists, published in 2001. She was 
elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1971. She was a member of the 
Society of Experimental Psychologists and the American Psychological Association 
(APA), receiving an APA award in 1968 and a G. Stanley Hall Award in 1970. 



Gilbreth, Lillian E. Moller 

1878 1972 

Industrial Psychologist, Engineer 

Education: B. Litt, University of California, Berkeley, 1900, M.A., 1902; Ph.D., 
psychology, Brown University, 1915 



Gilbreth, Lillian E. Moller | 431 

Professional Experience: co-owner, Gilbreth, Inc., 1904-1924; consultant, 
Gilbreth Research Associates, 1924-1972 

Concurrent Positions: visiting lecturer, Purdue University, 1924-1935, professor 
of management, 1935-1948; chair, department of personnel relations, Newark 
College of Engineering, 1941-1943; professor of management, University of 
Wisconsin, 1955 

Lillian Gilbreth was one of the founders of the discipline of modern scientific 
management and efficiency and a pioneer in the field of industrial psychology. 
Her 1914 book, The Psychology of Management, was a groundbreaking work 
on the health of industrial workers and had an enormous impact on the develop- 
ment of business practices in the twentieth century. Soon after graduating from 
college, she married Frank Gilbreth, a builder with an interest in inventing 
equipment and techniques for improving efficiency. Her concern for the human 
needs of workers complemented his interests in industrial efficiency, and they 
both altered their career paths in order to work together at their own consulting 
firm. She had intended to study literature but focused her doctoral studies on 
psychology instead, earning her Ph.D. in 1915 after already publishing her first 
book, and in the midst of working with her husband and bearing 12 children 
in 17 years. The large Gilbreth family were themselves an experiment in organi- 
zation and efficiency, using their home as a model for their studies. They trained 
management professionals in addition to lecturing in schools of engineering and 
business, consulting for industrial firms, and writing for both professional and 
popular magazines. The Gilbreths were the forerunners of the science of time 
and motion analysis, and Lillian Gilbreth's contribution to the field was an 
appreciation of the human element in applying time and motion studies. 

After Frank Gilbreth died in 1924, Lillian still had children to raise, and started 
a new consulting firm, Gilbreth Research Associates. She counted numerous 
retailers among her clients, including Johnson & Johnson, Macy's, and Sears & 
Roebuck. She was hired as a guest lecturer at Purdue University, a position that 
Frank Gilbreth had held, and later received a regular faculty appointment as the 
first female professor of engineering at Purdue. She began an intensive study of 
applying modern business methods in the home. Together, the Gilbreths had co- 
authored Fatigue Study: The Elimination of Humanity's Greatest Unnecessary 
Waste (1916) and Applied Motion Study (1917). Her two other major publications 
included The Home-Maker and Her Job (1927) and Management in the Home 
(1954), as well as numerous articles in such popular magazines as Good House- 
keeping and Better Homes and Gardens. She did significant research on people 
with disabilities 50 years before the American Disabilities Act, developing a 



432 | Gill, Jocelyn Ruth 

model kitchen for the handicapped at the Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at 
New York University Medical Center and discussing special equipment and rou- 
tines for housework in Normal Lives for the Disabled (1944). Among her innova- 
tions was the idea for opening trashcans by stepping on a handle, an invention 
now widely used in the home. 

Gilbreth has the honor of being the first woman elected to National Academy of 
Engineering (1965). In 1921, she was named an honorary member of the Society 
of Industrial Engineers, which did not admit women to membership. In 1966, 
she received the Hoover Medal of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and 
in 1987, Purdue established a distinguished professorship of engineering in her 
name. The Society of Women Engineers has also established a fellowship in her 
memory. The humorous reminiscences of the Gilbreth family were recorded by 
Frank Gilbreth, Jr., and Ernestine G. Carey in Cheaper by the Dozen (1948; later 
a motion picture) and Belles on Their Toes (1950). 

Further Resources 

Wood, Michael C. and John C. Wood, eds. 2003. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth: Critical 
Evaluations in Business and Management. New York: Routledge. 

Lancaster, Jane. 2004. Making Time: Lillian Moller Gilbreth A Life Beyond "Cheaper By 
the Dozen." Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press. 



Gill, Jocelyn Ruth 

1916 1984 
Astronomer 

Education: A.B., Wellesley College, 1938; S.M., astronomy and astrophysics, 
University of Chicago, 1941; Ph.D., astronomy, Yale University, 1959 

Professional Experience: laboratory assistant and instructor, astronomy, Mount 
Holyoke College, 1940-1942; staff member, radiation laboratory, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology (MIT), 1942-1945; instructor to assistant professor, 
astronomy, Smith College, 1945-1952; instructor, University of California exten- 
sion, 1946-1948; assistant professor, Mount Holyoke, 1952-1957; associate pro- 
fessor, mathematics and astronomy, Arizona State College, 1959-1960; research 
assistant, astronomy, Yale University, 1960-1961; staff scientist, astronomy and 
astrophysics, Office of Space Science and Applications, National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration (NASA), 1961-1963, chief of in-flight science, Manned 



Gleitman, Lila R. | 433 

Space Science Program Office, 1963-1966, staff scientist, Manned Flight Experi- 
ment Office, 1966-1968, program scientist, 1968-1984 

Jocelyn Gill conducted research involving motion of Neptune's satellite (Triton), 
celestial mechanics, and numerical analysis of satellite orbits. She held prominent 
positions in NASA's manned space flight program. After receiving her master's 
degree, Gill was employed as a laboratory assistant and instructor of astronomy 
at Mount Holyoke. The beginning of World War II opened up many new industries 
and research positions for women. The radiation laboratory at MIT hired many 
women to continue the work that men formerly had performed. After working at 
MIT, Gill taught astronomy at several schools while continuing work on her doc- 
torate at Yale. She had several other assignments until she received an appoint- 
ment with NASA in 1961 with the Office of Space Science and Applications in 
the Washington, D.C., area. After the former Soviet Union launched Sputnik, there 
was a crash program to catch up to and surpass the Russian space program. Again 
the U.S. program opened up many positions for women scientists with expertise in 
astronomy and astrophysics, as there simply were not enough men trained in these 
fields. She was chief of in-flight science from 1963 to 1966 and participated in a 
solar eclipse flight in 1963. She also worked on the Gemini Science program. 

Gill received the Federal Women's Award in 1966 representing NASA. She was 
elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and 
was also a member of the American Astronomical Society and the American 
Association of Variable Star Observers. 



Gleitman, Lila R. 

b. 1929 
Psychologist 

Education: B.A., literature, Antioch College, 1952; M.A., linguistics, University 
of Pennsylvania, 1962, Ph.D., 1967 

Professional Experience: senior scientist, Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric 
Institute, Philadelphia, 1965-1968; assistant professor, linguistics, Swarthmore Col- 
lege, 1968-1971; William T. Carter Professor of Education, University of Pennsylva- 
nia, 1972-1979, professor, psychology, 1981-2001 (Steven and Marcia Roth 
Professor of Psychology, 1989-1994), and professor, linguistics, 1992-2001, emerita 

Concurrent Positions: Alfred P. Sloan Cognitive Science Fellow, linguistics 
and philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1978; Alfred P. Sloan 



434 | Gleitman, Lila R. 

Cognitive Science Fellow, School of Social Science, University of California, 
Irvine, 1979; Vera T. Brittain Fellow, Somerville College, Oxford Univer- 
sity, England, 1985; co-founder and co-director, Institute for Cognitive Science, 
University of Pennsylvania, 1991-2001; visiting faculty, Cognitive Science 
Institute (RUCCS) Rutgers University, 2000-; visiting scientist, SISSA, 
Trieste, 2001-2008 

Lila Gleitman is a world-renowned psychologist who specializes in psycholinguis- 
tics and language acquisition, including representation of the sound wave, syntax, 
and construction of the lexicon. She has pioneered the field of linguistics theory in 
cognitive science, specifically focusing on developmental linguistics and child- 
ren's language acquisition. She received her doctorate from the University of 
Pennsylvania and taught at Swarthmore College before returning to University of 
Pennsylvania to teach in the departments of education, psychology, and linguis- 
tics. She taught at Pennsylvania for 30 years, as did her husband, fellow psycholo- 
gist Henry Gleitman. The two often collaborated and Gleitman's work has been 
supported by research grants from the National Science Foundation and National 
Institutes of Health. She has been an invited lecturer at numerous universities in 
the United States and abroad. She has authored dozens of articles and book 
chapters, and edited or co-edited several textbooks, including Language and Expe- 
rience: Evidence from the Blind Child (1985) and Invitation to Cognitive Science, 
Volume I: Language (1996). Two volumes of essays by colleagues have been 
published in her and her husband's honor. 

Gleitman was elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in 2000 and, 
since her retirement, has served on NAS advisory committees. She received 
honorary doctorates from the University of Chicago (2005) and the University 
of Pennsylvania (2008). Among her more recent awards and honors are a 
Women in Science Award from the New York Academy of Sciences (2002), a 
Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological 
Association (2003), and the John McGovern Award in the Behavioral Sciences 
from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2003). 
She is a fellow or member of the AAAS, Society of Experimental Psychologists, 
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cognitive Science Society, Linguistic 
Society of America (president, 1993), Society for Philosophy and Psychology 
(president, 2006-2007), and Language Development Society (president, 2006-). 

Further Resources 

University of Pennsylvania. Faculty website, http://www.psych.upenn.edu/people/ 
gleitman. 



Glusker, Jenny (Pickworth) | 435 

Glusker, Jenny (Pickworth) 

b. 1931 

Crystallographer, Cancer Researcher 

Education: B.A., Somerville College, Oxford University, 1953, M.A. and 
D. Phil., chemistry, 1957 

Professional Experience: research fellow, x-ray crystallography, California Insti- 
tute of Technology, 1955-1956; research associate, Institute for Cancer Research 
(later Fox Chase Cancer Center), Philadelphia, 1956-1966, director, 1967-1979, 
senior member, 1979-2003 

Concurrent Positions: research associate professor, University of Pennsylvania, 
1969-1979, adjunct professor, biochemistry and biophysics, 1980- 

Jenny Glusker is renowned for her work in x-ray crystallography and is a leading 
authority on chemical carcinogenesis based on the structure determinations of 
various carcinogens. She has performed calculations on simple aromatic hydrocar- 
bons that act as models for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and she has studied 
many antitumor agents that inhibit chemical carcinogenesis. X-ray crystallo- 
graphic data are powerful tools, for they provide a three-dimensional structure, 
the absolute configuration, and the preferred conformations of a sample. While a 
student at Somerville College, she worked with Dorothy Hodgkin, contributing 
to research on the structure of vitamin B 12 - Hodgkin went on to receive the Nobel 
Prize in Chemistry in 1964. 

Both of Glusker's parents were physicians, and her mother was a member of the 
first class of women students in the medical school at Glasgow University during 
World War I. She encouraged both of her daughters to combine marriage with a 
career. Jenny Pickworth met her future husband while studying in England, and the 
two went to the United States in 1955. When they married, each had a postdoctoral 
appointment at the California Institute of Technology, where Jenny was a member 
of Linus Pauling's research team. The couple then faced the problem of finding jobs 
at the same location. They succeeded in finding positions in Philadelphia, where she 
joined the Institute for Cancer Research, later named the Fox Chase Cancer Center. 
When she joined the center, the director not only encouraged married women to work, 
but allowed Glusker to work part-time while her children were young. When her 
youngest child was just two years old, the director of the institute died, and Glusker 
was offered and accepted the position. She retired from the laboratory in 2003. 

Glusker has published more than 100 scientific articles, edited numerous books, 
and published two books: Crystal Structure Analysis: A Primer (1972; 2nd ed., 



436 | Goeppert-Mayer, Maria 

1985) and Crystal Structure Analysis for Chemists and Biologists (1994). She is 
the editor of Acta Crystallographica and serves on the editorial boards of several 
other journals. She has been very active in promoting the careers of many young 
researchers either through her teaching at the university or supervision of graduate 
students at the institute. Among the awards she has received are the Garvan Medal 
of the American Chemical Society (1979) and the Fankuchen Award of the American 
Crystallographic Association (1995). She is a member of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, American Crystallographic Association (president, 
1979), American Chemical Society, American Society of Biological Chemists, and 
Biophysical Society. 

Further Resources 

Fox Chase Cancer Center. Biography. http://dunbrack.fccc.edu/GluskerSymposium/ 
Bio.php. 

Fox Chase Cancer Center. Staff website, http://www.fccc.edu/research/pid/glusker/. 



Goeppert-Mayer, Maria 

1906 1972 
Physicist 

Education: Ph.D., physics, University of Gottingen, 1930 

Professional Experience: research assistant, physics, Johns Hopkins University, 
1931-1939; lecturer, Columbia University, 1939-1946; senior physicist, Argonne 
National Laboratory, 1946-1960; professor, School of Science and Engineering, 
University of California, San Diego, 1960-1972 

Concurrent Positions: lecturer, Sarah Lawrence College, 1941-1942, 1945; 
volunteer professor, Fermi Institute of Nuclear Studies, University of Chicago, 
1946-1959 

Maria Goeppert-Mayer was a nuclear physicist involved in the development of the 
atomic fission bomb and a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 for 
her work on the structure of atomic nuclei. She received her doctorate in 1930 
from the University of Gottingen, which attracted many theoretical physicists of 
the era, but had few women faculty. In Gottingen, she met American chemistry 
student Joseph Mayer, and the two married in 1930. She came to the United States 
when her husband accepted a faculty position at Johns Hopkins, but due to anti- 
nepotism rules at that time, she was not able to secure a faculty position and 



Goeppert-Mayer, Maria | 437 




worked as a research assistant and 
even translator for another professor 
until the couple moved to Columbia 
University in New York, where she 
was a lecturer in chemistry. It was in 
New York that she med Enrico Fermi, 
another Nobel Prize-winning physi- 
cist who was working on nuclear fis- 
sion and radioactivity, research 
projects of increasing interest to the 
U.S. government. She joined Fermi's 
research team in an unpaid position 
and in 1942 began to work on top- 
secret bomb research as part of the 
Manhattan Project. As the United 
States had entered World War II, 
there was a shortage of male scien- 
tists, and many women were hired 
for the project. She was ambivalent 
about even her small contribution to 
work on the bomb, but even after the 
war she made visits to continue work 
on its development at Los Alamos, 
New Mexico. 

After the war, she was offered an associate professorship in physics at Fermi's 
new Institute of Nuclear Studies at the University Chicago, and was also a senior 
physicist at Argonne National Laboratory studying the nuclei of certain elements. 
It was through this research that she developed her shell model for electron move- 
ment around the nucleus, the subject of her 1949 joint publication with J. Hans D. 
Jensen, which led to their sharing of the Nobel Prize in 1963. Despite this work, 
and building a prominent reputation as a nuclear physicist beginning in the 
1940s, it was not until 1959 that she began to earn a full professor's salary at 
Chicago. In 1960, both she and her husband were recruited for faculty positions 
at the University of California, San Diego. 

Goeppert-Mayer was elected to the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences (1950) 
and National Academy of Sciences (1956). She was a member of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Physical Society, which presents 
the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award to a woman physicist each year. She 
co-authored two books: Statistical Mechanics (1940, with Joseph Mayer) and 
Elementary Theory of Nuclear Shell Structure (1955, with J. Hans D. Jensen). 



Maria Goeppert-Mayer was co-recipient of the 
1963 Nobel Prize in Physics for her work on 
atomic nuclei. (Nobel Foundation) 



438 | Goldberg, Adele 

Further Resources 

Byers, Nina and Gary A. Williams. 2006. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth- 
Century Women to Physics. New York: Cambridge University Press. 

Opfell, Olga S. 1986. The Lady Laureates: Women Who Have Won the Nobel Prize. 
Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press. 



Goldberg, Adele 

b. 1945 

Computer Scientist, Information Technologist 

Education: B.A., mathematics, University of Michigan; M.S. and Ph.D., information 
science, University of Chicago, 1973 

Professional Experience: researcher, educational technology, Stanford Univer- 
sity; research scientist, Xerox Corporation, Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), 
1973-1988; founder, president, and CEO, ParcPlace Systems, 1988-1992, chair, 
board of directors, 1992-1996; independent researcher, computer science, 
1996-; co-founder, Neometron, 1997- 

Adele Goldberg is one of the few women whose contributions to the development 
of the personal computer in the 1970s is generally acknowledged. With advanced 
degrees in information technology, she was teaching at Stanford University when 
Alan Kay, a computer programmer at Xerox Corporation's prestigious think tank, 
the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), contacted her about developing a program 
he called Smalltalk, intended to improve productivity and communication through 
a simple programming language. Goldberg wrote up demonstrations and tests for 
the software. Xerox already had an "object-oriented" computer called Star that 
used icons, windows, and the mouse, but had let it languish in the lab, and compet- 
itors brought those ideas to the market. Smalltalk had many of the same features, 
but Goldberg persuaded Xerox to allow her and her partners to form a subsidiary 
to market Smalltalk, and in 1988, she and Kay formed ParcPlace Systems. Under- 
standing the importance of user interaction, and with her contacts in the education 
community, she and Kay brought the program into public schools to have children 
and teachers use it to develop class projects. 

Smalltalk was easier and faster to learn than other programming languages, 
such as C++ or COBOL, and designed to be used with both mainframes and per- 
sonal computers. The applications were limitless: business processes, games, edu- 
cational interactions, document publishing, and manufacturing control. ParcPlace 



Goldhaber, Gertrude Scharff | 439 

Systems went public in 1994, and Goldberg resigned as chair of the board soon 
after. She became an independent researcher and consultant on computer science 
courses and multimedia software applications for science education. In 1997, she 
co-founded Neometron, a company creating networking and virtual community 
computer products for businesses and educational institutions. 

Goldberg has published articles and several books: Smalltalk-80: The Interac- 
tive Programming Environment (1984), Smalltalk-80; The Language and Its 
Implementation (1983), and Succeeding with Objects: Decision Frameworks for 
Project Management (1995). She was awarded the Association for Computer 
Machinery's Software Systems Award (1987) jointly with several colleagues. 
She is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (and one of the 
few women presidents of that organization, serving from 1984 to 1986) and the 
American Federation of Information Processing Societies. In 1990, she won the 
Lifetime Achievement Award from PC Magazine. 

Further Resources 

"Neometron, Inc." http://www.neometron.com. 



Goldhaber, Gertrude Scharff 



1911 1 998 
Physicist 

Education: Ph.D., physics, University of Munich, 1935 

Professional Experience: research associate, physics, Imperial College, Univer- 
sity of London, 1935-1939; research physicist, University of Illinois, Urbana, 
1939-1948, special research assistant professor, physics, 1948-1950; consultant, 
Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1948-1950, associate physicist to physicist, 
1950-1962, senior physicist, 1962-1979 

Concurrent Positions: consultant, Argonne National Laboratory, 1946-1950; con- 
sultant, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, 1953-1979; adjunct professor, Cornell 
University, 1980-1982; adjunct professor, Johns Hopkins University, 1982 

Gertrude Goldhaber had a long and influential career in nuclear physics with 
significant contributions to research on spontaneous fission neutrons and the iden- 
tification of beta-rays with atomic electrons. She was involved at Brookhaven 



440 | Goldman-Rakic, Patricia 

National Laboratory in both theoretical and experimental work to determine the 
detailed properties of nuclear energy levels and magnetic moments. After receiv- 
ing a doctorate in physics from the University of Munich in 1935, soon after Hitler 
came to power, she was able to leave Germany for a position as a research associ- 
ate in physics at Imperial College, University of London, where she remained for 
five years. Both of her parents remained in Germany and were killed in the 
Holocaust. Moving to the United States with her husband, physicist Maurice 
Goldhaber, in 1939, she was a research physicist studying nuclear physics at the Uni- 
versity of Illinois from 1939 to 1950. Both she and her husband were appointed to 
the staff at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York in 1950, and she achieved 
the rank of senior physicist, working at that level from 1962 to 1979. Even after her 
formal retirement, she continued her research under grants with other colleagues 
from various institutions and also served as an independent consultant. Undoubtedly 
inspired by the work and success of their parents, both of her children went on to 
receive doctorates in theoretical physics. 

Goldhaber was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1972. She held 
several prestigious national appointments, including as a member (1959-1964) and 
chair (1969-1971) of the National Research Council (NRC) advisory panel on the 
nuclear data project. At the NRC, she also worked on issues related to women in 
science. She was a member of the board of trustees, Fermi National Accelerator 
Laboratory (1972-1977), member of the research advisory committee for the 
National Science Foundation (1972-1974), and member of the nominating com- 
mittee for the Presidential Medal of Science (1977-1979). She was elected a fel- 
low of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the 
American Physical Society. 

Further Resources 

Byers, Nina and Gary A. Williams. 2006. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth- 
Century Women to Physics. New York: Cambridge University Press. 



Goldman-Rakic, Patricia 

1937 2003 
Neurobiologist 

Education: B.A., psychology, Vassar College, 1959; Ph.D., psychology, Univer- 
sity of California, Los Angeles, 1963 

Professional Experience: U.S. Public Health Service postdoctoral fellow, psy- 
chiatry, Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 



Goldman-Rakic, Patricia | 441 

1963-1964; postdoctoral trainee, psychiatry, New York University, 1964-1965; 
research associate, American Museum of Natural History, 1964-1965; staff 
fellow, neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, Maryland, 1965— 
1968, research physiologist, 1978, chief, developmental neurobiology, 1978-1979; 
professor, neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, 1979-2003 

Concurrent Positions: visiting scientist, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
(MIT), 1974-1975; professor (joint appointments), neurology, psychiatry, and 
psychology, Yale University School of Medicine, 1991-1996 

Patricia Goldman-Rakic was a neuroscientist whose pioneering research in the 
early 1970s provided the first biological map of the structure of the brain's frontal 
lobe area. Her work as a neurobiologist combined multidisciplinary methods and 
approaches from neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, biology, and biochemistry 
to understand memory, behavior, and the effect of drugs on the brain. Her work 
provided insight and implications for further research into mental disorders and 
diseases such as schizophrenia, depression, cerebral palsy, Parkinson's disease, 
Alzheimer's, and memory loss. A professor of neuroscience at Yale University 
Medical School, her research using trained rhesus monkeys (whose brains are 
most similar to humans) was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health 
(NIMH) for 20 years (1980-2000). 

Goldman attended Vassar College and earned a doctorate in psychology from 
UCLA in 1963. She held postdoctoral and staff positions at the UCLA Brain 
Research Institute, New York University, and spent 14 years at NIMH, where she 
rose to chief of developmental neurobiology before joining the faculty at Yale in 
1979. In the early 1970s, she met Pasko Rakic, a developmental biologist then at 
Harvard Medical School also working on primate brain development. In 1977, 
the two were married and Pasko Rakic was recruited as head of neuroanatomy at 
Yale. Goldman-Rakic made a decision to leave her senior-level job as a scientist 
at NIMH and accept an academic position at Yale, where the two collaborated 
on their research and founded and co-edited the neuroscience journal Cerebral 
Cortex. Unfortunately, Patricia Goldman-Rakic 's career and life were cut short 
when she was struck by a car and killed in 2003 at the age of 66. 

Goldman-Rakic was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1990 and 
was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American 
Psychological Association. Her numerous awards and honors included the Alden 
Spencer Award from Columbia University (1982), Krieg Cortical Discoverer 
Award of the Cajal Club (1989), Fyssen Foundation Prize in Neuroscience 
(1990), Lieber Prize of the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia 
and Depression (1991), Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation Award (1993), 
Karl Lashley Award of the American Philosophical Society (1996), and Gerard 



442 | Goldring, Winifred 

Prize of the Society for Neuroscience (2002). In 2000, she was awarded an honor- 
ary doctorate from Utrecht University, Netherlands. She was a member of the 
National Advisory Council of the National Institute on Aging, was on the Board 
of Governors of the Weizmann Institute, and served as president of the Society 
for Neuroscience (1989-1990). 

Further Resources 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 

"Patricia Goldman-Rakic: 1937 2003." Oxford Journals. Cerebral Cortex. http://www 
.oxfordjournals.org/our journals/cercor/memoriam.html. 



Goldring, Winifred 

1888 1971 
Paleontologist 

Education: A.B., Wellesley College, 1909, A.M., 1912; student, Teachers School 
of Science (affiliated with the Boston Society of Natural History), 1909-1911; 
Harvard University, 1910-1911; Columbia University, 1913; Johns Hopkins 
University, 1921 

Professional Experience: assistant, geology and geography, Wellesley College, 
1909-1912; instructor, Teacher's School of Science, Boston, 1912-1914; 
expert, New York State Museum, 1914-1915, assistant to associate paleontologist, 
1915-1925, paleobotanist, 1925-1939, State Paleontologist, 1939-1950 

Winifred Goldring was one of the earliest professional female paleontologists and 
was recognized for her expertise by being appointed state paleontologist of New 
York. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from Wellesley and began 
her career as a teacher at Wellesley before going on to work as a resident expert 
and then paleontologist at the New York State Museum. Her father had been an 
orchid grower, and her primary research was actually in paleobotany, with the 
study of sea lilies from the middle of the Paleozoic era. This was conducted at a 
time when there was a great deal of interest in paleobotany, and her collection 
was recognized worldwide. She prepared numerous handbooks, but her 
most important monograph was The Devonian Crinoids of the State of New York 
(1923), a study of the fossils and geology of the New York area of 345 to 395 mil- 
lion years ago. This was the subject of one of her most successful museum 



Goldwasser, Shafrira | 443 

displays. She went on to publish numerous other books and articles, many of 
which helped popularize geology for the general public, including Handbook of 
Paleontology for Beginners and Amateurs; Part 1, The Fossils (1929) and Part 2, 
The Formations (1931). Her handbooks and exhibitions were widely copied 
and considered models for teaching. For example, her "Guide to the Geology 
of John Boyd Thacher Park" (1933) was a case study well-suited to college 
courses. In 1939, she was officially appointed state paleontologist, achieving some 
fame as the first woman to hold the post. She held this position until her retirement 
in 1950. 

Goldring continued her education with postgraduate courses at several univer- 
sities and received honorary degrees from Russell Sage College (1937) and from 
Smith College (1957). She was the first woman elected president of the Paleonto- 
logical Society in 1949 and was also a fellow and one-time vice president of the 
Geological Society of America. She was also a member of the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the 
American Geophysical Union. The Association for Women Geoscientists presents 
its annual Winifred Goldring Award to a female undergraduate or graduate student 
planning to pursue a career in paleontology. 



Goldwasser, Shafrira 

b. 1958 

Computer Scientist, Electrical Engineer 

Education: B.S., mathematics, Carnegie Mellon University, 1979; M.S., com- 
puter science, University of California, Berkeley, 1981, Ph.D., computer science, 
1983 

Professional Experience: professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
(MIT), 1983-1997, RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer 
Science, 1997- 

Concurrent Positions: professor, mathematical sciences, Weizmann Institute of 
Science, Israel 

Shafrira "Shaft" Goldwasser is an electrical engineer and computer scientist 
known for her work in complexity theory, computational number theory, probabil- 
ity and randomness, cryptography, and zero-knowledge proofs. These are math- 
ematical models and theories used in the creation of secure computer networks 
and systems, including the transmission of secure information over the Internet. 



444 | Good, Mary (Lowe) 

She studied mathematics as an undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon University and 
received her doctorate in computer science from the University of California, 
Berkeley. She has been affiliated with MIT since 1983, except for a brief tenure 
at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel in the early 1990s. At MIT, she 
teaches electrical engineering and computer science, and is affiliated with MIT's 
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). 

Goldwasser was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 and the 
National Academy of Engineering in 2005. She is a fellow of the American Acad- 
emy of Arts and Sciences and the International Association for Cryptologic 
Research (IACR). She received the Presidential Young Investigator Award from 
the National Science Foundation (NSF) (1987) and an NSF Faculty Award for 
Women (1991), as well as the Grace Murray Hopper Award of the Association for 
Computing Machinery (1996), RSA Prize for Mathematics (1998), and Levenson 
Prize for Mathematics, and she has been awarded the Godel Prize in theoretical 
computer science twice (1993 and 2001). 

Further Resources 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence 
Laboratory. Faculty website, http://www.csail.mit.edu/user/733. 



Good, Mary (Lowe) 

b. 1931 

Inorganic Chemist, Radiation Chemist 

Education: B.S., Arkansas State Teachers College (now University of Central 
Arkansas), 1950; M.S., University of Arkansas, 1953, Ph.D., inorganic chemistry 
and radiation chemistry, 1955 

Professional Experience: instructor to assistant professor, chemistry, Louisiana 
State University, Baton Rouge, 1954-1958; associate professor to professor, 
chemistry, Louisiana State University, New Orleans, 1958-1980; vice president 
and director of research, UOP, Inc., 1980-1985; director of research, Signal 
Research Center/AlliedSignal, Inc., 1985-1986, president, engineering materials 
research, 1986-1988; senior vice president, technology, AlliedSignal Research 
and Technology Laboratory, 1988-1993; Undersecretary for Technology, U.S. 
Department of Commerce, 1993-1997; professor and dean, Donaghey College 
of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Arkansas, Little 
Rock, 1997- 



Good, Mary (Lowe) | 445 

Mary L. Good was one of the first chemistry researchers to apply Mossbauer spec- 
troscopy to basic chemical research, namely, the solution of solid-state chemistry 
problems. Her early work in solvent extraction of metal complexes was focused 
on describing the chemical and physical properties of chemical species in an 
organic solvent, and her significant work in this area demonstrated that detailed 
chemical and structural information could be obtained for systems containing 
ruthenium. She also worked on the chemical evaluation of antifouling coatings, 
which are used to remove barnacles from ships in the U.S. Navy and the maritime 
industry. 

Good has achieved prominence for her research and teaching in academia and 
her administrative capabilities in industry and the federal government. She taught 
chemistry and was director of the radiochemistry laboratory at Louisiana State 
University (LSU) at Baton Rouge before joining the chemistry faculty at the new 
branch of LSU in New Orleans, where her husband, Bill Good, taught physics. 
In 1980, she made a career change into private industry as a researcher. In 1993, 
she was appointed by President Clinton as Undersecretary for Technology for the 
U.S. Department of Commerce. In this position, she was head of the National 
Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Technology Information 
Service. She also oversaw the clean-car initiative between the "Big Three" auto 
manufacturers and the government to develop a car that is capable of operating 
at 82 miles per gallon. She returned to teaching in 1997 and helped found the 
College of Information Science and Systems Engineering at the University of 
Arkansas. She is the author of Integrated Laboratory Sequence (1970) and 
Biotechnology and Materials Science: Chemistry for the Future (1988). 

Good has received more than 20 honorary degrees and was appointed to the 
National Science Board in 1980 and again in 1986. She was elected to member- 
ship in the National Academy of Engineering in 1987. She served on the Presi- 
dent's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology 1991, a group that guides 
and shapes U.S. scientific policy. She has been president of the Zonta International 
Foundation, part of a multinational organization dedicated to improving the status 
of women by encouraging high ethical standards in business and supporting 
women in science studies. She received the Garvan Medal of the American 
Chemical Society (ACS) (1973) and was chair and later president of the ACS 
(1987). Good also received the Parsons Award of the ACS (1991), the first woman 
to receive this recognition for outstanding public service by an ACS member, and 
was named scientist of the year by Industrial Research & Development in 1982. In 
1992, she received a Distinguished Public Service Award from the National 
Science Foundation (NSF), and in 2004, she received the Vannevar Bush Award 
of the NSF. 



446 | Goodenough, Florence Laura 



Further Resources 



University of Arkansas, Little Rock. "George W. Donaghey College of Engineering and 
Information Technology, Dean's Office." http://technologize.ualr.edu/7page id=6. 



Goodenough, Florence Laura 

1886 1959 
Psychologist 

Education: B.Pd., pedagogy, Pennsylvania State Normal School, Millersville, 
1908; B.S., Columbia University, 1920, A.M., 1921; Ph.D., psychology, Stanford 
University, 1924 

Professional Experience: public school teacher, 1908-1921; research assistant, 
gifted children survey, Stanford University, 1921-1924; psychologist, Minneapo- 
lis Child Guidance Clinic, 1924-1925; assistant professor, Institute of Child 
Welfare, University of Minnesota, 1925-1931, professor, 1931-1947, emerita, 
1947-1959 

Florence Goodenough was a researcher of human psychological development, 
mental tests, general psychological experimentation, and free-word association. 
She made important contributions to the development of tools for the measure- 
ment and interpretation of intelligence in children. She is best known for the crea- 
tion of the Draw-A-Man (or Draw-A-Person, "DAP") Test. In the DAP test (later 
known as the Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test), the psychologist asks a child to 
draw several figures and then interprets the drawings for assessment of various 
emotional and cognitive issues and skills. In addition to her numerous scientific 
papers and articles, she authored or co-authored several books, including Genetic 
Studies of Genius (1925), Measurement of Intelligence by Drawings (1926), Hand- 
book of Child Psychology (1931), Mental Testing: Its History, Principles, and 
Applications (1949), and Exceptional Children (1956). 

Goodenough taught school for more than 10 years while she pursued her under- 
graduate college degrees. At Columbia University, she worked with Leta Holling- 
worth and, moving from the East Coast to California to earn her doctorate at 
Stanford, she studied under pioneer educational psychologist and eugenicist Lewis 
Terman, who created the Stanford-Binet IQ test. Goodenough was able to partici- 
pate in innovative studies of IQ and mental measurements being conducted under 
Terman in the 1920s. She joined the faculty of the Institute for Child Welfare at the 
University of Minnesota, where she experimented with several methods of 



Gordon (Moore), Kate | 447 

measuring mental ability, including the Minnesota Preschool Scale, which was 
subsequently widely used. In her research and writing, she stressed that IQ is not 
constant and may be influenced by environmental factors, and that children should 
not be labeled at an early age. She urged the study of the total life span at a time 
when most studies of intelligence stopped after adolescence. 

Goodenough was elected president of the National Counsel of Women Psychol- 
ogists in 1942 and president of the Society for Research in Child Development 
in 1947. 



Gordon (Moore), Kate 

1878 1963 
Psychologist 

Education: Ph.B., University of Chicago, 1900, Ph.D., 1903 

Professional Experience: instructor, philosophy, Mount Holyoke College, 
1904-1905, associate professor, psychology, 1905-1906; instructor, educational 
psychology, Teachers' College, Columbia University, 1906-1907; associate profes- 
sor, psychology, Bryn Mawr College, 1912-1916; assistant to associate professor, 
psychology and education, Carnegie Institute of Technology, 1916-1921; lecturer, 
psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1921-1922, associate professor, 
1923-1934, professor, 1934-1948 

Kate Gordon was among the first generation of American women psychologists, 
and her research focused on the areas of educational psychology, memory, atten- 
tion, imagination, and the aesthetics of color. She published on the topic of our 
ability to remember experiences, both good and bad, disagreeing with Freud's 
theory that we forget or repress difficult or negative experiences. Her interest in 
memory led to her work as a consultant on educational and ability testing, a popu- 
lar topic for psychologists of the 1920s and 1930s. Gordon differed from others in 
her field, however, due to her interdisciplinary interest in how memory and imagi- 
nation influence aesthetic tastes in art and music, for example. After she received 
her doctorate from the University of Chicago, Gordon moved frequently from 
one appointment to another, teaching in psychology, education, and philosophy 
at Mount Holyoke, Columbia, Bryn Mawr, and Carnegie Institute of Technology. 
She also lectured on gender differences, and in 1905 promoted the co-education 
of men and women in an essay considering "Wherein Should the Education of a 
Woman Differ from That of a Man." Gordon argued that "it would seem to me 
both frivolous and morally wrong for a school or college to spend time, money 



448 | Gordon, Ruth Evelyn 

and intelligence in devising different systems of training for the two sexes, while 
so many, and those so real, problems in education are waiting for solution." In 
the 1920s, she was a consultant to the California State Board of Control on mental 
testing in the schools. Around the same time, she accepted a lectureship in psy- 
chology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she became 
a full professor in 1934. 

Gordon was a member of several scientific societies, including the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Associ- 
ation, the American Philosophical Association, and the Western Psychological 
Association, for which she served a term as president. She married late in life, at 
age 65, to education professor and one of the founders of UCLA, Ernest Carroll 
Moore, and after that time was known by her husband's last name. 

Further Resources 

University of California. "Kate Gordon Moore, Psychology: Los Angeles." http://content 
.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docld=hb338nblj4&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00014&toc 
.depth=l&toc.id=&brand=oac. 



Gordon, Ruth Evelyn 

1910 2003 
Bacteriologist 

Education: B.A., chemistry, Cornell University, 1932, M.S., 1933, Ph.D., 
bacteriology, 1934 

Professional Experience: instructor, New York Veterinary College, Cornell Uni- 
versity, 1934-1938; assistant bacteriologist, Division of Soil Microbiology, U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, 1939-1942, bacteriologist, 1950-1951; Army Medical 
Center, 1943-1945; bacteriologist and curator, American Type Culture Collection, 
1946-1951; associate research specialist, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment 
Station, 1951-1954; associate professor, Waksman Institute of Microbiology, 
Rutgers University, 1954-1971, professor, microbiology, 1971-1981; visiting 
investigator, American Type Culture Collection, 1981-2003 

Ruth Gordon was a well-known bacteriologist and taxonomist for the American 
Type Culture Collection. After high school, she received a fellowship to attend 
Cornell University, where she received a bachelor's degree in chemistry and a 
master's degree and then doctorate in bacteriology. She first was employed as an 
instructor at the New York Veterinary College at Cornell University studying cattle 



Graham, Frances (Keesler) | 449 

and soil bacteria, the taxonomy of aerobic spore-forming bacteria, and streptomy- 
cetes, which became her area of expertise. This led to a varied career of employment 
with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), an army medical center, an agri- 
cultural experiment station, and in academia. At the USDA, she was a bacteriologist 
of soil microbiology and, in 1946, published a study of the genus Bacillus that went 
through subsequent updated editions. 

During World War II, she was employed at the U.S. Army Medical Center 
studying bacterial meningitis and, after the war, accepted a position as a bacteri- 
ologist at the American Type Culture Collection, being promoted to curator in 
1947. She became an associate research specialist at the New Jersey Agricultural 
Experiment Station, then moved to the faculty of new Waksman Institute of 
Microbiology at Rutgers, where she oversaw the collection of bacteria and was 
promoted to full professor in 1971. After her formal retirement in 1981, she 
returned to the American Type Culture Collection as a visiting investigator, over- 
seeing further development and recording of the bacterial collection. The bacteria 
genus, Gordona (of family Gordoniaceae) is named after her. 

Gordon received the J. Roger Porter Award from the U.S. Federation for Culture 
Collections (1983) and the Alice Evans Award of the American Society for Microbi- 
ology (1992). She had an international reputation and was Honorary President of the 
International Symposium on the Biology of Actinomycetes held in Venezuela (1974) 
and again in Germany (1979). She was a member of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, the Tissue Culture Association, the Canadian Society 
of Microbiologists, and the U.S. Federation for Culture Collections. 

Further Resources 

"In Memoriam: Ruth Evelyn Gordon (1910-2003)," United States Federation for Culture 
Collections (USFCC). Newsletter. 32(2). (2003). http://www.usfcc.us/newsPdfs/ 
USFCC322.pdf. 



Graham, Frances (Keesler) 

b. 1918 
Psychophysiologist 

Education: B.A., Pennsylvania State University, 1938; Ph.D., psychology, Yale 
University, 1942 

Professional Experience: assistant and instructor, medical psychology, Washing- 
ton University, St. Louis, 1941-1948, research associate, 1953-1957; instructor, 



450 | Graham, Frances (Keesler) 

psychology, Barnard College, 1948-1951; independent researcher, 1951-1957; 
research associate, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1957-1964, associate pro- 
fessor to professor, pediatrics, 1964-1980, professor, psychology, 1969-1986; 
research professor, psychology, University of Delaware, 1986-retired 

Concurrent Positions: psychologist and acting director, St. Louis Psychiatric 
Clinic, 1942-1944 

Frances Graham is known for her research on the psychology of attention and the 
use of physiological measurement in the study of cognition and perception. 
A leading developmental psychologist, she has advanced psychological knowledge 
of the first months of life and been instrumental in developing measures and analy- 
ses for this field. As an undergraduate at Pennsylvania State University, she was a 
mathematics major until a required course in psychology steered her in another 
direction. In her graduate program at Yale, she first explored child clinical work. 

After her marriage in 1941, she moved to St. Louis, where she held positions in 
a city clinic and at Washington University. She negotiated working half a day per 
week for research and developed a memory-for-designs test for brain damage that 
is still used today. While her husband, David Graham, was at Cornell Medical Col- 
lege from 1948 to 1951, Graham taught at Barnard College. When they returned to 
the St. Louis area, she decided to be a self-supporting research investigator. She 
obtained grants to study the consequences of low blood oxygenation during the 
first postnatal hour, which eventually played a pivotal role in prenatal risk 
research. 

In 1957, the Grahams moved to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where 
she received an appointment as a research associate in pediatrics. In 1964, when 
she received a National Institute of Mental Health Research Scientist Award, she 
also became a tenured associate professor. She was promoted to professor of pedi- 
atrics in 1968 and received a joint appointment in psychology in 1969. Since the 
Research Scientist Award paid her salary, she was able to teach and at the same 
time explore the electronics equipment available for research. She discovered that 
an unexpected stimulus change results in a slower cardiac rate, and other research 
efforts centered on the blink reflex of the human eye. In 1986, the Grahams moved 
to the University of Delaware, where Frances received a full-time appointment 
in psychology. Her research there has centered on cardiac orienting and reflex 
modulation. 

Graham has received numerous awards, including the Distinguished Scientific 
Contribution of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (1981) and the 
Distinguished Alumna Award from Pennsylvania State University (1983). She 
was the Hilldale Research Professor at the University of Wisconsin and was 
named a William James fellow of the American Psychological Society in 1990. 



Graham, Norma | 451 

She was a consultant to both the National Institute of Neurological Disease and 
Blindness (1958-1970) and the President's Commission on Ethics in Medicine 
and Biomedical and Behavioral Research (1979-1981). She received the Wilbur 
L. Cross Medal of Yale University (1992) and the Gold Medal for Lifetime 
Achievement from the American Psychological Association (1995). 

Graham was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1988 and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 
She is a member of the Society for Psychophysiological Research (president, 
1974), Society for Research in Child Development (president, 1975-1977), 
American Psychological Association, Federation of Behavior Psychological and 
Cognitive Sciences, Acoustical Society of America, International Society for 
Developmental Psychobiology, and Society of Experimental Psychologists. 

Further Resources 

O'Connell, Agnes N. and Nancy Felipe Russo, eds. 1988. Models of Achievement: 
Reflections of Eminent Women in Psychology. Vol. 2. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum 
Associates. 



Graham, Norma 

b. 1944 
Psychologist 

Education: B.S., mathematics, Stanford University, 1966; Ph.D., psychology, 
University of Pennsylvania, 1970 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, visual neuroscience, Rockefeller 
University, 1970-1972; assistant professor, psychology, Columbia University, 
1972-1976, associate professor, 1976-1982, professor, 1982-, chair, 2007- 

Norma Graham is a psychologist who studies visual behavior and perception, in 
particular texture-segregation, pattern recognition, multiple channels of spatial 
frequency, and light and contrast adaptations. Graham studied mathematics at 
Stanford University and went on to receive her Ph.D. in psychology from the 
University of Pennsylvania. After completing her doctorate in 1970, she held a 
postdoctoral fellowship in visual neuroscience at the Rockefeller University. She 
joined the faculty in psychology at Columbia University in New York in 1972, 
where she has remained for her entire career. Working closely and co-publishing 
with her Columbia colleague, research scientist Sabina Wolfson, Graham 
uses mathematical or computational models to understand behavioral and 



452 | Graham, Susan Lois 

neurophysiological responses to visual stimuli and change. Her textbook, Visual 
Pattern Analyzers (1989; paperback ed., 2001), synthesizes the work of many 
researchers for students of vision and perception across disciplines in the fields 
of psychophysics, neuroscience, ophthalmology and optics, and cognitive and 
experimental psychology. Graham has also been on the editorial boards of Journal 
of Vision and Spatial Vision. 

Graham was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1998 and is a fel- 
low of the Optical Society of America, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
Society of Experimental Psychologists, and American Psychological Association. 
She was the recipient of a Cattell Sabbatical Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship 
(1979-1980). 

Further Resources 

Columbia University. Faculty website, http://www.columbia.edu/~nvgl/index.html. 



Graham, Susan Lois 

b. 1942 
Computer Scientist 

Education: B.A., mathematics, Harvard University, 1964; M.S., computer science, 
Stanford University, 1966, Ph.D., computer science, 1971 

Professional Experience: associate research scientist and adjunct assistant pro- 
fessor, computer science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Science, New York 
University, 1969-1971; assistant to associate professor, electrical engineering 
and computer science, University of California, Berkeley, 1971-1981, professor, 
1981- 

Concurrent Positions: lecturer, IBM Canada Laboratory, 1988-1992; visiting 
professor, Computer Science Department, Stanford University, 1981, lecturer, 
1993 

Susan Graham is known for her expertise in programming language design and 
implementation, syntax error recovery, parsing, and code generation and optimiza- 
tion. Her primary research projects have involved programming languages for 
very large systems and networks. This work involves compiler transformations 
for high-performance computing, developing languages and interactive software, 
detecting faults in software, orchestrating interactions among parallel computa- 
tions, and the design and implementation of practical data breakpoints. She has 



Grandin, Temple | 453 

consulted with IBM training programmers in setting up or repairing computer net- 
works when program glitches disrupt service. Her expertise has also been sought 
by government agencies, including an appointment to the President's Committee 
on the National Medal of Science (1994-1996), which recommends the persons 
to receive the medal, and the President's Information Technology Advisory Com- 
mittee. She served on the National Science Foundation (NSF) advisory committee 
on Computer and Computation Research (1987-1992); served as advisor for the 
NSF program for science and technology centers (1987-1991); was a member of 
the National Research Council's committee on physical science, mathematics, 
and applications (1992-1995); and was co-chair of the National Research Coun- 
cil's study on the Future of Supercomputing. Several universities have sought her 
expertise in evaluating their science curricula, and she was a member of the visit- 
ing committee for applied sciences at Harvard University (1995) and of the visit- 
ing committee for engineering and applied science at the California Institute of 
Technology (1994). 

Graham was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 
1993. She was honored with the Special Interest Group on Programming Lan- 
guages (SIGPLAN) Career Programming Language Achievement Award (2000) 
and the Distinguished Service Award (2006), both from the Association for 
Computing Machinery (ACM). She was founding editor of ACM's Transactions 
on Programming Languages and Systems (1978-1992) and also served as editor 
of Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery (1975-1979). 
She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and 
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Institute of 
Electrical and Electronics Engineers. 

Further Resources 

University of California, Berkeley. Faculty website, http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/ 
Faculty /Homepages/graham-s. html. 



Grandin, Temple 

b. 1947 
Animal Scientist 

Education: B.A., psychology, Franklin Pierce College, 1970; M.S., animal sci- 
ence, Arizona State University, 1975; Ph.D., animal science, University of Illinois, 
Urbana, 1989 



454 | Grandin, Temple 

Professional Experience: livestock editor, Arizona Farmer Ranchman, 1973- 
1978; equipment designer, Corral Industries, Phoenix, Arizona, 1974-1975; 
founder and consultant, Grandin Livestock Systems, 1975-; lecturer to professor, 
animal sciences, Colorado State University, 1990- 

Concurrent Positions: chair, handling committee, Livestock Conservation Institute, 
Madison, Wisconsin, 1976-1995 

Temple Grandin is an animal scientist who specializes in designing equipment for 
handling livestock on farms, in feedlots, and in slaughtering facilities. Grandin 
was diagnosed with autism as a child, and eventually her curiosity about her own 
condition and sensory issues led to her scientific inquiries into animal behavior. 
As a teenager, she visited her aunt's farm and noticed that the workers were using 
a "squeeze chute" to keep cattle calm while inoculating them. Grandin persuaded 
her aunt to let her try the chute, and at home built her own model chute from card- 
board and plywood. As an autistic person she did not like close contact with 
others, including being hugged or embraced, or even shaking hands. However, 
Grandin found that the chute relaxed her and gave her a sense of security that 
human contact could not. In college, a psychologist doubted her theory, but she 
persuaded 40 students to try the chute, and 25 found it relaxing. 

The experience with the squeeze chute led to her career in designing more 
humane equipment and facilities to keep livestock safe and minimize their stress. 
In the 1990s, Grandin began consulting for the fast-food industry, which was under 
attack from animal-rights groups about inhumane farming practices. She visited 
feedlots and slaughterhouses, and created the idea of a circular or curved chute 
to guide cattle through the process rather than the standard straight shoots. The 
sides of the chutes were six feet high and the walls so thick that the cattle would 
not be disturbed by the sights and sounds of the workers or the equipment. Compa- 
nies that implemented her design, such as McDonald's, reported that the cattle 
were calmer and hesitated less as they moved through the chutes, and therefore 
overall efficiency improved. Many of Grandin's guidelines for humane slaughter 
have been adopted industrywide. In her 2005 book Animals in Translation: Using 
the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior, Grandin explains that she 
identifies with animals because, as an autistic person, she has difficulty under- 
standing emotions or reading body language in others and her emotions are more 
directly tied to her physical surroundings. Some have wondered why she works 
so closely with the meat industry rather than promoting vegetarianism, but Gran- 
din's only goal is for humans to treat animals with respect: "We owe them a decent 
life and a decent death, and their lives should be as low-stress as possible." 

Grandin has become not only a public spokesperson for animal rights, but also a 
role model in her efforts to raise public awareness about the unique experiences 



Grandin, Temple | 455 



Women and Autism 

In 201 3, the next update of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disor- 
ders (DSM V), the guidebook used by mental-health practitioners, will include 
changes to the definition and diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome and autism. 
Autism was first included in the DSM in 1 952, but since that time, the definition 
has been revised as new medical research and social conditions have expanded 
the diagnosis to include a range of "spectrum" disorders. Although changes to 
the DSM are always controversial, researchers are proposing to simplify diagno- 
sis and treatment of a range of behavioral issues that are overwhelmingly diag- 
nosed in boys. Some practitioners and advocates have begun to question 
whether girls with autism might go undiagnosed because of a gendered view of 
certain behaviors. For example, girls might be expected to have stronger imagina- 
tions or be more socially withdrawn, and thus potential early signs of autism might 
be ignored. In 2010, HBO aired a full-length dramatized film about the life of ani- 
mal scientist Temple Grandin, perhaps the most famous adult woman with autism. 
While her own early connection with animals was not seen as unusual behavior 
for a young girl, Grandin warns that autism changes over time and an early child- 
hood diagnosis need not seal a child's fate. 



and talents of autistic persons. She has written about her own life and experiences 
as an autistic person in two autobiographies: Emergence: Labeled Autistic (1986) 
and Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports from My Life with Autism (1993). 
And she has co-authored books specifically for autistic people, such as Developing 
Talents: Careers for Individuals with Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning 
Autism (2004; co-authored with Kate Duffy) and Unwritten Rules of Social 
Relationships (2005; co-authored with Sean Barron). Neurologist Oliver Sacks's 
bestselling book An Anthropologist on Mars (1995) includes information on 
Grandin's work. 

Grandin has, paradoxically, become a hero of both the meat industry and 
animal-rights organizations. Among her numerous honors are the Industry Innova- 
tor Award from Meat Marketing and Technology Magazine (1994, 2001, 2002), 
American Veterinary Medical Association's Human Award (1999), American 
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Animals Founders Award (1999), Joseph 
Wood Kruth Medal from the Humane Society (2001), and President's Award from 
the National Institute of Animal Agriculture (2004). She is a member of the 
Autism Society of America, American Society of Animal Science, American Soci- 
ety of Agricultural Engineers, and Animal Welfare Committee of the American 
Meat Institute. 



456 | Granville, Evelyn (Boyd) 



Further Resources 



'Temple Grandin, Ph.D." http://www.templegrandin.com/. Colorado State University. 
Faculty website, http://lamar.colostate.edu/~grandin/ 



Granville, Evelyn (Boyd) 

b. 1924 

Mathematician, Computer Scientist 

Education: B.A., Smith College, 1945; M.A., mathematics and physics, Yale Uni- 
versity, 1946, Ph.D., mathematics, 1949 

Professional Experience: research assistant, New York University Institute of 
Mathematics and Mechanics, 1949-1950; associate professor, mathematics, Fisk 
University, 1950-1952; mathematician, U.S. National Bureau of Standards, 1952— 
1953; applied mathematician, Diamond Ordnance Fuze Laboratory, U.S. Army, 
1953-1956; mathematician, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), 
1956-1960; researcher, Space Technology Laboratories, 1960-1963; research 
specialist, North American Aviation Space and Information Systems Division, 
1963-1967; associate professor to professor, mathematics, California State Univer- 
sity, Los Angeles, 1967-1984; professor, mathematics, Texas College, Tyler (later 
University of Texas, Tyler), 1985-1988, chair and visiting professor, 1990-1997 

Evelyn Granville is a mathematician who contributed to the Vanguard and 
Mercury space programs in analyzing orbits and computing rocket trajectories. 
In her various industry and government positions, she consulted for ordnance engi- 
neers and scientists, analyzing the mathematical problems that arose in the devel- 
opment of missile fuses, and worked on the formulation of orbit computations and 
computer procedures for space probes. She was a consultant in numerical analysis 
and a programmer for the IBM 650 and 704 computers before joining U.S. Space 
Technology Laboratories to participate in research studies on the methods of orbit 
computation; she became a research specialist for the Apollo Engineering Depart- 
ment in celestial mechanics, trajectory and orbit computation, numerical analysis, 
and digital computer techniques at North American Aviation's Space and Informa- 
tion Systems Division. 

Granville was only the second African American woman to receive a doctorate in 
mathematics. She grew up in segregated Washington, D.C, and originally planned to 
teach high school mathematics and science. She won a partial scholarship to Smith 
College, and worked summers for the National Bureau of Standards during World 
War II, when there was an unusual number of job opportunities for women. By the 



Grasselli (Brown), Jeanette | 457 

time she received her doctorate in 1949, however, it was difficult for a woman and an 
African American to find a position at a university, even though she had a degree 
from a top university. She taught briefly at Fisk University before moving into 
government and industry positions for several years, and returned to academia to 
teach for 30 years in California and Texas. 

Granville found that too many students were ill-prepared for higher-level math- 
ematics. She was inspired to improve math education at all levels, teaching in a sup- 
plementary school mathematics program and directing an afterschool mathematics 
enrichment for students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Her commitment to 
mathematics education included writing a textbook, Theory and Application of 
Mathematics for Teachers (1975), that has had extensive use. She has been active 
in educational commissions at the state and national levels and is a member of the 
American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America. In 
1999, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and in 2000, she 
received the Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale University. She is listed in some sources 
as "Evelyn Collins" or as "Evelyn Boyd." 

Further Resources 

Agnes Scott College. "Evelyn Boyd Granville." Biographies of Women Mathematicians. 
http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/granvill.htm. 

Murray, Margaret Anne Marie. 2000. Women Becoming Mathematicians: Creating an 
Identity in Post World War II America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 



Grasselli (Brown), Jeanette 

b. 1928 

Analytical Chemist, Spectroscopist 

Education: B.S., chemistry, Ohio University, 1950; M.S., chemistry, Case 
Western Reserve University, 1958 

Professional Experience: chemist and infrared spectroscopist, Research and 
Development, BP America, Inc. (formerly Standard Oil of Ohio, or Sohio), 
1950-1956, project leader, absorption spectroscopy group, 1956-1970, supervi- 
sor, molecular spectroscopy, 1970-1981, director, analytical science laboratory, 
1981-1983, director, technical support, 1983-1985, director, corporate research 
and environmental and analytical science, 1985-1989; distinguished visiting 
professor and director, research enhancement, Ohio University, 1989-1995 

Jeanette Grasselli developed new problem-solving techniques in analytical 
chemistry that solve real-life problems such as identification of contaminants in 



458 | Grasselli (Brown), Jeanette 

gasoline, analyzing the structure of new plastics, and analyzing pollution problems 
in the environment. During her career, she was responsible for developing many 
innovative applications for molecular spectroscopy; these applications are now at 
the forefront of industrial practice. Although spectrometry had been used since 
the late nineteenth century, it was not until World War II that electronics were 
developed to make the instrumentation that was necessary to solve complex prob- 
lems. Spectroscopy is an analytical technique to measure the interaction of 
electromagnetic radiation with matter. The methods are nondestructive and require 
only small amounts of sample, thus providing data at the atomic and molecular 
levels. The instruments are used in solving problems in academia, government, 
industry, and the environment. She is the author of The Analytical Approach 
(1983) and co-editor of Atlas of Spectral Data and Physical Constants of Organic 
Compounds (2nd ed., 1975) and Practical Spectroscopy Series, Vols. 1-3, Infrared 
and Raman (1977). 

After graduating from Ohio University with a chemistry degree, she joined BP 
of America (formerly Standard Oil of Ohio), where she was put in charge of a 
new instrument called an infrared spectrometer and a project to analyze World 
War II German airplane fuel formulations to see how the Germans were able to 
obtain such long flight ranges for their planes. She became one of the foremost 
contributors of the century to infrared and Raman spectrometry, and also used 
nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to a lesser extent. She even consulted 
with the coroner's office in Cleveland, Ohio, to analyze unknown samples at crime 
scenes, as forensic analytical methods are the same as the analytical methods used 
in industrial laboratories. She found she needed to know more about physical 
and organic chemistry for her work and enrolled as a part-time student at Case 
Western Reserve University to earn a master's degree. She worked through the 
ranks at BP to become the first woman director of corporate research and, when 
she retired in 1989, she held the highest administrative position of any woman at 
that company. 

Grasselli received the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society (ACS) 
(1986), the Distinguished Service Award of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy 
(1985), and the Fisher Award in Analytical Chemistry of the ACS (1993). She was 
named to Ohio Women's Hall of Fame (1989) and was the first woman inducted 
into the Ohio Sciences and Technology Hall of Fame (1991). She has served on 
the National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for Analytical Chemistry 
(1982-1984), the Energy Research Advisory Board of the U.S. Department of 
Energy (1987-1989), the visiting committee of the National Institute of Standards 
and Technology (1988-1991), the Smithsonian Institution's exhibition advisory 
board (1990-1994), and the U.S. National Committee of the International Union 
of Pure and Applied Chemistry (chair, 1992-1995). She has been active in 



Graybiel, Ann Martin | 459 

promoting careers for women as a member of the International Women's Forum 
and National Research Council's Committee on Women in Science and Engineer- 
ing (1995). She is a member of the American Chemical Society, Society for 
Applied Spectroscopy (president, 1970), Coblentz Society, Federation of Analyti- 
cal Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies, and American Association for the 
Advancement of Science. In 1987, she remarried, to BP colleague Glenn Brown, 
and is identified in some sources as Jeanette Grasselli-Brown. 



Graybiel, Ann Martin 

b. 1942 
Neuroscientist 

Education: B.A., Harvard, 1964; Woodrow Wilson Fellow, biology, Tufts Univer- 
sity, 1965-1966; Ph.D., psychology and brain science, Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology, 1971 

Professional Experience: research associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
(MIT), 1971-1973, assistant professor, psychology, 1973-1976, associate professor, 
1976-1980, professor, neuroanatomy, Department of Psychology, 1980-1983, pro- 
fessor, neuroscience, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, 1983-, Walter 
A. Rosenblith Professor of Neuroscience, 1994-2008, Investigator, McGovern 
Institute for Brain Research, MIT, 2001-, Institute Professor, 2008- 

Concurrent Positions: head, Course in Neuroscience, and professor, Health 
Sciences and Technology (HST), Harvard Medical School, 1986-1988; affiliate, 
Picower Center for Learning and Memory, MIT, 2001- 

Ann Graybiel is a neuroscientist renowned for her work on the basal ganglia, the 
area of the brain that controls motor skills and movement, and is affected by dis- 
eases such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, and neuropsychiatric 
behavioral disorders such as Tourette's syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disor- 
ders, depression, and addiction. Graybiel's research depends on a variety of meth- 
ods to analyze neural pathways through this area, and her work combines the 
disciplines of neuroanatomy, genetics, and psychiatry. 

Graybiel studied biology and chemistry at Harvard and at Tufts University, and 
received her doctorate in psychology and brain science from MIT in 1971. She 
continued on as a research associate at MIT and joined the faculty in psychology 
in 1973. In 1994, she was named Walter A. Rosenblith Professor of Neuroscience 
in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. In 2001, she was appointed 




Neuroscientist Ann Graybiel receiving the National Medal of Science from President George 
W. Bush, 2002. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Investigator at the McGovern Institute and was named Institute Professor in 2008. 
She has been an invited lecturer at national and international institutions and has 
served on numerous scientific advisory boards, including for the Max Planck Insti- 
tute for Psychiatry, Germany; Tourette Syndrome Association; United Parkinson's 
Disease Foundation National Institute of Mental Health; National Advisory Men- 
tal Health Council; Hereditary Disease Foundation; Alzheimer Research Forum; 
Stockholm Brain Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; and many others. She has served 
on the editorial board of several journals related to neuroscience, mental health, 
and brain disorders. 



Greene, Laura | 461 

Graybiel was honored with the National Medal of Science in 2001. She was 
elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1988 and the Institute 
of Medicine in 1994. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences, American Academy of Neurology, and American College of Neuropsy- 
chopharmacology, and an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Medicine, 
Spain. She served as president of the International Basal Ganglia Society 
(1997-1998). Among her numerous other honors and awards are a Charles Judson 
Herrick Award of the American Association of Anatomists (1978), Javits Neuro- 
science Investigator Awards of the National Institutes of Health (1988 and 1995), 
an Outstanding Women in Neuroscience Award from Brown University (2001), a 
James R. Killian, Jr., Faculty Achievement Award from MIT (2002), the Robert 
S. Dow Neuroscience Award (2002), the MERIT Award of the National Institutes 
of Health (2004), the Prix Plasticite Neuronale from the IPSEN Foundation 
(2005), a NARSAD Distinguished Investigator Award (2007), the C. David Marsden 
Lectureship Award, Movement Disorder Society (2008), and the Vanderbilt Prize 
in Biomedical Science (2008). She was also named a Woman Leader of Parkinson's 
Science by the Parkinson's Disease Foundation (2004) and Harold S. Diamond 
Professor by the National Parkinson Foundation (2006). She has received honorary 
doctorates from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York (2003), Tufts 
University (2005), Hebrew University, Jerusalem (2007), and Queens University, 
Belfast (2007). 

Further Resources 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Graybiel Laboratory." http://web.mit.edu/bcs/ 
graybiel-lab/index.html. 



Greene, Laura 

b. 1952 
Physicist 

Education: B.S., physics, Ohio State University, 1974, M.S. physics, 1978; M.S., 
experimental physics, Cornell University, 1980, Ph.D., physics, 1984 

Professional Experience: technical staff member, Physics Division, Hughes Aircraft 
Company, California, 1974-1975; postdoctoral technical staff member, Bell Labs 
(Bellcore), New Jersey, 1983-1984, technical staff member, Bellcore, 1985-1992; 
professor, physics, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1992-2000, Swanlund 
Professor of Physics, 2000- 



462 | Greene, Laura 

Concurrent Positions: visiting professor, Centre National de Recherche Scientifi- 
que (CNRS), Orsay, France, summer 2004 

Laura Greene is an experimental physicist whose research focuses on highly 
correlated electron systems and materials, especially high-temperature supercon- 
ductors and metallic superconducting devices. She uses a technique called tun- 
neling spectroscopy to analyze how electrons are transported across 
superconducting interfaces. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in 
physics from Ohio State University and went on to Cornell University to earn 
another master's degree and her doctorate in 1984. She worked in industry, for 
Bell Laboratories (later Bellcore), and joined the faculty of the University of 
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1992. In 2000, she was named Swanlund Profes- 
sor of Physics. She has served on numerous academic and government commit- 
tees and advisory boards, including the Basic Energy Sciences Advisory 
Committee of the U.S. Department of Energy and as founding member of the 
Los Alamos Institute for Complex and Adaptive Materials. She has consulted 
with the National Science Foundation and Department of Energy on gender 
equity in the sciences and has been active in educational efforts to encourage 
students in scientific careers. She is the author or co-author of more than 140 
scientific papers and has been an invited lecturer at institutions both nationally 
and internationally. 

Greene was elected to the National Academy of Science in 2006 and is a 
fellow of the American Physical Society, American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Insti- 
tute of Physics (UK). She is also a member of the American Association of 
Physics Teachers, International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), 
Materials Research Society, and American Chemical Society. Her awards and 
honors include an Award of Excellence from Bellcore (1989), Maria Goeppert- 
Mayer Award of the American Physical Society (1994), and the E. O. Lawrence 
Award for Materials Research from the U.S. Department of Energy (1999). In 
2001, she was selected for a Women in Science profile by Women in Technology 
International (WITI). 



Further Resources 

University of Illinois. Faculty website, http://physics.illinois.edu/people/profile.asp 
?lhgreene. 

Women in Technology International. "Laura Greene: Swanlund Professor of Physics Uni- 
versity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign." http://www.witi.com/center/witimuseum/ 
womeninsciencet/2001/060901.shtml. 



Greer, Sandra Charlene | 463 



Greer, Sandra Charlene 



b. 1945 
Physical Chemist 

Education: B.S., chemistry, Furman University, 1966; M.S., physical chemistry, 
University of Chicago, 1968, Ph.D., chemical physics, 1969 

Professional Experience: research chemist, National Bureau of Standards, 
Maryland, 1969-1978; associate professor, chemistry, University of Maryland, 
1978-1983, professor, chemistry and biochemistry, 1983-2008, professor, chemistry 
and biomolecular engineering, 1995-2008, emerita; provost, dean of faculty, and 
professor, chemistry and physics, Mills College, 2008- 

Concurrent Positions: Professeur Invitee, Universite de Paris-Sud, Orsay, France, 
1990 

Sandra Greer is a physical chemist known for her research in experimental thermo- 
dynamics of phase transitions and critical phenomena of fluid mixtures. Thermody- 
namics is the science concerned with the relations between heat and mechanical 
energy or work, and the conversion of 
one into the other. Her major interest 
is critical phenomena, which is a phase 
change in which two forms of matter 
that are very different gradually grow 
more alike because of temperature 
and pressure variation. As a child, her 
parents purchased chemistry sets and 
a microscope to encourage her interest 
in science. She received her under- 
graduate degree in chemistry with a 
minor in mathematics from Furman 
University, a small liberal-arts school 
in South Carolina. She was accepted 
to graduate study at the University of 
Chicago, where she received both her 
master's degree and a doctorate. She 
married another chemistry graduate 
student during college, and they both 
secured positions at the National 
Bureau of Standards, where she Physical chemist Sandra Greer. (Courtesy of 
worked in the heat division. Mills College) 




464 | Greibach, Sheila Adele 

In 1978, Greer left industry to join academia, where she has had a distin- 
guished career as both a faculty member and administrator. She joined the faculty 
of the University of Maryland as an associate professor in the Department of 
Chemistry. She was promoted to professor in 1983 and served as department chair 
from 1990 to 1993. In 1995, she secured a joint appointment in the school of 
engineering. Her work has been supported by funding from the National Institutes 
of Health, National Science Foundation, and the Petroleum Research Fund. In 
2008, she became provost of Mills College, a liberal-arts college for women in 
California. 

Greer has served as a member, program officer, and advisor for national science 
programs and university committees focused on science education and career 
issues for women in science. She has received numerous teaching and research 
awards from her own university as well as the American Chemical Society's 
Garvan Medal (2004). Greer is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a 
member of the American Chemical Society, American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, Association of Women in Science, and American Insti- 
tute of Chemical Engineers. 

Further Resources 

Mills College. "Office of the Provost." http://www.mills.edu/administration/provosts 
office/provost bio.php. 



Greibach, Sheila Adele 

b. 1939 

Computer Scientist, Mathematician 

Education: B.A., linguistics and applied mathematics, Radcliffe College, 1960, 
M.A., 1962; Ph.D., applied mathematics, Harvard University, 1963 

Professional Experience: lecturer, applied mathematics, Harvard University, 1963— 
1965; assistant to associate professor, computer science, University of California, 
Los Angeles (UCLA), 1969-1972, professor, 1972- 

Sheila Greibach is known for her research in several areas of theoretical 
computer science, especially automata theory and formal languages, and the 
programming term "Greibach normal form" (GNF) is named after her. While at 
Harvard, she worked on a project in mathematical linguistics and automatic trans- 
lation. Automata in the elementary sense are things that are capable of acting 



Greibach, Sheila Adele | 465 




automatically without outside inter- 
ference. Greibach thus works at the 
most basic level of computer science, 
and the impact of her work is not 
always obvious to the average pro- 
grammer. Her theoretical research 
benefits individuals involved in 
developing fundamental concepts 
and philosophies that must precede 
the evolution of subsequent tech- 
niques. She works in areas that ben- 
efit those people who are involved in 
transform analysis, transform- 
centered design, transaction analysis, 
and various exploratory problem- 
solving methodologies that are used 
by designers of systems. The effects 
of automata theory and formal- 
language research are normally not 

felt by programmers until the results finally influence such matters as efficiency 
of compilation, the relationship of structured design to structured programming 
techniques, and the use of incrementation. 

Her interest in science began in childhood, and her father, the inventor Emil 
Greibach, held more than 20 patents. After receiving her undergraduate and 
master's degrees from Radcliffe College, she attended graduate school at Harvard 
University. She was both a lecturer and an assistant professor at Harvard before join- 
ing the faculty at UCLA, where she advanced through the ranks to professor and vice 
chair of computer science. She served as a consultant to the Rand Corporation and 
System Development Corporation between 1964 and 1970. 

By the early 1980s Greibach was identified as one of the pioneer women in 
computer sciences. She has published more than 50 technical papers and the book 
Theory of Program Structures: Schemes, Semantics, Verification (1975). She is a 
member of the American Mathematical Society, Association for Computing 
Machinery, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and Society for 
Industrial and Applied Mathematics. 



Computer scientist and mathematician, Sheila 
Greibach. (Courtesy of UCLA Media 
Relations) 



Further Resources 

University of California, Los Angeles. Faculty website, http://www.cs.ucla.edu/csd/ 
people/faculty pages/greibach.html. 



466 | Greider, Carol W. 
Greider, Carol W. 



b. 1961 

Molecular Biologist 

Education: B.A., biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1983; Ph.D., 
molecular biology, University of California, Berkeley, 1987 

Professional Experience: fellow, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, 
1988-1990, assistant investigator, 1990-1992, associate investigator, 1992-1994, 
investigator, 1994-1997; associate professor, molecular biology and genetics, 
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1997-1999, professor, 1999-2003, 
acting director, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, 2002-2003, profes- 
sor, oncology, 2001-, Daniel Nathans Professor and Director, Department of 
Molecular Biology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 
2003- 

Carol Greider is a molecular biologist whose work has contributed to cancer 
research and who, at the age of only 48, shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology 
or Medicine with her former advisor Elizabeth Blackburn and colleague Jack 
Szostak. Greider is a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, but in the 
early 1980s, she studied with Blackburn at the University of California, Berkeley, 
where the researchers discovered the enzyme telomerase, the ends of chromo- 
somes that serve an important function in protecting genetic material from the 
effects of aging and mutations. Their findings have had an enormous impact on 
the direction and focus of cancer research, aging, and stem-cell research on 
genetic diseases. 

Greider's father was a physics professor at the University of California, Davis. 
She decided to study at Santa Barbara, where she originally planned on studying 
marine biology but became intrigued by a laboratory class in biochemistry. She 
received her undergraduate degree in 1983 and returned north to Berkeley to study 
molecular biology with cell biologist Elizabeth Blackburn. Blackburn's team had 
been working on telomeres in yeast and put Greider to work on the project of 
searching for an unknown enzyme responsible for their growth and structure. In 
December 1984, Greider discovered the pattern and activity she had been search- 
ing for in a telomere-synthesizing enzyme. The experiment was repeated and con- 
firmed the following year, and Greider and Blackburn published the results of their 
discovery of "telomerase." Greider received her doctorate in 1987 and went on to a 
postdoctoral fellowship at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, New 
York, where she spent the next 10 years as an independent investigator with 



Greider, Carol W. | 467 



funding from the National Institutes 
of Health. In 1997, she joined the 
faculty at Johns Hopkins School of 
Medicine and extended her research 
to mammalian (including human) 
cells. 

Greider was named a member of 
the National Academy of Sciences in 
2003. She is also an elected fellow 
of the American Academy of Micro- 
biology, American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, and 
American Academy of Arts and Sci- 
ences. Among her numerous other 
honors before receiving the 2009 
Nobel Prize, she was awarded a Ger- 
trude Elion Cancer Research Award 
from the American Association for 
Cancer Research (1994), Glenn 
Foundation Award of the American 
Society for Cell Biology (1995), 
Cornelius Rhoads Award of the 
American Association for Cancer 

Research (1996), Schering-Plough Scientific Achievement Award of the American 
Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1997), Gairdner Foundation 
Award (1998), Rosenstiel Award in Basic Medical Research (1999), Richard 
Lounsbery Award of the National Academy of Science (2003), Lila Gruber Cancer 
Research Award (2006), Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (2006, 
shared with future Nobel co-recipients Blackburn and Szostak), and Wiley Prize 
in Biomedical Sciences (2006, shared with Blackburn). 




Molecular biologist Carol Greider was co- 
recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology 
or Medicine. (The Nobel Foundation. Photo: 
Ulla Montan) 



Further Resources 

Nuzzo, Regina. 2005. "Biography of Carol W. Greider." Proceedings of the National 
Academy of Sciences. 102(23): 8077 8079. (7 June 2005). http://www.pnas.org/cgi/ 
content/full/ 1 02/23/8077 . 

Johns Hopkins University. Faculty website, http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/pharmacology/ 
research/greider.html. 

"Carol W. Greider: Interview." http://nobelprize.org/nobel prizes/medicine/laureates/ 
2009/greider-interview.html. 



468 | Griffin, Diane Edmund 
Griffin, Diane Edmund 



b. 1940 
Microbiologist 

Education: B.A., biology, Augustana College, Illinois, 1962; M.D., Stanford 
University, 1968, Ph.D., immunology, 1970 

Professional Experience: medical intern and resident, Stanford University Hospital, 
1968-1970; postdoctoral fellow, virology and infectious diseases, Johns Hopkins 
University School of Medicine, 1970-1973, assistant professor, medicine and 
neurology, 1973-1979, associate professor, 1979-1986, professor, medicine and 
neurology, 1986-, professor and chair, molecular microbiology and immunology, 
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 1994- 

Concurrent Positions: investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 1975- 
1982; founding director, Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, 2001-2008 

Diane Griffin is a microbiologist who is an expert on the effects of infectious viruses 
on the brain and nervous system. Her primary contribution to public health has been 
research to support new vaccine development for diseases such as measles. She has 
conducted research on how the measles virus, while not necessarily life- 
threatening in itself, can suppress immune responses and infect neurons in the brain 
and spinal cord, thereby increasing susceptibility to other diseases, such as encepha- 
litis, pneumonia, malaria, and even HIV. She conducted medical field research in 
Zambia, Africa, and has researched the genetic component of susceptibility to these 
types of diseases. Her hope is for a measles vaccine that can be introduced to youn- 
ger infants in both the United States and particularly in developing countries, where 
measles and HIV pose major widespread public-health concerns. 

Griffin showed an early interest in science and chose to attend Augustana Col- 
lege in Rock Island, Illinois, where her father, an oil company geologist, had 
attended and later taught. She went on to graduate school in a combined Ph.D./ 
M.D. program at Stanford University, and completed her medical internship and 
one-year residency at Stanford Hospital. The experience helped her decide to focus 
on research rather than on clinical practice. She followed her husband to Johns 
Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, where she found a position 
as a postdoctoral fellow in immunology and virology, and began studying the Sind- 
bis virus, an alphavirus that causes encephalitis in mice, and the effect of infection 
on the central nervous system. She joined the faculty in medicine and neurology 
in 1973, receiving tenure six years later and then advancing to full professor in 
1986. In 1994, she became chair of the Department of Molecular Biology and 




Gross, Carol A. (Polinsky) | 469 

Immunology at the Johns Hopkins 
Bloomberg School of Public Health. 
In 2001, an anonymous donor contrib- 
uted funding to establish a malaria 
research institute at Johns Hopkins, 
with Griffin as founding director. 

Most of Griffin's research has been 
funded by the National Institutes of 
Health (NIH), and she has been a 
member of the NIH Virology Section, 
as well as the National Multiple Scle- 
rosis Society Research Advisory 
Committee, U.S. -Japan Viral Dis- 
eases Panel, and the Boards of Scien- 
tific Counselors for the National 

Institute of Allergy and Infectious ,, „. , _ .„. 

aj Microbiologist Diane Edmund Griffin. 

Diseases (NIAID) and National Insti- (Courtesy of Johns Hopkins) 

tute of Neurological Disorders and 

Stroke (NINDS). She has served on 

the editorial boards of major scientific journals in her field, including Virology, 

Microbial Pathogenesis, Intervirology, Virus Research, and Journal of Virology. 

Griffin was elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of 
Medicine in 2004. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and a member of the Ameri- 
can Association of Immunologists, American Society for Clinical Investigation, Inter- 
urban Clinical Club (president, 1993), American Society for Virology (president, 
1999-2000), and American Society of Microbiology (president, 2006-2007). She 
received the International Society for Neuro Virology Pioneer in Neuro Virology Award 
(2009) and has been inducted into Maryland Women's Hall of Fame (2009). 

Further Resources 

Johns Hopkins University. Faculty website. http://faculty.jhsph.edu/?F=Diane&L=Griffin. 



Gross, Carol A. (Polinsky) 

b. 1941 
Bacteriologist 

Education: B.S., Cornell University, 1962; M.S., Brooklyn College, 1965; Ph.D., 
bacteriology, University of Oregon, 1968 



470 | Gross, Elizabeth Louise 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, University of Oregon, 1969-1973; 
project associate, University of Wisconsin, 1973-1976; assistant to associate sci- 
entist, McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, University of Wisconsin, 
1976-1981, assistant professor to professor, bacteriology, 1981-1992; professor, 
stomatology and microbiology, University of California, San Francisco, 1993— 

Concurrent Positions: visiting professor, Department of Chemistry, Nanjing 
University, China, 1985 

Carol Gross is a noted bacteriologist who studies the production of cell proteins in 
response to heat. When cells are subjected to high temperatures, nearly all begin to 
produce large quantities of certain proteins, and these are characterized by their abil- 
ity to grow and thrive at what is ordinarily a lethal temperature. She is looking at the 
function that these proteins serve and the precise nature of how they operate. Another 
project is the structure and function of RNA polymerase, an enzyme that binds com- 
pounds in and transcribes DNA, thus regulating how DNA interacts with the cell. As 
a project associate at the University of Wisconsin studying RNA, she developed an 
interest in cancer research and moved to the university's McArdle Laboratory for 
Cancer Research. She later taught in the Department of Bacteriology before moving 
to the University of California, San Francisco in 1993. Her doctoral thesis was on the 
subject of E. coli bacteria, and her lab continues to study and publish on the topic. 

Gross was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1992 
and has received numerous honors. In 1985, she became a member of the scientific 
advisory committee of the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Research Fund, 
a prestigious funder of research. She was named editor of the Journal of Bacteriology 
in 1990 and became a member of the editorial board of Genes and Development the 
same year. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Further Resources 

University of California, San Francisco. Faculty website, http://www.ucsf.edu/gross/. 



Gross, Elizabeth Louise 

1940 2007 
Biochemist 

Education: B.A., biophysics, University of California, Los Angeles, 1961; Ph.D., 
biophysics, University of California, Berkeley, 1967 



Guthrie, Mary Jane | 471 

Professional Experience: research associate, C. F. Kettering Research Laboratory, 
1967-1968; assistant professor to professor, biochemistry, Ohio State University, 
1968-2006 

Elizabeth Gross is credited with inventing photovoltaic cells that use living organ- 
isms — "living batteries," as they are popularly called. Her research interests 
included biophysical and biochemical studies of chloroplast membrane proteins 
including plastocyanin and the pigment-protein complexes, biological solar 
energy, and chloroplast solar batteries. The photovoltaic effect is a phenomenon 
in which the incidence of light or other electromagnetic radiation upon the junc- 
tion of two materials induces the generation of electromotive force. In simple 
terms, a photovoltaic cell converts sunlight directly into electricity. Gross pro- 
duced 2,000 microvolts of power at 4% to 5% efficiencies by devising a way to 
use a cheap carbon electrode instead of platinum in the chloroplast solar battery. 
A chloroplast is a plastid containing chlorophyll, and a plastid is a small, double- 
membrane organelle of plant cells and certain protists occurring in several forms 
as the chloroplast and containing ribosomes, prokaryotic DNA, and often pigment. 
In other words, she sought a way to harness the plant world's use of photosynthesis 
as a "green solar battery." In the 1980s, there was great interest in photovoltaic 
cells by major companies, and in addition to using them in space vehicles and 
satellites, there was scientific and popular interest in reducing pollution and pre- 
serving fossil-fuel resources through substituting solar-powered cars, solar heat, 
and other uses for solar energy. 

Gross was a professor of biochemistry at Ohio State University for nearly 
40 years and served for many years as director of the program in biophysics. Her 
research was published widely in scientific journals. In 1989, she was honored 
with an Outstanding Women in Science Award from the Association for Women 
in Science in Central Ohio. She was a member of the Biophysical Society, American 
Society of Biological Chemists, American Society of Plant Physiologists, 
American Chemical Society, and International Solar Energy Society. 



Guthrie, Mary Jane 

1895 1975 
Zoologist, Cytologist 

Education: A.B., University of Missouri, 1916, A.M., 1918; Ph.D., Bryn Mawr 
College, 1922 



472 | Guttman, Helene Augusta (Nathan) 

Professional Experience: demonstrator, biology, Bryn Mawr College, 1918— 
1920, instructor, 1920-1921; assistant professor, zoology, University of Missouri, 
1922-1926, associate professor, 1927-1937, professor, 1937-1950; professor, 
biology, Wayne State University, 1950-1960; research associate, Detroit Institute 
for Cancer Research, 1951-1960 

Mary Guthrie was a zoologist who specialized in the cytology (or cell biology) of 
the female reproductive system and endocrine glands. After completing under- 
graduate and master's degrees at the University of Missouri, near her hometown, 
she went to Bryn Mawr to study with zoologist Florence Peebles. Guthrie taught 
at Bryn Mawr while working on her doctorate, then returned to Missouri, where 
she was appointed assistant professor; among her colleagues at Missouri were 
plant geneticist Barbara McClintock, with whom Guthrie occasionally co- 
taught courses in genetics and cytology. Guthrie rose through the ranks to full pro- 
fessor before leaving the institution in 1950 for a position at Wayne State Univer- 
sity. During this time, she was also an affiliated research associate at the Detroit 
Institute for Cancer Research, but retired from both positions in 1960. Her 
research at the institute focused on ovarian cancer. She created in vitro ovaries to 
understand how tumors began. Although she was a noted scientist, she sometimes 
had difficulty obtaining funding. An official at the Rockefeller Foundation once 
explained to her that, although women were not officially excluded from their fel- 
lowship program, as a woman scientist she would need to submit additional mate- 
rials to support her grant application. She co-authored three textbooks with other 
zoologists: Textbook of General Zoology (1938, with Winterton Conway Curtis), 
General Zoology (1957, with John Anderson) and Laboratory Directions in 
General Zoology (1958, also with Anderson). 

Guthrie was professionally active as a member of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, American Society of Naturalists, American Society 
of Zoologists, American Association of Anatomists, Genetics Society, American 
Society of Mammalogists, and Tissue Culture Association. She was also a member 
of the editorial board of the Journal of Morphology (1944-1947). 



Guttman, Helene Augusta (Nathan) 

b. 1930 

Microbiologist, Biochemist 

Education: B.A., Brooklyn College, 1951; M.A., Harvard University, 1955; M.A., 
Columbia University, 1958; Ph.D., bacteriology, Rutgers University, 1960 



Guttman, Helene Augusta (Nathan) | 473 

Professional Experience: research technician, immunology, Public Health 
Research Institute, New York City, 1951-1952; assistant microbiologist, Haskins 
Labs, 1952-1956, research associate, 1956-1959, staff member, 1959-1964; 
research associate, Goucher College, 1960-1962; assistant to associate professor, 
biochemistry and cell physiology, University College and Graduate School of Arts 
and Sciences, New York University, 1962-1967; associate professor to professor, 
biological sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago Circle, 1967-1975, professor, 
microbiology, College of Medicine, 1969-1975, faculty associate, urban systems 
laboratory, College of Engineering, 1974-1975, associate director of research, 
1975; expert, Office of the Director, Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, 1975- 
1977, research resources coordinator, Office of Program Planning and Evaluation, 
1977-1979; deputy director, science advisory board, U.S. Environmental Protec- 
tion Agency, 1979-1980; program coordinator, Science Education Coordinating 
Office, Science and Education Directorate, U.S. Department of Agriculture 
(USDA), 1980-1983, associate director, Beltsville Human Nutrition Research 
Center, 1983-1989, animal care coordinator, National Program Staff, Agricultural 
Research Service, 1989-; founder and counselor, Sound Balance 

Helene Guttman is known for her work in nutritional biochemistry, microbiology, 
and the mind-body connection in healing. Her research interests have included 
behavioral biochemistry; control of inducible syntheses; isolation and purification 
of bioactive natural products; nutrition biochemistry; and drug mode of action at 
the cellular level. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Brooklyn 
College, she worked for the Public Health Research Institute and Haskins Labs 
before receiving one master's degree from Harvard and a second from Columbia. 
She received her doctorate from Rutgers in 1960 and was a research associate at 
Goucher College before joining the faculty of New York University. She moved 
to the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle, where she also held a joint professor- 
ship in the College of Medicine. 

Guttman left academia in 1975 to work at the Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute 
of the National Institutes of Health, and then moved to the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency. She joined the USDA in the Science and Education Director- 
ate, was appointed associate director of the Beltsville Human Nutrition Research 
Center, and then moved to the position of animal care coordinator of the Agricul- 
tural Research Service. Her office was in charge of issuing government bulletins 
and papers about animal care, a high-profile topic due to the increased activities 
of animal-rights groups concerned about animal experimentation in research, 
humane livestock practices, and the health and environmental costs of vegetarian- 
ism. During Guttman's tenure, some animal-rights groups began using aggressive 
tactics such as invading laboratories and destroying equipment. She is the author 



474 | Guttman, Helene Augusta (Nathan) 

of Experiments in Cellular Biodynamics (1972) and editor of Science and 
Animals: Addressing Contemporary Issues (1989). 

Guttman left the USDA to begin her own counseling service, Sound Balance, 
focused on combining physical, psychological, and spiritual approaches to healing. 
She has been active on issues concerning women and women scientists such as 
chairing the Professional Opportunities for Women Commission of the American 
Institute of Chemists (1974-1978) and serving on the advisory board of Creative 
Women (starting in 1970). She has also served as a member of the Status of Women 
Microbiologists Commission (1980-1985) and was a member of the education com- 
mittee of the Illinois Commission on the Status of Women (1974-1975). She is a fel- 
low of the American Institute of Chemists, American Academy of Microbiology, 
New York Academy of Sciences, and American Association for the Advancement 
of Science. She is a member of the American Society for Microbiology, American 
Society of Biological Chemists, American Society for Cell Biology, and American 
Society of Clinical Nutrition. 

Further Resources 

Sound Balance, http://www.soundbalance.net/. 



H 



Haas, Mary Rosamond 



1910 1996 

Linguist, Anthropologist 

Education: B.A., Earlham College, 1930; Ph.D., linguistics, Yale University, 
1935 

Professional Experience: researcher, Yale University, 1936-1938; committee 
member, American native languages, American Council of Learned Societies, 
1938-1941, committee member and research fellow, modern Oriental languages, 
1941-1946; lecturer, Siamese, University of California, Berkeley, 1943-1947, as- 
sistant professor to professor, languages and linguistics, 1947-1977 

Mary Haas was a leader in anthropological linguistics due to her work on Native 
American languages as well as her pioneering research on the relationship of eth- 
nology and sociology to language. The latter included men's and women's speech, 
word taboos, word games, kinship vocabulary, and language contact. In the 1940s, 
during World War II, she responded to the national need for expertise on languages 
of the Far East and published several grammars and dictionaries of Thai and 
Burmese (previously called Siamese). She joined the faculty at the University of 
California, Berkeley in 1947, and returned to her interests in Native American 
linguistics. She was instrumental in founding the Survey of California Indian 
Languages at Berkeley in 1953, a program that trains graduate student field 
researchers and maintains archives on native languages. She also founded the 
Language Lab at Berkeley (now the Berkeley Linguistic Center), which provides 
resources for foreign-language students as well as housing a sound archive of 
recordings of Native American languages. Without Haas's efforts, many languages 
and dialects might have been lost entirely to history. 

Haas's first fieldwork was with the Nitinat tribe of British Columbia. For her 
doctoral research, she went to Louisiana to work with the lone surviving speaker 
of Tunica. She later published a grammar, a dictionary, and a text collection of 
the Tunica language. Her research launched her career as the principal authority 
on the languages of the native southeastern United States, including Natchez and 
Muskogean families, and she later studied many other North American linguis- 
tic families. Her work provided solid corroboration of studies conducted by 



475 



476 | Hahn, Dorothy Anna 

anthropologists, archaeologists, and ethnologists. After her official retirement in 
1977, she was sought as a guest lecturer and visiting professor at universities 
worldwide. In addition to her books on the Thai language, Haas published The 
Prehistory of Languages (1969), still read by graduate students of historical lin- 
guistics, and Language, Culture, and History (1978), as well as numerous scien- 
tific papers. 

Haas was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1978. 
She received numerous honorary degrees and awards, including the Berkeley Cita- 
tion of the University of California, Berkeley (1977) and the Wilbur Cross Medal 
of Yale University (1977). In 1986, she was honored at the Haas Festival 
Conference on Native American Linguistics held at the University of California, 
Santa Cruz. In Honor of Mary Haas (1988) is a collection of papers presented by 
colleagues and former students at the conference. Her bequest to Berkeley helped 
establish the Mary R. Haas Memorial Fund to support linguistics students. She was 
a member of the Linguistics Society of America (president, 1963), American 
Anthropological Association, American Oriental Society, and American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences. 

Further Resources 

"Mary Rosamond Haas, Linguistics: Berkeley." http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view7docId 
=hb0z09n6nn&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00028&toc.depth=l&toc.id. 



Hahn, Dorothy Anna 

1876 1950 
Chemist 

Education: A.B., chemistry and biology, Bryn Mawr College, 1899; University of 
Leipzig, 1906-1907; Ph.D., Yale University, 1916 

Professional Experience: professor, chemistry, Pennsylvania College for Women 
(Chatham College), 1899-1906; professor, biology, Kindergarten College, 
Pittsburgh, 1904-1906; instructor, Mount Holyoke College, 1908-1914, associate 
professor, 1914-1918, professor, 1918-1941 

Dorothy Hahn was recognized for her research on the synthesis of hydantoins, 
such as vitamin B. The research required the application of both skillful organic 
chemical technique and the newly developed methods of ultraviolet spectropho- 
tometry. She became actively interested in industrial chemistry, specifically coal- 
tar products, an interest that not only contributed to her awareness of important 



Hamerstrom, Frances (Flint) | 477 

new developments but made it possible for Mount Holyoke to obtain needed facili- 
ties and scholarships. During her long tenure at Mount Holyoke, she (along with 
colleagues such as physical chemist Emma Perry Carr) helped establish a first- 
rate chemistry department by encouraging undergraduate research and launching 
their female students into graduate study in the sciences. 

Hahn obtained her education over a long period and in a number of laboratories, 
training at Bryn Mawr, Leipzig, and Yale at intervals over 17 years. As with many 
female scientists of the early twentieth century, she found it difficult to find a uni- 
versity position. She began her career teaching at colleges in Pennsylvania before 
spending a year abroad in Germany, studying organic chemistry at the University 
of Leipzig. She returned to further study at her alma mater, Bryn Mawr, and began 
teaching at Mount Holyoke before completing her doctorate at Yale in 1916. Soon 
after receiving the Ph.D., she was promoted to full professor at Mount Holyoke, 
where she remained until her retirement in 1941. 

In addition to publishing numerous papers in scientific journals, especially for 
the Journal of the American Chemical Society, she also collaborated on several 
books, including A Dictionary of Chemical Solubilities, Inorganic (1921, with 
Arthur Comey), and a translation and enlargement of Ferdinand Henrich's Theo- 
ries of Organic Chemistry (1922, with Treat B. Johnson). She was a member of 
the American Chemical Society and the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft. 

Further Resources 

Shmurak, Carole B. and Bonnie S. Handler. 1992. " 'Castle of Science': Mount Holyoke 
College and the Preparation of Women in Chemistry, 1837 1941." History of Educa- 
tion Quarterly. 32(3): 315 342. 



Hamerstrom, Frances (Flint) 

1907 1998 

Wildlife Biologist, Ornithologist 

Education: student, Smith College, 1926-1928; B.S., biology, Iowa State Univer- 
sity, 1935; M.S., wildlife biology, University of Wisconsin, 1940 

Professional Experience: staff, Edwin S. George Reserve, Pinckney, Michigan, 
1940-1943 and 1946-1949; game biologist, Wisconsin Department of Natural 
Resources, 1949-1972; director, Raptor Research Foundation, 1976-1979; 
adjunct professor and research associate, University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, 
1982-1998 



478 | Hamerstrom, Frances (Flint) 

Frances Hamerstrom was an internationally known wildlife biologist, one of the 
few women to pursue this profession, whose research focused on ecology and 
behavior of raptors and hunting ethics and habits. Even before completing her 
undergraduate degree, she studied birds at the Game Conservation Institute in 
New Jersey (1931-1932). She attended Smith College before transferring to Iowa 
State University, where she studied pheasants, quail, and birds of prey. She went 
on to graduate study at the University of Wisconsin, where she studied the habitat 
of the greater prairie chicken with famed naturalist Aldo Leopold. She later 
received an honorary doctorate from Carroll College in Wisconsin in 1961. After 
receiving her master's degree, she worked as a game biologist for the Wisconsin 
Department of Natural Resources for more than 20 years. She served as director 
of the Raptor Research Foundation for three years and then joined the faculty of 
the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point as an adjunct professor beginning in 
1982. Her work supported conservation and species-preservation efforts. 

In addition to her own original research and publications, Hamerstrom also used 
her language skills to review foreign-language books on ornithology for an American 
audience. Her 1986 book Harrier, Hawk of the Marshes was the culmination of sev- 
eral decades worth of observation and research. In addition to her scientific papers 
on the golden eagle and the prairie chicken, she wrote magazine articles on nature 
study and several autobiographical works on her life and work, such as Strictly for 
the Chickens (1980), Birding with a Purpose (1984), Is She Coming Too?: Memoirs 
of a Lady Hunter (1989), and My Double Life: Memoirs of a Naturalist (1994). She 
also published two children's books: Walk When the Moon Is Full (1975) and The 
Adventure of the Stone Man (1977). 

Her husband, Frederick Nathan Hamerstrom, Jr., was also a naturalist and orni- 
thologist, and the two collaborated on publications and shared awards from the Wild- 
life Society (1940) for their publication The Great Horned Owl and Its Prey in the 
North-Central States, and the National Wildlife Federation Conservationist of the 
Year Award (1970). Frances Hamerstrom later received another Wildlife Society 
award (1957) for A Guide to Prairie Chicken Management. She also received the 
Joseelyn Van Tyne Award of the American Ornithologists Union (1960), Chapman 
Award of the American Museum of Natural History (1964), Silver Passenger Pigeon 
Award from the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology (1966), Distinguished Service 
Award from the National Wildlife Federation (1970), Silver Acorn Award from 
Citzens Natural Resources Association (1972), a research award from the Wisconsin 
Department of Natural Resources (1973), and the Golden Passenger Pigeon Award 
(1973). She was elected a fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union and was a 
member of the Wilson Ornithological Society, Wisconsin Society for Ornithology 
(president, 1960-1961), Wisconsin Peregrine Society, American Society of 
Mammalogists, Citizens Natural Resources Association, Raptor Research 



Hamilton, Alice | 479 

Foundation, North American Falconers Association, and Wisconsin Academy of Sci- 
ence, Arts and Letters. She was also a member of international organizations such as 
the British Ornithologists Union, British Falconry Club, Deutsche Falkenorden, and 
Deutsche Ornithologen Gesellschaft. 

Further Resources 

Bildstein, Keith L. 1999. "In Memoriam: Frances Hamerstrom, 1907 1998." The Auk: 
Journal of the American Ornithologists' Union. 116(4): 1122 1124. http:// 
elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/vll6n04/pll22-pl 124.pdf. 



Hamilton, Alice 

1869 1970 

Industrial Toxicologist 

Education: M.D., University of Michigan, 1893, A.M., 1910 

Professional Experience: professor, pathology, Woman's Medical College of 
Chicago, 1897-1902; assistant pathologist, McCormick Institute for Infectious 
Diseases, 1902-1909; special investigator, Occupational Poisons, U.S. Bureau of 
Labor Statistics, 1911-1921; assistant professor, Department of Industrial Medi- 
cine, Harvard Medical School, 1919-1935 

Alice Hamilton was a pioneer in the science of industrial toxicology and an author- 
ity on hazardous industries and occupational diseases. She worked in both industry 
and government positions, including as a consultant to the Bureau of Labor Statis- 
tics. She was the first female faculty member at Harvard Medical School, and 
when she joined the faculty as an assistant professor of industrial medicine in 
1919, she insisted on a half-time appointment so she could continue to pursue 
her research. She retired from Harvard in 1935 but was a crusader for industrial 
safety and health legislation well into her eighties, serving for a time as a medical 
consultant to the U.S. Division of Labor Standards. 

Hamilton obtained her M.D. at the University of Michigan in 1893 and went to 
pursue postgraduate studies and complete internships at several other institutions. 
After interning in Minneapolis and Boston, she decided to specialize in bacteriol- 
ogy and pathology. She went to Germany for further training at the University of 
Leipzig, University of Munich, and University of Frankfurt in 1 896, and returned 
for postgraduate studies and research at Johns Hopkins University. She received 
her first appointment as professor of pathology at the Woman's Medical College 
of Chicago in 1897. When this school closed in 1902, she moved to the newly 



480 | Hamilton, Margaret 

opened McCormick Institute for Infectious Diseases. She studied briefly at the Pas- 
teur Institute in Paris to prepare for her work at McCormick. Through her contacts 
with people at the Hull House settlement founded by social reformers in Chicago, 
she found that many immigrant workers had been permanently debilitated by the 
fumes they inhaled on the job in steel mills, factories, and foundries. This was the 
foundation for her campaign to establish the occupational disease commission in 
Illinois in 1910, the first of its kind in the United States. She fought for workers' 
rights to healthcare and compensation due to industrial accidents and was also 
involved in a campaign against the hazards of leaded gasoline for automobiles. 

Hamilton's books, Industrial Poisons in the United States (1925) and Industrial 
Toxicology (1934), are considered classic works that eventually led to the passage 
of workers' compensation laws. She also published an autobiography, Exploring 
the Dangerous Trades (1943; reprinted in 1985). She was a member of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Medical Association, and 
the American Public Health Association, and, between 1924 and 1930, the only 
female member of the League of Nations Health Committee. In 1947, she received 
the Lasker Award. Her contributions to public health have been acknowledged post- 
humously with the naming of the Alice Hamilton Laboratory at the National Institute 
for Occupational Safety and Health, an annual Alice Hamilton Award by the Institute, 
and a U.S. Postal Service commemorative stamp. 

Further Resources 

Sicherman, Barbara, ed. 2003. Alice Hamilton: A Life in Letters. 2nd ed. Cambridge, MA: 
Harvard University Press. 



Hamilton, Margaret 



b. 1936 

Computer Scientist, Systems Engineer 

Education: student, University of Michigan, 1955; B.A., mathematics, Earlham 
College, 1958 

Professional Experience: school teacher, 1959; programmer, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology (MIT), 1960; Philco-Ford Sage Project and Air Force 
Cambridge Research Laboratory, 1961-1963; programmer, Draper Laboratory, 
MIT, 1963-1965, supervisor and director, Software Engineering Division, 1965- 
1977; founder and CEO, Higher Order, Inc., 1978-; founder and CEO, Hamilton 
Technologies, Inc. (HTI), 1986- 



Hamilton, Margaret | 481 

Margaret Hamilton is known as one of the chief systems analysts on the Apollo 
spacecraft project. She was assistant director of software engineering at Draper 
Laboratory of MIT when the onboard computers and guidance instruments for 
all the manned moon missions were designed. She said that as one of the first pro- 
grammers hired, she became acquainted with all phases of the project and assisted 
other personnel with problem solving. At the peak of the Apollo project, she 
supervised about 100 engineers, mathematicians, programmers, and technical 
writers. She oversaw two separate subgroups — one for the onboard computer in 
the command module, the other for the computer in the lunar excursion module 
(LEM). The programs her group devised were very complex. Before each Apollo 
mission, she had to anticipate all possible eventualities and program the two com- 
puters to be ready for them. The computers had to process and respond to input 
from Mission Control, spacecraft instruments such as radar, and the astronauts. 
One of Hamilton's programs established the order in which the computer must 
do the various jobs it was asked to do at once. The National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA) eventually took over the Apollo project, and MIT's role 
was greatly reduced. Hamilton's other projects at MIT included overseeing a bio- 
medical bedside computer, a new computer language and compiler, security sys- 
tems, control systems for aircraft, a data-management system for the Department 
of Transportation, air traffic control instrumentation, the space shuttle, the 
unmanned Mars landing, and Skylab. 

After receiving her undergraduate degree in mathematics, she married and 
taught math and French in public school while her husband completed college. 
After the couple moved to Boston, Hamilton planned to enroll in graduate school, 
but obtained a job at MIT as a programmer for a professor doing meteorological 
prediction and statistical long-range weather forecasting. She then worked for 
Philco-Ford's Sage Project, a radar defense system that tracked unknown aircraft. 
At the same time, she did general programming for satellite tracking at the Air 
Force Cambridge Research Laboratory. She returned to MIT in 1963 to do pro- 
gramming for another meteorology professor, which led to the opportunity to work 
on the Apollo project. In 1977, she founded a computer company to develop indus- 
trial systems, Higher Order, Inc., with a former colleague. The software they 
developed was designed to catch mistakes, such as a missing step in a manufactur- 
ing process, before they happen, a systems design model known as Development 
Before the Fact (DBTF), which became the specialty for programs and software 
developed in her next company, Hamilton Technologies, Inc., founded in 1986. 

Hamilton received the Augusta Lovelace Award from the Association for 
Women in Computing (1986) and the NASA Exceptional Space Act Award 
(2003) for her innovations. This honor included NASA's largest cash award ever 
given to an individual. 



482 | Hammel, Heidi 

Further Resources 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Logic Design. 'About Margaret 
Hamilton." http://klabs.org/home page/hamilton.htm. 

Hamilton Technologies, Inc. http://www.htius.com/. 



Hammel, Heidi 

b. I960 
Astronomer 

Education: B.S., earth and planetary science, Massachusetts Institute of Technol- 
ogy, 1982; Ph.D., physics and astronomy, University of Hawaii, 1988 

Professional Experience: team member, National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA) Voyager Imaging Science Team, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 
Pasadena, California, 1989; principal research scientist, earth, atmospheric and plan- 
etary sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1990-1998; senior 
research scientist, Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado, 1999-, co-director, 
Research Branch, 2003- 

Concurrent Positions: team leader, NASA Hubble Space Visible/New-UV Imag- 
ing Team, 1994 

Heidi Hammel was part of the scientific team that oversaw the Voyager encounter 
with Neptune in 1989. That work, in turn, resulted in the assignment to be the team 
leader for the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 Collision with Jupiter in 1994. Hammel 
worked with the Hubble Space Telescope Team to study the comet's impact on 
Jupiter's atmosphere. During the television coverage of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 
event, she showed the ability to explain the phenomena enthusiastically in lan- 
guage the general public could understand. Her facility with the media led to her 
1997 appearance on a Discovery Channel television documentary on the Hubble 
Space Telescope. In 1996, the International Astronomical Union named asteroid 
3530 "Hammel" in her honor. In 1999, she joined the Space Science Institute in 
Boulder, Colorado, where she continues to research Neptune and Uranus. She is 
also involved as a research scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, which 
is scheduled to launch by 2013. 

As a child, Hammel received a toy telescope and had her first experiences of sky 
watching. She also regularly visited the planetarium in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 
where the family lived. She excelled in math, and a teacher encouraged her to apply 
to MIT, where she became interested in a career in astronomy and received her 



Hammel, Heidi | 483 




Astronomer Heidi Hammel. (AP/Wide World 
Photos) 



undergraduate degree in earth and 
planetary science. She enrolled in 
graduate school at the University of 
Hawaii at Manoa because that school 
had the largest and best telescopes 
for the subject she was studying. Her 
dissertation was on the clouds and 
structure of Neptune. She is the sub- 
ject of a 2006 book by Fred Bortz, 
Beyond Jupiter: The Story of Plan- 
etary Astronomer Heidi Hammel, part 
of a "Women's Adventures in Sci- 
ence" juvenile series for National 
Academies Press. She is currently 
involved in a collaboration with 
author Noreen Grice on a book project 
entitled "Touch the Solar System," 

which will combine Braille and textured images to bring space telescope photos 
to blind readers. 

Hammel has received numerous awards and honors, including the NASA 
Group Achievement Award for Voyager Science Investigation (1990), the 
Vladimir Karapetoff Award from MIT in recognition of her contributions to 
science and education (1994), and the Klumpke-Roberts Award of the Astronomi- 
cal Society of the Pacific (1995), named for Dorothea Klumpke-Roberts, an 
American woman who worked for the Paris Observatory between 1887 and 
1901 and was renowned for her work in charting and cataloging stars. Hammel 
has also received the 1996 Harold C. Urey Prize of the American Astronomical 
Society (AAS) (1996), the Public Understanding of Science Award of the Explor- 
atorium (1998), and the Carl Sagan Medal of the AAS (2002). In 2002, she was 
named one of the "50 Most Important Women in Science" by Discover magazine. 
She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and 
a member of the American Astronomical Society and of the Board of Directors of 
the Planetary Society (2005-). 



Further Resources 

Planetary Society. "Heidi Hammel." http://www.planetary.org/about/heidi hammel 
.html. 

Space Science Institute. "Heidi B. Hammel: Senior Research Scientist." http:// 
www.spacescience.org/about ssi/staff/hammel.html. 



484 | Harris, Jean Louise 
Harris, Jean Louise 



1931 2001 
Physician 

Education: B.S., Virginia Union University, 1951; M.D., Medical College of 
Virginia, 1955 

Professional Experience: intern, Medical College of Virginia, 1955-1956, resi- 
dent, internal medicine, 1956-1957, fellow, 1957-1958; fellow, Strong Memorial 
Hospital, School of Medicine, University of Rochester, 1958-1960; instructor, 
medicine, College of Medicine, Howard University, 1960-1968, assistant profes- 
sor, community health practice, 1969-1972; professor, Virginia Commonwealth 
University, 1973-1979, clinical professor, family practice, 1978; secretary of 
human resources, Commonwealth of Virginia, 1978-1982; president and chief 
executive officer, Ramsey Foundation, 1988-1992; senior associate director, 
medical affairs, University of Minnesota Hospital and Clinic, 1992-1998; mayor, 
Eden Prairie, Minnesota, 1999-2001 

Concurrent Positions: research associate, Walter Reed Army Institute 
of Research, 1960-1963; private practice, internal medicine and allergies, 
1964-1971; chief, Bureau of Resources Development, District of Columbia 
Department of Health, 1967-1969; director, Center for Community Health Con- 
sultants, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1969-1977; assistant 
clinical professor, community medicine, Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical 
School, Los Angeles, 1970-1972; executive director, National Medical Associa- 
tion Foundation, 1970-1973; vice president of state marketing programs, Control 
Data Corporation, 1982-1984, vice president of state government affairs, 
1984-1986, vice president of business development, 1986-1988 

Jean L. Harris was a specialist in internal medicine and an allergist who held high- 
level positions in academia, state government, federal government, private indus- 
try, and professional associations. She was the first African American to be admit- 
ted to the Medical College of Virginia (now part of Virginia Commonwealth 
University), where she also became the first full-time black faculty member. She 
went on to become the first woman and first African American to be named to 
the cabinet of a Virginia governor when she was named Secretary of Human 
Resources in 1978. In the last years of her life, she served as mayor of her home- 
town in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. 

Harris had numerous appointments in the federal government, such as research 
associate at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and director of the Center 
for Community Health Consultants of the Department of Health, Education, and 



Harris, Mary (Styles) | 485 

Welfare. She was executive director of the National Medical Association Founda- 
tion as well as working in private practice as a physician of internal medicine and 
allergist. She also had high-level appointments to committees, such as being a 
member of the recombinant DNA advisory committee of the National Institutes 
of Health (1979-1982), vice chairman of the National Commission on Alcoholism 
and Alcohol-Related Diseases (1980-1981), member of the President's Private 
Sector Initiative Task Force (1981-1982), member of the Defense Advisory Com- 
mission on Women in the Service (1985-1988), and member of the Advisory 
Council on Sickle Cell of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (1975- 
1979). In 1993, Virginia Commonwealth University established the Jean L. Harris 
Scholars Program for medical school students, and in 2002, the state of Virginia 
passed a resolution to honor her career and contributions. 

Harris was a fellow of the Royal Society of Health and a member of the Institute 
of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of 
Medical Administrators, and the American Public Health Association. 

Further Resources 

Virginia Senate Joint Resolution No. 233. (2002). http://legl.state.va.us/cgi-bin/ 
legp524.exe?021+ful+SJ233ER. 



Harris, Mary (Styles) 

b. 1949 

Geneticist, Epidemiologist 

Education: B.A., Lincoln University, 1971; Ph.D., genetics, Cornell University, 
1975 

Professional Experience: fellow, National Cancer Institute, New Jersey College 
of Medicine and Dentistry (now Robert Wood Johnson Medical School), 1975- 
1977; instructor, genetics, School of Medicine, Morehouse College, 1978-1986; 
president and consultant, Harris & Associates Ltd., 1986-; CEO, BioTechnical 
Communications, 1987— 

Concurrent Positions: research associate, tumor virology, Rutgers Medical 
School, 1975-1977; executive director, Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia, Inc., 
1977-1979; National Science Foundation Residency, 1979-1980; scientist in res- 
idence, television station WGTV, University of Georgia, 1979-1980; assistant 
director, science and public policy, Atlanta University, 1980-1981; instructor, 
Human Genetics, Emory University, 1982; director, Genetic Service, Georgia 
Department of Human Resources, 1982-1985 



486 | Harris, Mary (Styles) 

Mary Harris is a geneticist who has made a professional commitment to connect- 
ing research in the biological sciences to healthcare literacy among minorities. Her 
website, JourneyToWellness.com, is an online health magazine and portal for her 
weekly call-in radio program on African American health issues and healthcare 
literacy. Early in her career, she focused on genetic testing of children in her 
capacity as executive director of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia and state 
director of genetics service in Georgia. Sickle-cell anemia, which occurs primarily 
among Africans or persons of African descent, is a chronic hereditary blood dis- 
ease that can be identified through genetic testing. In 1979, she employed an 
unusual technique for educating the public by using a National Science Founda- 
tion grant to work with broadcasters to produce a series of television documentary 
programs on the relationship between science and medicine. 

Harris was encouraged to enter the medical field by her physician father. When 
she entered high school in 1963, she was among the first blacks to attend an inte- 
grated school. She volunteered at a local black-owned medical laboratory nights 
and weekends; in exchange, the staff showed her how to use the equipment and 
how to do routine biological tests. She was one of the first women to enter Lincoln 
University in Pennsylvania, and colleagues of her father arranged, through a 
minority recruitment program, to reserve a place for her at the University of 
Miami Medical School. By then, however, she had decided to concentrate on 
research rather than become a physician and she accepted instead a Ford Founda- 
tion fellowship to study molecular genetics. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell 
University in 1975. 

In 1986, Harris moved to California, where she founded her own firm, Harris & 
Associates, to consult for companies that were engaged in genetic engineering. 
She received a grant from the National Cancer Institute to produce a new series 
of television programs on the particular health problems of African Americans, 
and created another company, BioTechnical Communications, to produce audio- 
visual educational materials on a broad range of healthcare issues encountered 
by women and minorities. She produced an award-winning documentary about 
African American women and breast cancer, To My Sisters . . . A Gift for Life, 
which has been widely distributed. Harris has produced numerous radio shows 
with funding from the National Institutes of Health, including those focused on 
issues of the social disparities of diseases such as cancer, obesity, and HIV/ AIDS. 
In addition to her radio and television work, Harris has consulted for a variety of 
educational, research, and government organizations, and has published widely 
in health and science journals. 

Harris has received numerous awards for her work in the media and public 
health, and her work has been funded and supported by numerous medical schools 
as well as the National Cancer Institute, National Medical Association, American 



Harrison, Anna Jane | 487 

Cancer Society, American Heart Association, Johnson & Johnson Family of 
Companies, National Rural Health Association, American Diabetes Association, 
and Arthritis Foundation. 

Further Resources 

Journey to Wellness, http://www.journeytowellness.com/. 



Harrison, Anna Jane 



1912 1998 
Chemist 

Education: A.B., University of Missouri, 1933, M.A., 1937, Ph.D., physical 
chemistry, 1940 

Professional Experience: instructor, chemistry, Newcomb College, Tulane 
University, 1940-1942, assistant professor, 1942-1945; assistant to associate 
professor, Mount Holyoke College, 1945-1950, professor, 1950-1979 

Anna Harrison was a distinguished 
organic chemist who was elected the 
first woman president of the Ameri- 
can Chemical Society in 1978. Her 
area of research was vacuum ultravio- 
let spectroscopy. She received her 
doctorate in physical chemistry from 
the University of Missouri and taught 
several years at Tulane before accept- 
ing a faculty position at Mount Holy- 
oke, where she rose through the ranks 
to become full professor by 1950. She 
also worked briefly during World War 
II on a project on toxic smoke for the 
National Defense Council. Although 
chemistry was an increasingly popu- 
lar area of study for women in the 
first half of the twentieth century, 
many female chemists were employ- 
ed in industry or in home economics 
departments, and few held full 




Chemist Anna Harrison was the first woman 
president of the American Chemical Society 
in 1978. (Bettmann/Corbis) 



488 | Harrison, Faye Venetia 

professorships or department head positions as Harrison eventually did. After her 
retirement, she co-authored (with Mount Holyoke colleague Edwin Weaver) a 
textbook for nonmajors entitled, Chemistry: A Search to Understand (1989). 

Harrison was active in professional organizations and committees. She served 
on committees of the National Research Council, was a member of the National 
Science Board (1972-1978), and was a fellow of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science (president, 1983-1984). She received the Frank For- 
est Award of the American Ceramic Society (1949), the Citation of Merit of the 
University of Missouri College of Arts and Sciences (1960), the College Chemis- 
try Teaching Award of the Manufacturing Chemists Association (1969), the 
American Chemical Society's James Flack Norris Award of Outstanding Achieve- 
ment in the Teaching of Chemistry (1977), and the Chemical Education Award of 
the American Chemical Society (1982). 

Further Resources 

Mount Holyoke. "Anna Jane Harrison, Chemical Education Leader and First Woman 
President of the American Chemical Society, Dies at 85." http://www.mtholyoke.edu/ 
offices/comm/press/releases/annaharrison.shtml. 



Harrison, Faye Venetia 

b. 1951 
Anthropologist 

Education: B.A., Brown University, 1974; M.A., Stanford University, 1977, Ph.D., 
anthropology, 1982 

Professional Experience: assistant professor, anthropology, University of 
Louisville, 1983-1989; associate professor, anthropology, University of Tennessee, 
Knoxville, 1989-1997; professor, anthropology and graduate director, women's stud- 
ies, University of South Carolina, Columbia, 1997-1999; professor, anthropology, 
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1999-2004; professor, African American studies 
and anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, 2004-2005, director, African 
American studies, 2007- 

Concurrent Positions: fellow, Social Science Research Institute, University of 
Tennessee, Knoxville, 1991-1992; chair, Commission on Anthropology of 
Women, International Union of Anthropologists and Ethnological Sciences, 
1993-; adjunct associate professor, anthropology, State University of New York, 



Harrison, Faye Venetia | 489 

Binghamton, 1996-1998; adjunct professor, Graduate College, Union Institute 
and University, 2002- 

Faye Harrison is an anthropologist whose research focuses on how people of African 
descent both shape and are shaped by their cultural environments. She has studied 
people from the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa who have immigrated to 
the United States, natives of the West Indies who immigrated to London, West Indian 
families who live in the West Indies, and the oral histories of her own ancestors who 
lived in North Carolina and Virginia. Harrison became interested in different cultures 
as a child when she discovered a closetful of old National Geographic magazines. In 
high school, she studied Spanish, Portuguese, and French, and received a scholarship 
to travel to Puerto Rico with a group of other language students. 

She received a full university scholarship to study anthropology at Brown and 
completed an independent research project on the attitudes and opinions of 
American descendents of people from the Cape Verde Islands who had retained 
their original language of Portuguese. She later studied West Indians in England 
and in the slums of Kingston, Jamaica. She became intrigued by the informal eco- 
nomic system among such communities, where members bought and sold material 
goods among themselves and also provided goods and services to the larger com- 
munity on an informal or casual basis. She returned to Kingston each summer for a 
number of years after receiving her doctorate to detect trends in the everyday life 
of the slums and discovered that by the late 1980s and early 1990s, these local 
economies had been influenced by gangs and drug smuggling. 

In addition to her scientific papers, Harrison has edited Black Folks in Cities 
Here and There (1988) and Decolonizing Anthropology: Moving Further toward 
an Anthropology for Liberation (1991). She has also been an associate editor of 
Urban Anthropology since 1992 and a consulting editor for Women and Aging since 
1990. She has been active in civil rights efforts, such as the Kentucky Rainbow 
Coalition, Black Women Organized for Power (1984-1986), and Alliance Against 
Women's Oppression (1988-1989). She is a member of the Association of Black 
Anthropologists (president, 1989-1991) and chair of the International Union of 
Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences since 1993. In 2004, she was awarded 
the Society for the Anthropology of North America's (SANA) Prize for Distin- 
guished Contributions to the Critical Study of North America and, in 2007, was 
honored by the Southern Anthropological Society with the Zora Neale Hurston 
Award for Mentoring, Service, and Scholarship. 

Further Resources 

University of Florida. Faculty website, http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/fayeharr/. 



490 | Harrison-Ross, Phyllis Ann 
Harrison-Ross, Phyllis Ann 



b. 1936 

Pediatrician, Psychiatrist 

Education: B.S., Albion College, 1956; M.D., Wayne State University College of 
Medicine, 1959 

Professional Experience: instructor, pediatrics, Cornell Medical School, 
1961-1962; fellow, adult psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 
1964-1966, instructor, pediatrics and psychology, 1966-1968; assistant professor 
to professor, clinical psychiatry, New York Medical College, 1968-, emerita 

Concurrent Positions: fellowship, adult psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medi- 
cine, 1964-1966; director and chief, psychiatry, Metropolitan Hospital Community 
Mental Health Center, 1973-1999; member, psychiatry, Medical Review Board, New 
York State Commission of Corrections, 1976-2008, commissioner and chair, 2008- 

Phyllis Harrison-Ross is a psychiatrist who pioneered the rehabilitation of children 
who are considered severely developmentally disabled, emotionally disturbed, or 
physically disabled. Beginning in the late 1960s, she helped to develop the first pro- 
grams in physical and mental therapy for the young. Previously, there had not been 
any school programs for such children, who either remained at home or were institu- 
tionalized. She helped to develop programs for learning environments that were then 
duplicated in the public schools. Harrison-Ross practiced psychiatry in Spanish 
Harlem and found that poverty was responsible for many of the problems faced by 
children, such as mental illness, learning disabilities, alcoholism, or living with the 
effects of child abuse. In her practice, children up to five years of age were treated 
for phobias that ranged from an inability to speak or a refusal to eat to the dread of 
walking downstairs. Harrison-Ross has been a prominent public figure in New York, 
hosting a parent-education television series in the 1970s and, later, co-hosting a radio 
talk show. She has also worked on mental health and recovery issues for survivors 
of disasters such as the World Trade Center attacks in 2001 and Hurricane Katrina 
in 2005. 

Harrison-Ross has been a professor of medicine and psychiatry at several 
institutions, including New York Medical College. For 20 years, she was direc- 
tor and chief of psychiatry at Metropolitan Hospital Community Mental Health 
Center, and since the 1970s, she has been appointed by several governors to 
sit on the Medical Review Board of the New York State Commission of Correc- 
tions, serving as chair of the Commission since 2008. She has received several 
awards, including the Leadership in Medicine Award of the Susan Smith 
McKinney Stewart Medical Society (1978), Award of Merit of the Public Health 



Hart, Helen | 491 

Association of New York City (1980), and Solomon Carter Fuller Award of the 
American Psychiatric Association (2004). She is a Distinguished Life Member 
of the American Psychiatric Association and a member of Black Psychiatrists 
of America (president, 1976-1978). 

Hart, Helen 

1900 1971 
Plant Pathologist 

Education: student, Lawrence College, 1918-1920; B.A., botany, University of 
Minnesota, 1922, A.M., 1924, Ph.D., plant pathology, 1929 

Professional Experience: instructor, plant pathology, University of Minnesota, 
1924-1933, assistant to associate professor, 1933-1947, professor, 1947-1966 

Concurrent Positions: agent, division of cereal crops and diseases, U.S. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, 1923-1933; associate editor, Phytopathology, 1938-1940, 
editor-in-chief, 1944-1951 

Helen Hart was a leader among the group of investigators in a department famous 
for its research on stem rust of cereals at the University of Minnesota. Her research 
areas were disease resistance in crop plants, cereal rusts, and stem rust of wheat. 
She was involved in efforts to track and prevent outbreaks of wheat stem rust 
across the Great Plains, which had a devastating economic impact on farmers, 
and on the development of rust-resistant varieties of plant in Minnesota. Hart's 
work and that of her advisees at the University of Minnesota (where she spent 
her entire career) represents an important and enduring contribution to the study 
of stem rust of wheat and the challenge of understanding and exploiting pathogen 
specialization and resistance among cultivated plants. 

Hart was interested in science as early as high school, but by the time she com- 
pleted her undergraduate degree in botany, she was discouraged by male profes- 
sors from pursuing a career in science due to limited employment opportunities 
for women. She persisted and was admitted to graduate school and a position as 
lab assistant. After receiving her master's degree, she began teaching at the Uni- 
versity of Minnesota while holding a joint appointment at the division of cereal 
crops and diseases of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Bureau of Plant Industry 
for over a decade. She continued to teach at the University of Minnesota at the 
level of instructor while she completed her doctorate, and then was appointed to 
a faculty position beginning in 1933. 

Hart was very active professionally, serving as associate editor and then editor- 
in-chief of Phytopathology, the principal scientific journal of the American 



492 | Harvey, Ethel Browne 

Phytopathological Society. She was the first female president of the American 
Phytopathological Society, serving from 1955 to 1956; there was not another 
woman president of that organization for another 30 years. She received the Elvin 
C. Stakman Award (named for her mentor at the University of Minnesota) for her 
work on cereal disease in 1963. In 1965, she was elected a fellow of the American 
Phytopathological Society, and she was a fellow of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science. She also was a member of the American Society of 
Plant Physiologists. 

Further Resources 

Gegenhuber, Kurt. "Helen Hart: The First Woman President of the American Phytopatho- 
logical Society." http://www.apsnet.org/online/feature/Hart/. 



Harvey, Ethel Browne 

1885 1965 
Cell Biologist 

Education: A.B., Goucher College, 1906; A.M., Columbia University, 1907, 
Ph.D., zoology, 1913 

Professional Experience: private school instructor, science, 1908-1911; assis- 
tant, biology, Princeton University, 1912-1913; private school instructor, biology, 
1913-1914; Sarah Berliner fellow, University of California, 1914-1915; assistant 
in histology, medical college, Cornell University, 1915-1916; instructor, biology, 
Washington Square College, New York University, 1928-1931; investigator, biol- 
ogy department, Princeton University, 1931-1959; Marine Biological Laboratory, 
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1959-1965 

Concurrent Positions: researcher, Oceanographic Institute, Monaco, 1920-1921; 
Naples Zoological Station, 1925-1926, 1933-1934, 1937 

Ethel Harvey revised the theory of cell division when she showed that cells of 
sea urchin eggs could divide after their nuclei had been removed. The popular 
press of the 1930s picked up the story and announced that she had "created life 
without parents." After she received her doctorate, she spent several years at the 
University of California and at Cornell in research. Although her husband, 
Edmund Newton Harvey, was also a biologist who specialized in biolumines- 
cence, they worked independently of each other. She continued her research 
part-time while her children were young, and in 1928, she taught biology at 
New York University. Starting in 1931 and spanning most of her career, 



Haschemeyer, Audrey E. V. | 493 

she was an independent investigator in the biology department at Princeton. She 
never was appointed to a full faculty position at the university. The only support 
she received for her work was office space at Princeton and a share of her hus- 
band's workspace at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Her internationally 
recognized work was unfunded with the exception of one grant in 1937 from the 
American Philosophical Society. She spent several periods on research at the 
prestigious Naples Zoological Station between 1925 and 1937. 

Harvey published nearly 100 scientific papers and one book, The American 
Arbacia and Other Sea Urchins (1956), still a standard reference for sea urchin 
embryologists. In 1950, she was the second woman to be named a trustee of the 
Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory. She received numerous awards and 
honors, including an honorary degree from Goucher College in 1956. She was 
elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
and was a member of the American Society of Naturalists and the American 
Society of Zoologists. Some early sources refer to her as "Mrs. E. Newton 
Harvey." 



Haschemeyer, Audrey E. V. 

b. 1936 

Biochemist, Environmental Physiologist 

Education: B.S., University of Illinois, 1957; Ph.D., physical chemistry, Univer- 
sity of California, Berkeley, 1961 

Professional Experience: research associate, biology, Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology, 1961-1964; assistant biologist, Massachusetts General Hospital, 
1965-1969; associate professor, biological science, Hunter College, 1969-1974, 
professor, biology and biochemistry, 1974-, chair, Department of Biological Sci- 
ence, 1980- 

Concurrent Positions: associate, Harvard Medical School, 1967-1969; graduate 
faculty, City University of New York, 1969-; chief scientist, research vessel Alpha 
Helix, Caribbean-Pacific, 1978; project director, U.S. Antarctic Research 
Program, 1978-; chief scientist, U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star, Ross Sea, 
1981; member of corporation, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole 
Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts, 1969- 

Audrey Haschemeyer is known for her research on fish in Antarctica for the purpose 
of learning how temperature changes affect some of the complex life processes 



494 | Hatfield, Elaine Catherine 

in humans. Under a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation in the 
1970s, she studied how fish make specific protein molecules, and measured how 
long the fish required to produce the protein molecules at various temperatures. 
Unfortunately, North American fish go into a hibernation state at about 10 degrees 
Celsius, but she learned that fish in McMurdo Sound do not seem affected by low 
temperatures. She and her team were able to identify the antifreeze protein in the 
fish and learned that about half of all the protein in the blood of Antarctic fish is this 
special protein. The fish have a triggering mechanism that turns off the antifreeze 
protein in warm weather and turns it on in cold weather. While trying to secure 
funding for a trip to Antarctica, she took a job in 1978 as the chief scientist aboard 
the Alpha Helix, a research ship operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanogra- 
phy, and studied tropical fish in the Galapagos Islands. 

Haschemeyer was one of the first American women scientists to conduct 
research in Antarctica. Previously, the only travel and living accommodations for 
Americans were under the control of the U.S. Navy, and it was only after women 
scientists from other countries were on-site that the Navy lifted their restrictions 
against women. In 1981, she was named Outstanding Woman Scientist by 
the New York Association of Women in Science (AWIS). She is a fellow of 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the 
American Physiological Society, American Society of Biological Chemists, and 
Biophysics Society. 

Further Resources 

Land, Barbara. 1981. The New Explorers: Women in Antarctica. New York: Dodd, 
Mead. 



Hatfield, Elaine Catherine 



b. 1937 
Psychologist 

Education: B.A., University of Michigan, 1959; Ph.D., psychology, Stanford Uni- 
versity, 1963 

Professional Experience: assistant to associate professor, sociology and psychol- 
ogy, University of Minnesota, 1963-1966; associate professor, psychology, Uni- 
versity of Rochester, 1966-1967; associate professor to professor, sociology and 
psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1967-1981; professor, psychol- 
ogy, University of Hawaii, Manoa, 1981- 



Hatfield, Elaine Catherine | 495 

Concurrent Positions: research associate, Wisconsin Family Studies Institute, 
1980-1981; family therapist, King Kalakua Center, 1982- 



Elaine Hatfield is a psychologist known for her research and writings on love, 
sex, and family life. She has examined a wide range of topics, including some 
cross-cultural studies of the preferences of men and women in marital partners 
in the United States, Russia, and Japan, and college students' dating patterns in 
the three countries. Within the family structure, she has looked at marital equality 
over the life span of the couple and problems faced by families of developmen- 
tally disabled children. She is the co-author of several general psychology texts, 
such as Interpersonal Attraction (1969; 2nd ed., 1978), Human Sexual Behavior 
(1974), and Introduction to Psychology (1979). However, her book A New Look 
at Love (1978) brought her popular attention, and the American Psychological 
Association named her the recipient of their National Media Award in 1979 for 
this publication. 

In 1987, Mirror, Mirror: The Importance of Looks in Everyday Life struck a 
chord with many people who were concerned about contemporary society's 
emphasis on good looks over integrity and performance. Hatfield begins with 
defining good looks from culture to culture and ends with discussing the pros 
and cons of look-improvement campaigns. In Western culture, the experiences of 
the good-looking and the homely differ greatly, and she showed how looks 
affect sex, marriage, self-image, personality, and social skills. She authored or 
co-authored several other books, including Psychology of Emotion (1992), 
Love, Sex, and Intimacy: Their Psychology, Biology, and History (1993), Emo- 
tional Contagion (1994), and Love 
and Sex (1996). Love, Sex, and Inti- 
macy was an updated version of the 
1978 book A New Look at Love, in 
which Hatfield and her co-author 
approached the study of relationships 
from multiple perspectives. They dis- 
cussed not only heterosexual dating 
and marital relationships, but also 
other types of close relationships such 
as homosexual ones. 

Hatfield has received the Distin- 
guished Scientist Award of the Soci- 
ety for Scientific Study of Sex 
(1994), the award of the Society of 
Experimental Social Psychology 




Psychologist Elaine Hatfield. (Courtesy of 
Elaine Hatfield) 



496 | Hawkes, Kristen 

(1993), and the Alfred Kinsey Award for research into human sexuality (1998). 
She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Society for the 
Psychological Study of Social Issues, and the American Sociological Association. 
She is a member of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology and of the 
American Association of Sex Educators and Counselors. In some sources, she is 
listed as Elaine Walster. 

Further Resources 

"Elaine Hatfield, Ph.D." http://www.elainehatfield.com/. 

University of Hawaii. Faculty website, http://socialsciences.people.hawaii.edu/faculty/? 
dept=psy&faculty=elaineh@hawaii.edu. 

O'Connell, Agnes N. and Nancy Felipe Russo, eds. 2001. Models of Achievement: Reflec- 
tions of Eminent Women in Psychology. Vol. 3. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum 
Associates. 



Hawkes, Kristen 

b. 1944 
Anthropologist 

Education: B.A., sociology and anthropology, Iowa State University, 1968; M.A., 
anthropology, University of Washington, 1970, Ph.D., anthropology, 1976 

Professional Experience: instructor, Highline Community College, 1970; 
instructor, anthropology, University of Utah, 1973-1976, assistant to associate 
professor, 1976-1987, professor, 1987-2001, Distinguished Professor, Depart- 
ment of Anthropology, University of Utah, 2001- 

Concurrent Positions: fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sci- 
ences, Stanford University, 2002-2003; collaborative scientist, Division of 
Psychobiology, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, 2005- 

Kristen Hawkes is a physical anthropologist whose areas of specialization include 
human evolution, behavioral ecology, life cycles, and sociobiology. She developed 
"the grandmother hypothesis," an evolutionary explanation for menopause in 
female humans. Hawkes suggests that infertility in older females confers an evolu- 
tionary advantage for the group, in that these women are able to invest more time 
and attention in raising their own children as well as those of younger women, who 
also face greater health risks in pregnancy and childbirth. In other words, meno- 
pause, or an end to childbearing, allows women to focus their maternal resources 
on a smaller number of children and grandchildren, ensuring the survival and 



Hay, Elizabeth Dexter | 497 

education of the next generations, and also preserves group resources (such as 
food) for a smaller group of younger childbearing women. In her research for over 
two decades on sex, aging, and life histories among modern hunter-gatherer soci- 
eties in South America and Africa, Hawkes also found that grandmothers were 
more important in securing food for young children than males through hunting 
activities. Her most recent work involves the study of aging and fertility in chim- 
panzees for further insights into human evolution. 

Hawkes earned degrees from Iowa State University before attending graduate 
school at the University of Washington, where she earned a master's degree in 
1970 and a Ph.D. in 1976. She has taught anthropology at the University of Utah 
throughout her career, and served as chair of the department between 1996 and 
2002. She has published numerous articles, encyclopedia entries, and book chap- 
ters, and served as editor on Human Evolution for the Oxford Encyclopedia of 
Evolution (2002). Her work on "The Grandmother Effect" was published in 
Nature in 2004. 

Hawkes was elected to the National Academy of Science in 2002 and is a fellow 
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Hawkes has been an invited lec- 
turer and advisory member for institutions in the United States and abroad and 
has received numerous grants for her work from the National Institutes of Health 
and National Science Foundation. In 2002, she was awarded the prestigious Rose- 
nblatt Prize from the University of Utah, which included a $40,000 faculty grant 
for excellence in interdisciplinary and international scholarship. 

Further Resources 

University of Utah. Faculty website, http://www.anthro.utah.edu/faculty/kristen 
-hawkes.html. 



Hay, Elizabeth Dexter 



1927 2007 

Embryologist, Cell Biologist, Anatomist 

Education: B.A., Smith College, 1948; M.D., Johns Hopkins University, 1952 

Professional Experience: intern, University Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, 
1952-1953, instructor to assistant professor, anatomy, School of Medi- 
cine, 1953-1957; assistant professor, Medical College of Cornell University, 
1957-1960; assistant professor, Harvard Medical School, 1960-1964, associate 



498 | Hay, Elizabeth Dexter 

professor to professor, embryology, 1964-2005, chair, department of anatomy, 
1975-1993, professor, cell biology, 1993-2005 

Elizabeth Hay was a cell biologist, embryologist, and anatomist whose research on 
cellular mechanisms aids in the understanding of the metastasis of cancer cells, 
birth defects, and childhood diseases. Hay and Jean-Paul Revel published a series 
of papers on their technique of localizing metabolic activities in cells. They 
demonstrated DNA synthesis in the nucleolus long before the widespread accep- 
tance of the idea that the nucleolus even contained DNA. In 1969, they published 
a monograph on the structure of the developing avian cornea that has become a 
classic in the field, and since that time, Hay has concentrated on studies of eye tis- 
sues and the functions of collagen and other extracellular matrix molecules. 

As an undergraduate, Hay spent her summers working at the Marine Biological 
Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, on limb regeneration. She went to medi- 
cal school at Johns Hopkins, where she was classmates with Mary Ellen Avery. 
Hay's research concentrated on salamanders and their ability to grow new limbs, 
and later, on the faculty at Johns Hopkins, she was one of the first researchers to use 
an electron microscope in the study of biological structure. In 1957, she moved to 
Cornell to conduct research with Don Fawcett, one of the foremost electron micro- 
scopists. When Fawcett moved to Harvard Medical School, Hay began teaching in 
the same department and continued her studies of limb regeneration. She was the first 
woman to chair an academic department at Harvard Medical School at a time when 
there were very few women even on the faculty. 

Hay is the author of Regeneration (1966) and Fine Structure of the Developing 
Avian Cornea (1969), and editor of Macro-molecules Regulating Growth and 
Development (1974) and Cell Biology of Extracellular Matrix (1981; 2nd ed., 
1991). She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1984. 
She received the Distinguished Achievement Award of the New York Hospital- 
Cornell Medical Center Alumni Council (1985), the Alcon Award for Vision 
Research (1988), the E. B. Wilson Award of the American Society for Cell Biol- 
ogy (1989), the Excellence in Science Award of the Federation of American Soci- 
eties for Experimental Biology (1990), and the Salute to Contemporary Women 
Scientists Award of the New York Academy of Sciences (1991), and was the first 
woman to receive the Society for Developmental Biology's Conklin Medal 
(1997). She was also the first woman president of both the Society for Develop- 
mental Biology (1973) and the American Society of Cell Biology (1976). She 
was a member of the American Association of Anatomists (president, 1981- 
1982), American Society of Zoologists (president, 1976-1977), the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the International Society of Developmental 
Biology. Harvard Medical School established a fellowship in her name, and 



Hazen, Elizabeth Lee | 499 

in 2002, Harvard held a symposium on cell biology in honor of Hay's seventy-fifth 
birthday. 

Further Resources 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 

National Institutes of Health. "Dr. Elizabeth Dexter Hay." Changing the Face of Medi- 
cine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians. National Library of Medicine, http:// 
www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography 141 .html. 



Hazen, Elizabeth Lee 

1885 1975 
Microbiologist 

Education: B.S., Mississippi State College for Women, 1910; M.S., Columbia 
University, 1917, Ph.D., microbiology, 1927 

Professional Experience: high school science teacher, 1910-1916; U.S. Army 
diagnostic laboratories, Alabama and New York, 1917-1926; instructor, College 
of Physicians and Surgeons, 1927-1931; researcher, New York State Department 
of Health, 1931-1960; guest investigator, Columbia University Mycology Labora- 
tory, 1960-1973 

Elizabeth Hazen was the co-discoverer of the antifungal antibiotic nystatin with 
Rachel Brown Fuller. Hazen was 42 years old when she received her doctorate, 
but she was recognized as an expert in the diagnosis and treatment of viral and 
bacterial infections. She was teamed with Brown in 1931, and in 1948, they dis- 
covered fungicidin, better known as "nystatin" (named for the New York State 
Department of Health, where they were employed as researchers). The range of 
uses for this antibiotic includes combating mold in human and animal food as well 
as yeast infections of the vagina, intestine, skin, and mucous membranes. It was 
also used to restore murals and manuscripts in Florence, Italy, following the 
1966 flood. After they patented their discovery, they assigned the licensing fees 
to a foundation to administer research grants under the Brown-Hazen Fund. Hazen 
was co-author of the book Laboratory Identification of Pathogenic Fungi Simpli- 
fied (1955). After she retired in 1960, she was invited as a guest investigator in 
the Mycology Laboratory at Columbia. 

Together with Rachel Brown, Hazen received the Squibb Award in Chemo- 
therapy (1955), the Sara Benham Award of the Mycological Society of America, 



500 | Hazlett, Olive Clio 



Beatrix Potter 

Best known for her beloved children's stories and charming animal illustrations, 
English author Helen Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) was also a naturalist, conserva- 
tionist, and mycologist (studier of fungi or mushrooms). She famously spent a privi- 
leged but lonely childhood in London and at the family's country home befriending 
small animals and painting watercolors. She began her career as a science illustra- 
tor, read widely in the scientific literature of her day, and formed her own theories, 
including observations on the symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae on 
lichens, and on the antibiotic properties of some fungi. She created more than 
200 drawings of fungi, and her paper on her experiments in germinating fungi 
spores was presented to the Linnaean Society of London (although, as a woman, 
Potter was not allowed to attend or present her own work). Potter thus gained some 
recognition in England as a mycologist, but discouraged by her family and by Vic- 
torian society from pursuing a scientific career, she took up writing and illustrating 
children's stories instead. Potter, of course, achieved great success and financial 
independence with The Tale of Peter Rabbit and subsequent volumes, which have 
been translated into several languages. Committed to conservation, farming, and 
animals, she eventually purchased nearly 4,000 acres, including Hill Top Farm, 
which she willed to the National Trust for preservation after her death. 



the Distinguished Service Award from the New York State Department of Health 
(1968), and the first Chemical Pioneer Award of the American Institute of Chem- 
ists (1975), and she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (1994). 

Further Resources 

Baldwin, Richard S. 1981. The Fungus Fighters: Two Women Scientists and Their Discov- 
ery. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 



Hazlett, Olive Clio 

1890 1974 
Mathematician 

Education: A.B., Radcliffe College, 1912; M.S., University of Chicago, 1913, 
Ph.D., mathematics, 1915 

Professional Experience: associate, mathematics, Bryn Mawr College, 1916-1918; 
assistant to associate professor, Mount Holyoke College, 1918-1925; assistant to 
associate professor, University of Illinois, 1925-1959 



Healy, Bernadine Patricia | 501 

Olive Hazlett was an outstanding mathematician in the area of linear algebra and 
one of the most prolific American women working in mathematics before 1940. 
After she received her doctorate from the University of Chicago, she was 
employed for two years at Bryn Mawr. She accepted a position at Mount Holyoke 
College, achieving tenure there, but then moved to the University of Illinois in 
order to have the time and the library facilities to pursue her ideas. She was 
awarded a two-year Guggenheim fellowship for the 1928-1929 academic year to 
study in Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. In spite of her research and international 
recognition as a mathematician, she never advanced beyond the level of associate 
professor in her nearly 45-year career as an academic. This was a common occur- 
rence in mathematics departments at this time, as women faculty usually taught 
the introductory courses while men taught higher-level courses and advanced to 
full professorships. 

Hazlett was very active in professional societies during the 1920s and 1930s, 
serving as associate editor of the Transactions of the American Mathematical Soci- 
ety from 1923 to 1935 and as a member of the Council of the Society from 1926 to 
1928. She was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science and was also a member of the American Mathematical Society and the 
New York Academy of Sciences. 

Further Resources 

Agnes Scott College. "Olive Clio Hazlett." Biographies of Women Mathematicians, http:// 
www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/hazlett.htm. 



Healy, Bernadine Patricia 



b. 1944 

Cardiologist, Health Administrator 

Education: B.A., Vassar College, 1965; M.D., Harvard Medical School, 1970; 
diplomate, American Board of Medical Examiners, American Board of Cardiol- 
ogy, American Board of Internal Medicine 

Professional Experience: medical intern, Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1970-1971, 
assistant resident, 1971-1972; staff fellow, pathology, National Heart, Blood, and 
Lung Institute, 1972-1974; fellow, cardiovascular, Johns Hopkins University 
School of Medicine, 1974-1976, fellow, pathology, 1975-1976, assistant profes- 
sor to professor, medicine and pathology, 1976-1984, assistant dean, postdoctoral 
programs and faculty development, 1979-1984; deputy director, Office of Science 



502 | Healy, Bernadine Patricia 

and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President, 1984-1985; chair, 
Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 1985-1991, Senior Health and 
Science Policy Advisor, 1994-; director, National Institutes of Health (NIH), 
1991-1993; dean and professor, medicine, Ohio State University College of Medi- 
cine and Public Health, 1995-1999; president, American Heart Association, 
1998-1999; president, American Red Cross, 1999-2001; health editor and colum- 
nist, U.S. News and World Report, 2003- 

Concurrent Positions: member, visiting committee, Board of Overseers, Harvard 
Medical School and School of Dental Medicine, 1985-1991; member, national 
advisory board, Johns Hopkins Center for Hospital Finance and Management, 
1987-1991; member, Board of Overseers, Harvard College, 1989-; trustee, Edison 
BioTech Center, Cleveland, 1990-; vice chair, President's Council of Advisors on 
Science and Technology, 1990-1991; member, Special Medical Advisory Group, 
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 1990-1991; chair, Advisory Panel for Basic 
Research, U.S. Office of Technical Assessment, 1990-1991 

Bernadine Healy is a cardiologist and health administrator known for her research 
in and advocacy of women's health issues. She was the first woman to head the 
NIH, from 1991 to 1993, during which time she launched a long-term $625 million 
study of 150,000 women known as the Women's Health Initiative. Probably one of 
the most significant problems Healy highlighted was that most of the clinical tests 
of medications were being conducted on adult males, even for medications 
designed for women and children. She established the policy that the NIH would 
fund only those clinical trials that included both women and men when the condi- 
tion being studied affected both sexes. She fought to increase funding for a range 
of conditions that affect women, such as breast cancer, depression, osteoporosis, 
and AIDS. Later, as president of the American Heart Association, she emphasized 
that heart disease was a major killer of women, even though it is often viewed as a 
male disease and most research funding went to study heart disease only in men. 
Healy joined the NIH at a time when the relationship between science and poli- 
tics was heating up. Congress had banned fetal-tissue research, and Healy brought 
on more controversy when she approved patent applications for 347 genes, hoping 
to promote, rather than silence, international research and debate on gene therapy. 
Healy's goal throughout her tenure at the NIH was to protect and promote ethical 
scientific inquiry without political influence, even when it meant objecting to the 
idea of a Congressional mandate to include women and minorities in clinical trials. 
Healy preferred to raise awareness about the issue and for scientists to make their 
trials more inclusive voluntarily, rather than have government "micromanage- 
ment" of research trials. In 1999, Healy became head of the American Red Cross 
and led the agency's response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. She 



Helm, June | 503 

organized the recovery work and created a national program and special funds to 
attend to the financial and emotional needs of survivors and victims' families, 
but resigned in late 2001. Since 2003, Healy has written a regular column, "On 
Health," for U.S. News and World Report. 

Healy is the author of Staying Strong and Healthy from 9 to 99 (1995), in which 
she encourages women to take charge of their health. Her efforts have been hon- 
ored by the American Heart Association, and she was named a Women's Health 
Hero by American Health for Women magazine (1997) and Humanitarian of the 
Year by the American Red Cross (1997; co-recipient with her husband, Floyd D. 
Loops, also a cardiologist). She has received the Democracy in Action Award from 
the League of Women Voters (1998), the Women Making History Award from the 
National Museum of Women's History (1998), and the YWCA Women of 
Achievement Award (1999). She is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the 
National Academy of Sciences, American Federation for Clinical Research 
(president, 1983-1984), American Medical Women's Association, and Associa- 
tion of Women in Science. 

Further Resources 

National Institutes of Health. "Dr. Bernadine Healy." Changing the Face of Medicine: Cel- 
ebrating America's Women Physicians. National Library of Medicine, http:// 
www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography 145.html. 

Bernadine Healy, M.D. U.S. News and World Report, http://www.usnews.com/opinion/ 
bhealy/index.htm. 



Helm, June 

1924 2004 
Anthropologist, Ethnologist 

Education: student, University of Kansas City, 1941; Ph.B., University of 
Chicago, 1944, M.A., 1950, Ph.D., anthropology, 1958 

Professional Experience: lecturer, anthropology, Carleton University, 
1949-1959; field officer, Northern Coordination and Research Center, Department 
of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources, Canada, 1959-1960; assistant profes- 
sor to professor, anthropology, University of Iowa, 1960-1999 

Concurrent Positions: advisor, Indian Brotherhood for Northwest Territories, 
Canada, 1974; consultant, Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry, Canada, 1975— 
1976 



504 | Helm, June 

June Helm was a sociocultural anthropologist known for her 50 years of ethno- 
graphic research and accounts of the Dene Indians, the hunting and gathering 
people of Canada's Northwest Territories. Her research contradicted that of 
other anthropologists in the areas of territorial groups, ethnohistory, political 
leadership, and sociocultural change, and her work offered a continuous and 
detailed picture of a particular region by combining historical documents with 
anthropological research. Her early research on the Dene was presented in her 
doctoral thesis in 1958. Soon after, she began her work on the Dogrib, with 
whom she worked for the next 25 years and in whose land-reclamation efforts 
she was involved. 

Helm married archaeologist Richard MacNeish in 1945 so she could accom- 
pany him to Mexico for his dissertation fieldwork — it was common at the time 
for researchers who planned to conduct joint fieldwork to marry. At the Univer- 
sity of Chicago, she had completed a two-year Ph.B. general education program, 
then moved to Canada with her husband, who worked for the National Museum 
of Canada. Accompanying him on a fieldtrip to the Northwest Territories in 
1950, Helm (now holding a master's degree) accepted a position to teach 
English to children of the Slave Indians, a division of the Dene/Athabaskan peo- 
ple, which gave her an entree to the community as an ethnologist and opened up 
a career-long study for her. While completing her Ph.D., she also held a lecture- 
ship at Carleton University but, after receiving her doctorate in 1958, the same 
year the couple divorced, she accepted a position at the University of Iowa. At 
Iowa, she helped establish a separate anthropology department and oversaw the 
creation of the American Indian Native Studies program. She taught at Iowa 
for nearly 40 years, continuing to meet with and advise students even after suf- 
fering a stroke in 1989. 

Helm published several books, including Lynx Point People: The Dynamics of a 
Northern Athapaskan Band (1961) and Indians of the Subarctic (1976), Social 
Contexts of American Ethnology, 1840-1984 (1985), Prophecy and Power among 
the Dogrib Indians (1994), and The People ofDenendeh: Ethnohistory of the Indians 
of Canada's Northwest Territories (2000). She also edited a volume on the 
Subarctic for the Handbook of North American Indians, published by the Smithso- 
nian (1981). She was a member of the Ethnological Society of America (president, 
198 1-1983), a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
and the American Anthropological Association (president, 1985-1987), and 
elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1994). She was also hon- 
ored for her teaching excellence at the University of Iowa with the Regents' Award 
for Faculty Excellence (1995) and as the F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor 
of Anthropology (1996-1999). 



Herzenberg, Caroline Stuart (Littlejohn) | 505 

Further Resources 

Andrews, T. 2004. "June Helm (1924 2004)." ARCTIC. Journal of the Arctic Institute of 
North America. 57(2): 220 222. 

University of Iowa. "June Helm (1924 2004)." Reprinted from American Anthropological 
Association, Anthropology News, 45(4): 28 29. http://www.clas.uiowa.edu/faculty/ 
memorials/helm.shtml. 

Gacs, Ute et al. 1988. Women Anthropologists: Selected Biographies. Westport, CT: 
Greenwood Press. 



Herzenberg, Caroline Stuart (Littlejohn) 

b. 1932 
Physicist 

Education: B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1953; M.S., University 
of Chicago, 1955, Ph.D., physics, 1958 

Professional Experience: research associate, nuclear physics, University of 
Chicago, 1958-1959; research associate, Argonne National Laboratory, 1959- 
1961; assistant professor, physics, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), 1961— 
1967; research physicist to senior physicist, IIT Research Institute, 1967-1971; 
consultant, 1971-1972; visiting associate professor, physics, University of Illinois 
Medical Center, 1972-1974; consultant, 1974-1975; lecturer, physics, California 
State University, Fresno, 1975-1976; physicist, Argonne National Laboratory, 
1977-2001; consultant, 2001- 

Caroline Herzenberg is a physicist known for her pioneering research on the 
Mossbauer effect, for studying the first lunar samples returned to Earth from the 
Apollo missions, and for developing analytic instruments for fossil-fuel studies. 
In addition, she has publicized the accomplishments of women scientists and 
worked to further the science careers of young women. She measured the products 
of nuclear reactions between lithium isotopes and those of lithium, beryllium, and 
boron. These studies pioneered some of the earliest heavy-ion work. As a postdoc- 
toral fellow at the Argonne National Laboratory, her research focus shifted to 
Mossbauer spectroscopy. She and several colleagues verified the existence of and 
went on to do pioneering work on the Mossbauer effect (named in the 1950s after 
Rudolph Mossbauer), which is the phenomenon whereby the atom in a crystal 
undergoes no recoil when emitting a gamma ray, giving all the emitted energy to 
the gamma ray and resulting in a sharply defined wavelength. 



506 | Hewlett, Sylvia Ann 

At the Illinois Institute of Technology, Herzenberg set up a Mossbauer-effect 
research facility and began to explore geological applications of the effect. She 
published the spectra of different rock types, noting the potential for using the 
Mossbauer spectrometry technique to analyze rocks and minerals from lunar 
and planetary surfaces. She submitted a proposal to the National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration (NASA) and was appointed a principal investigator 
for analyzing the lunar samples from the Apollo missions. Since the Mossbauer 
technique requires minute samples for nondestructive testing, it was an ideal 
analytical technique. Her group clearly identified the presence of free metallic 
iron and ilmenite, and verified the presence of other iron-containing minerals 
in the lunar samples. Even with a lucrative grant from NASA, she was denied 
tenure at IIT and moved on to other research positions and work as a consultant 
before settling at the Argonne National Laboratory. At Argonne, she joined a 
fossil-energy instrumentation program that focused on developing instrumenta- 
tion for process control of a new generation of coal conversion and combustion 
plants. She developed nuclear techniques for noninvasive measuring of the com- 
position and flow rate of coal slurries and pulverized coal in pneumatic transport 
pipes, studying applications for fossil-energy utilization, radioactive waste dis- 
posal, technology for arms-control verification, and radiological emergency pre- 
paredness. Since her retirement from Argonne in 2001, she has been an 
independent consultant and speaker. 

In 1989, she was the first scientist to be inducted into the Chicago Women's 
Hall of Fame. In addition to her scientific publications, she published Women Sci- 
entists from Antiquity to the Present (1986), a compendium of sources for informa- 
tion about women scientists throughout history. She co-authored with Ruth H. 
Howes Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan Project (1999), an over- 
view of the many female physicists, chemists, mathematicians, and others who 
worked on the World War II-era development of the atomic bomb. Herzenberg 
is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the 
American Physical Society. She is a member of the Association of Women in Sci- 
ence (president, 1988-1990) and the Federation of American Scientists. 



Hewlett, Sylvia Ann 

b. 1946 
Economist 

Education: B.A., Cambridge University, 1967, M.A, 1971; Ph.D., economics, 
London School of Economics and Political Science, 1973 



Hewlett, Sylvia Ann | 507 



Professional Experience: research fellow, Cambridge University, 1972-1974; as- 
sistant professor, economics, Barnard College, 1979-1981; vice president for Eco- 
nomic Studies, United Nations, 1981-1986; independent author, 1986-; chair and 
founding president, Center for Work-Life Policy (formerly National Parenting 
Association), 1993— 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct faculty, Gender and Policy Program, School of 
International and Public Affairs, Columbia University 

Sylvia Hewlett is a feminist economist who examines the status of women and the 
family in American society. Her chief argument throughout her various works is 
that in the drive for equality in the workplace, feminists ignored the fact that many 
women want to be mothers and therefore did not demand paid medical and mater- 
nity leaves, tax exemptions for children, or government-funded childcare, guaran- 
tees that are prevalent in many European countries. Hewlett's interest in this topic 
began with her own experience as a new professor in the early 1980s when she was 
surprised to learn she had only a few weeks paid leave after the birth of her first 
child. She worked to establish maternity leave policy and childcare facilities at 
her institution, only to be discouraged by both male and female colleagues. Frus- 
trated with the tenure requirements 
for a woman with a family, she left 
academia for a position with the 
United Nations as vice president for 
economic studies. 

Although she published several 
early books on South American fiscal 
policy, Hewlett is best known for her 
studies of feminism and economic 
policy. In the controversial A Lesser 
Life: The Myth of Women's Libera- 
tion in America (1986), she argued 
that the feminist focus on the Equal 
Rights Amendment was misguided 
and irrelevant to most American 
women. She believed that feminists 
in the 1970s ignored the realities of 
family life by not attempting to enact 
family-friendly legislation. She 
followed up with When the Bough 
Breaks: The Cost of Neglecting Our 
Children (1991) and The War against 




Economist and feminist Sylvia Hewlett has 
written several books on the status of women 
and the family in American society. (Erica 
Berger/Corbis) 



508 | Hibbard, Hope 

Parents: What We Can Do for America's Beleaguered Moms and Dads (1998; co- 
authored with Cornel West), providing data on the wage gap between women and 
men, the low income of divorced women with children, and the lack of adequate 
prenatal care and childcare facilities in this country that makes raising children 
nearly economically impossible for many Americans. Her other books include 
Creating a Life: What Every Woman Needs to Know about Having a Baby and a 
Career (2004) and Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the 
Road to Success (2007), both of which deal with the economic and social costs 
of women taking time off from careers to raise families and obstacles on trying 
to reenter the workforce. Her most recent book is Top Talent: Keeping Perfor- 
mance Up When Business Is Down (2009). 

Hewlett continues her focus on these concerns as director of the Center for 
Work-Life Policy, a nonprofit organization (founded in 1993 as the National 
Parenting Association) focused on policy issues related to work and family 
life, and heads a task force of global corporations on the issue of hiring and 
retaining female and minority talent. In 2008, the Center released a report on 
"The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and 
Technology." Hewlett has maintained a highly visible presence in the media to 
talk about these issues and has appeared on numerous television and news 
outlets, including 60 Minutes, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Oprah, 
and NPR. 

Further Resources 

"Sylvia Ann Hewlett." http://www.sylviaannhewlett.com/. 
"Center for Work-Life Policy." http://www.worklifepolicy.org/. 



Hibbard, Hope 

1893 1988 

Zoologist, Marine Biologist 

Education: A.B., University of Missouri, 1916, A.M., 1918; Ph.D., zoology, Bryn 
Mawr College, 1921, Sarah Berliner fellow, 1925-1926; D.es Sc, zoology, Uni- 
versity of Paris (Sorbonne), Paris, 1928 

Professional Experience: demonstrator, biology, Bryn Mawr College, 1919-1920; 
associate professor, Elmira College, 1921-1925; preparateur, comparative anatomy 
techniques laboratory, University of Paris, 1926-1927; fellow, International 



Hicks, Beatrice Alice | 509 

Education Board, 1927-1928; assistant to associate professor, zoology, Oberlin 
College, 1928-1933, professor, 1933-1961 

Hope Hibbard was recognized by her contemporaries for her research on the cytol- 
ogy (or cell biology) and tissue studies of marine invertebrates, such as limpets, 
worms, squid, and the Golgi apparatus. After receiving her doctorate from Bryn 
Mawr on the fertilization of sea urchin eggs, she was employed as a demonstrator 
in biology at the school for one year. She then taught at Elmira College as associ- 
ate professor for four years before traveling to the University of Paris (the Sor- 
bonne) on a postgraduate fellowship from the American Association of 
University Women (AAUW). She remained in Paris on another fellowship from 
the International Education Board and received another doctorate there in 1928. 

She returned to the United States and was appointed assistant professor of zool- 
ogy at Oberlin College, where she spent the remainder of her career, advancing to 
full professor and serving for four years as department chair. In addition to her 
duties at Oberlin, she also served as a trustee at the Woods Hole Marine Biological 
Laboratory in Massachusetts. 

Hibbard was a member of several professional societies, including the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, the AAUW, the American Society of 
Naturalists, and the American Society of Zoologists. She was particularly con- 
cerned about the role of women in science and gave numerous lectures for the 
AAUW and other organizations on women's education and employment prospects. 

Further Resources 

Papers of Hope Hibbard. Oberlin College archives, http://www.oberlin.edu/archive/ 
resources/women/group30.html. 



Hicks, Beatrice Alice 

1919 1979 
Engineer 

Education: B.S., chemical engineering, Newark College of Engineering, 1939; 
M.S., physics, Stevens Institute of Technology, 1949 

Professional Experience: research assistant, Newark College of Engineering, 
1939-1942; researcher, design and manufacturing, Western Electric Company, 
1942-1945; chief engineer, Newark Controls Company, 1945-1946, vice 
president and chief engineer, 1946-1955, president, 1955-1966; head, Rodney 
D. Chipp and Associates, 1967-1979 



510 I Hockfield, Susan 

Beatrice Hicks was one of the few early women scientists who owned their own 
companies. When her father died, Hicks became vice president and chief engi- 
neer of the family-owned Newark Controls Company, a company founded by 
her engineer father. She later bought control and became president of the com- 
pany, which designed and manufactured temperature-sensing devices and con- 
trols to meet specific environmental specifications. She began her career as a 
research assistant after receiving her chemical engineering degree from Newark 
College of Engineering (later the New Jersey Institute of Technology). She 
accepted a position first as a technician and then in research design and manu- 
facturing as one of the first female engineers at Western Electric Company in 
1942. (During World War II, many corporations hired their first women scien- 
tists and engineers in professional positions due to the shortage of available 
men.) After taking over her father's company, she went on to earn her master's 
degree in physics from Stevens Institute and took further graduate work in elec- 
trical engineering at Columbia University. She sold Newark Controls after her 
husband, Rodney Chipp, died in 1966, and she took over running his engineer- 
ing consulting firm. She later established a Rodney D. Chipp Award from the 
Society of Women Engineers (SWE) for individuals or companies that promoted 
women in high-level engineering positions. 

Hicks was one of the founders of SWE and was the first president, serving 
from 1950 to 1953. In 1964, she was director of the SWE's First International 
Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists. Hicks was elected to the National 
Academy of Engineering in 1978. She received honorary degrees from Hobart and 
William Smith Colleges (1958), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1965), Stevens 
Institute of Technology (1978), and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (1978). She 
was chosen Alumna of the Year for Newark College of Engineering (1962) and 
received the SWE Achievement Award (1963). She was a member of the Institute 
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, National Society of Professional Engi- 
neers, and American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 



Hockfield, Susan 

b. 1951 
Neuroscientist 

Education: B.S., biology, University of Rochester, New York, 1973; Ph.D., neuro- 
science and anatomy, Georgetown University School of Medicine, 1979; M.A., 
Yale University, 1994 



Hockfield, Susan | 511 

Professional Experience: National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow, 
anatomy and neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco, 1979-1980; 
junior staff investigator, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, 1980-1982, 
senior staff investigator, 1982-1985; assistant professor, neurobiology, Yale 
University School of Medicine, 1985-1989, associate professor, 1989-1994, 
professor, 1994-2004 (William Edward Gilbert Professor of Neurobiology, 
2001-2004), provost, Yale University, 2003-2004; president and professor, neuro- 
science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 2004- 



Susan Hockfield is a neurobiologist who, in 2004, became the first woman 
president of MIT. She is also the first life scientist to be president of MIT, which 
was founded in 1865 and known for its engineering and physical sciences pro- 
grams. Hockfield received her undergraduate degree in biology from the Univer- 
sity of Rochester, intending to become a physician, and went on to earn a 
doctorate in neuroscience and anatomy from Georgetown University in 1979. As 
a graduate student, she researched pain and the nervous system. She was a staff 
scientist and summer neurobiology program director at Cold Spring Harbor 
Laboratory in New York for five years and worked with Nobel Prize-winning 
geneticist James Watson. In 1985, 
she joined the faculty of Yale Univer- 
sity Medical School, where she also 
eventually earned a master's degree 
in administration and became dean 
of graduate studies and then provost. 
In addition to these administrative 
duties, she continued her own scien- 
tific research on mammalian brain 
cells and brain tumors, work for 
which she holds at least three patents. 
She has served on numerous advisory 
committees for academic, corporate, 
and government boards. She was 
recruited to MIT as president in 2004. 
Hockfield is a fellow of the Ameri- 
can Academy of Arts and Science, 
American Association for the 

Advancement of Science, and Council _ , .. , ,. 

Susan Hockfield, the first female president at 

on Foreign Relations. She is a member the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
of the Society for Neuroscience and 2004. (AP/Wide World Photos) 




5 1 2 I Hoffleit, (Ellen) Dorrit 

the recipient of the Charles Judson Herrick Award of the American Association of 
Anatomists (1987), Wilbur L. Cross Medal from Yale (2003), Meliora Citation for 
Career Achievement from the University of Rochester (2003), and Citation Award 
from the Midwest Research Institute. She has also received honorary doctorates from 
Tsinghua University, China (2006), Watson School of Biological Sciences at Cold 
Spring Harbor Laboratory (2006), Brown University (2006), Mount Sinai School of 
Medicine at New York University (2009), and University of Edinburgh, Scotland 
(2009). 

Further Resources 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Susan Hockfield: President, Massachusetts Insti- 
tute of Technology." http://web.mit.edu/hockfield/. 



Hoffleit, (Ellen) Dorrit 

1907 2007 
Astronomer 

Education: A.B., Radcliffe College, 1928, M.A., 1932, Ph.D., astronomy, 1938 

Professional Experience: assistant, Harvard Observatory, 1929-1938, research 
associate, 1938-1943; mathematician, ballistic research laboratories, Aberdeen 
Proving Ground, 1943-1948; astronomer, Harvard Observatory, 1948-1956; 
research associate, Yale Observatory, 1956-1969, senior research astronomer, 
1969-1975 

Concurrent Positions: technical consultant, Aberdeen Proving Ground, 
1948-1961; lecturer, Wellesley College, 1955-1956; director, summer programs, 
Maria Mitchell Observatory, 1956-1978 

Dorrit Hoffleit was an astronomer who discovered 1,000 new variable stars and 
studied their modes of variation. She began working for the Harvard Observatory 
in 1929 after receiving her undergraduate degree from Radcliffe, and she contin- 
ued on the staff while receiving her master's degree and doctorate. In 1943, she 
was hired as a mathematician at Aberdeen Proving Ground, continuing there as a 
technical consultant from 1948 to 1961. (Many female scientists during World 
War II were hired by government agencies or under government contracts due to 
the wartime shortage of male scientists. Some continued in these positions, some 
continued to consult, and some went on to other work.) She returned to the 
Harvard Observatory as an astronomer in 1948 and moved to the Yale Observatory 



Hoffman, Darleane (Christian) | 513 



in 1956. From 1956 to 1978, she had a 
concurrent appointment as the direc- 
tor of the Maria Mitchell Observatory 
at Nantucket, Massachusetts. Even 
though she officially retired from Yale 
in 1975, she maintained office hours 
and continued her research well into 
her nineties. Hoffleit lived to celebrate 
her hundredth birthday. 

In addition to her scientific papers, 
Hoffleit published two books: Some 
Firsts in Astronomical Photogra- 
phy (1950) and Bright Star Catalogue 
(1964). She was president of the 
American Association of Variable 
Star Observers (AAVSO) from 1961 
to 1963 and was editor of the journal 
Meteoritics. One of her interests was 
the history of astronomy in the nine- 
teenth and twentieth centuries. She 
wrote biographical sketches of Maria 
Mitchell, Williamina Fleming, and 
Annie Cannon for several reference 
books and, in 1992, published a 

history, Astronomy at Yale, 1701-1968. She also wrote an autobiography, 
Misfortunes as Blessings in Disguise: The Story of My Life, published by AAVSO 
in 2002. Hoffleit contributed news items and occasional book reviews to Sky & 
Telescope magazine from the early 1940s until her final submission in 1997, at the 
age of 90 years old. She received the George Van Biesbroeck Prize (1988) and 
the Annenberg Prize (1993), both of the American Astronomical Society. 
She was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
Meteoritical Society, International Astronomical Union, and American Astronomical 
Society. 




Astronomer Dorrit Hoffleit, author of one of 
the most used catalogs on the cosmos. 
(AP/Wide World Photos) 



Hoffman, Darleane (Christian) 



b. 1926 
Nuclear Chemist 



Education: B.S., Iowa State University, 1948, Ph.D., physical chemistry, 1951 



514 | Hoffman, Darleane (Christian) 

Professional Experience: assistant, Ames Laboratory, U.S. Atomic Energy Com- 
mission, 1947-1951; chemist, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1951-1952; staff 
member, Associate Group Leader, Division Leader of Chemistry and Nuclear 
Chemistry and Isotope and Nuclear Chemistry Divisions, Los Alamos National 
Laboratory, 1952-1984; professor, chemistry and senior scientist, Nuclear Science 
Division, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, 1984-; direc- 
tor, Glenn T. Seaborg Institute of Transactinium Science, Lawrence Livermore 
National Laboratory, 1991-1996; Senior Advisor and Charter Director, Seaborg 
Institute, 1996- 

Darleane Hoffman is a major international figure in nuclear chemistry who, in her 
early research on the separations processes of the heavy elements, developed tech- 
niques that still are in use today. Her original interest in chemical separations made 
her a leading figure in the studies of the heaviest elements. She was a project 
leader of the radionuclide migration project at the Nevada test site in 1975 to 
determine the potential for radionuclide migration away from the site of under- 
ground nuclear tests. Her findings later led to the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage 
Investigation Program to find a suitable site for an underground nuclear repository 
at the Nevada test site. It was also at Los Alamos that she discovered plutonium- 
244 in nature. Her group performed the first aqueous chemistry on hahnium 
(element 105) using the longest known isotope, which has a half-life of only 
35 seconds. In collaboration with German and Swiss scientists, her group pro- 
duced and studied isotopes of element 103 (Lr) and element 105 as Ha-262 and 
Ha-263. In 1999, her group discovered the first super-heavy elements, 118, 116, 
and 114. 

While still an undergraduate, Hoffman received a research assistantship at Iowa 
State University's Institute of Atomic Research and became fascinated with the 
study of radioactivity. She continued at Iowa State as a graduate student and met 
her future husband there; they married shortly after she received her doctorate in 
1951. When she accepted a position at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, her hus- 
band, Marvin Hoffman, remained at Ames to complete his degree in physics; they 
both moved to Los Alamos after he completed his degree. Over the course of her 
long career, she conducted her research at all of the major national laboratories, 
and in 1991, she became director of the Seaborg Institute of Transactinium Sci- 
ence at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. She was a member of the 
Cold Fusion Panel of the Department of Energy to examine claims to the discov- 
ery of cold fusion (1989-1990). 

Hoffman was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1997. She was the first 
woman to receive the Award for Nuclear Chemistry of the American Chemical 
Society (ACS) (1983), and she was awarded the Garvan Medal of the ACS(1989), 



Hollingworth, Leta Anna Stetter | 515 

the ACS Priestley Medal (2000), and the Mosher Award of the ACS (2000). She is 
a fellow of the American Institute of Chemists, the American Physical Society, 
and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American 
Chemical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 
In 2000, she was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall 
of Fame. 

Further Resources 

University of California, Berkeley. Faculty website, http://chem.berkeley.edu/faculty/ 
hoffman/index.php. 



Hollingworth, Leta Anna Stetter 

1886 1939 
Psychologist 

Education: B.A., University of Nebraska, 1906; M.A., education, Columbia Uni- 
versity, 1913, Ph.D., educational psychology, 1916 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, 1906-1908; clinical psychologist, 
Bellevue Hospital, 1914-1916; instructor, Teachers' College, Columbia Univer- 
sity, 1917-1928, professor, 1929-1939 

Leta Hollingworth published on the psychology of women and children, and was 
particularly interested in educational psychology and testing. At a time when it 
was commonly considered that men were intellectually superior to women, she 
measured sex differences in selected traits and types of performance to show that 
women could function as well as men in educational and professional pursuits. 
Hollingworth never had children, but in a 1927 article on "The New Woman in 
the Making," she explained the biological and psychological dilemma for women 
as they grappled with the question of "[h]ow to reproduce the species and at the 
same time to win satisfaction of the human appetites for food, security, self- 
assertion, mastery, adventure, play, and so forth." These studies made her popular 
in feminist circles, and she and her husband marched in suffrage parades. She felt 
that reform in attitudes would do as much to improve women's status as political 
reform. Hollingworth had originally planned to be a writer, but decided to obtain 
a teaching certificate in order to support herself. She married in 1908 and moved 
with her husband, Harry L. Hollingworth, to New York, where he completed his 
graduate degree and became a faculty member at Barnard. Finding no writing or 
teaching job for a married woman, she decided to further her education, beginning 



516 I Hollinshead, Ariel Cahill 

with graduate courses in literature but soon developing an interest in psychology. 
She eventually combined her interests in education and psychology by accepting 
a position in the psychology department of Teachers College in 1917, where she 
remained the rest of her career, eventually achieving the level of professor. 

While pursuing her doctorate at Columbia, Hollingworth had worked part-time 
administering intelligence tests at the Clearing House for Mental Defectives and 
then as a clinical psychologist at Bellevue Hospital, where she began her work on 
adolescents. In 1914, she was appointed to fill New York City's first civil service 
position for a psychologist. This early work in New York hospitals and schools 
led to an interest in the mental abilities and special educational needs of children. 
Her books on the topic were widely read and represented significant contributions 
to the field. These included The Psychology of Subnormal Children (1920), Special 
Talents and Defects (1923), and her two books on gifted children, Gifted Children 
(1926) and Children above 180 1. Q. (1942, published posthumously). Her textbook 
on The Psychology of the Adolescent (1928) became the standard taught in college 
courses. At Teachers College, she established a guidance laboratory to carry out 
testing and counseling, and she consulted for school systems to obtain research 
data. She was instrumental in establishing in 1936 the Speyer School in the New 
York City School system to study exceptional children. 

Although she spent her career in New York, she was the daughter of migrants to 
the prairie and had strong ties to her home state of Nebraska, where she was raised 
in a sod house and educated in a one-room school. She received an honorary 
degree from the University of Nebraska in 1937. After her death, a collection of 
her poetry was privately published as Prairie Years (1940) and her husband wrote 
a biography, Leta Stetter Hollingworth (1943). 

Hollinshead, Ariel Cahill 

b. 1929 

Pharmacologist, Cancer Researcher 

Education: B.A., zoology, Ohio University, 1951; M.A., George Washington Uni- 
versity, 1955, Ph.D., pharmacology, 1957 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral research fellow, virology, Baylor Univer- 
sity Medical Center, Texas, 1958-1959; assistant to associate professor, pharma- 
cology, George Washington University, 1959-1973, professor, medicine, George 
Washington Medical Center, 1974-1991, research professor emerita 

Concurrent Positions: director, Laboratory for Virus and Cancer Research, 
George Washington University, 1964-1989 



Hopper, Grace Murray | 517 

Ariel Hollinshead was the first person to identify animal and human antigens in 
cancerous tumors, and she is also the first to purify, develop, and test cancer- 
gene chemotherapy products that induce long-lasting cell-mediated immunity. In 
her research, she devised a new technique for isolating the antigens intact from 
the membranes by using low-frequency sound, which gently separates out the anti- 
gens without damaging them. She began her career investigating vaccines for 
human lung cancer, moved into the field of ovarian cancer in the 1980s, and then 
worked on developing new forms of HIV and AIDS therapy. She spent her entire 
career at George Washington University and Medical Center, where she taught 
pharmacology, immunology, virology, and oncology. She also founded and then 
directed the Laboratory for Virus and Cancer Research for nearly 25 years. 

Hollinshead began her undergraduate career at Swarthmore College, but trans- 
ferred to Ohio University, where she studied zoology and chemistry. After receiving 
her bachelor's degree in 1951, she began graduate work at George Washington Uni- 
versity, earning both a master's degree and a Ph.D. in pharmacology. She spent a year 
as a postdoctoral fellow in virology at Baylor University in Texas, then moved to 
Washington, D.C., to begin her long affiliation with George Washington University. 
She has also been committed to science education and careers for women, and estab- 
lished the group Professional Opportunities for Women in Science (POWS). 

Hollinshead was the first woman appointed to chair the Review Board of 
Oncology for the Veterans Administration in 1977. Among her awards are the 
Medical Woman of the Year Award of the Board of American Medical Colleges 
(1975), the Star of Europe Medal (1980), an honorary doctorate from her alma 
mater, Ohio University (1980), and Italy's Scholar Speciale Medicina Silver 
Medal (1990). She is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and 
American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the 
New York Academy of Sciences, International Society for Preventive Oncology, 
National Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, American Society for 
Microbiology, American Association of Cancer Research, American Association 
of Immunologists, and American Medical Writers Association. 



Hopper, Grace Murray 



1906 1992 

Mathematician, Computer Scientist 

Education: B.A., math and physics, Vassar College, 1928; M.A., Yale University, 
1930, Ph.D., mathematics, 1934 



518 | Hopper, Grace Murray 

Professional Experience: assistant, mathematics, Vassar College, 1931-1934, 
instructor, 1934-1939, assistant to associate professor, 1939-1946; research fel- 
low, engineering science and applied physics, Computational Laboratory, Harvard 
University, 1946-1949; systems engineer, UNIVAC Division, Eckert-Mauchly 
Corporation (later Remington Rand and Sperry), 1949-1953, director, Automatic 
Programming, 1953-1959, chief engineer, 1959-1961, staff scientist, 196 1— 
1971; Special Advisor to Commander, Naval Data Automation Command, U.S. 
Department of Navy, 1967-1986; consultant, Digital Equipment Corporation, 
1986-1992 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct professor, Moore School of Electrical Engineer- 
ing, University of Pennsylvania, 1963-1971; professor, George Washington Uni- 
versity, 1971-1978 

Grace Hopper was a mathematician whose achievements in the design of software 
for digital computers spanned three computer generations. She is best known for 
her contribution to early programming languages, in particular the development 
of COBOL (or Common Business Oriented Language), a more accessible pro- 
gramming language intended for universal business applications. After receiving 
her undergraduate degree from Vassar College in 1928, she taught mathematics 
there for 15 years, rising through the ranks to associate professor, and completing 
both a master's and a doctorate in mathematics from Yale University. During 
World War II, she took a leave of absence to join the U.S. Navy's Women 
Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Services (WAVES), where she spent three 
years working on ordnance problems at the Harvard computer laboratory. In 
1946, she resigned from Vassar to take an assistantship at Harvard to continue 
work on computer software. She had joined the U.S. Naval Reserves in 1943 and 
it was under these auspices that she worked on the Bureau of Ships Computation 
Project at Harvard, developing a programmable digital computer for the Navy. 
She then moved to the Eckert-Mauchly Corporation (which sold to Remington 
Rand, then Sperry, and much later became known as Unisys) to head its automatic 
programming section for the UNIVAC computer. 

Hopper retired officially in 1971 and taught for several years at George 
Washington University before returning to active military duty for what was 
essentially a second phase of her career designing computer software as head of 
the programming language section. By the time she retired a second time in 
1986, she was the oldest officer on active duty in the Navy to hold the rank of 
commodore (subsequently changed to rear admiral). In 1996, four years after her 
death, the U.S. Navy missile destroyer ship, the USS Hopper (nicknamed 
"Amazing Grace"), was launched in memory of her service and contributions to 



Horner, Matina (Souretis) | 519 

computer science. In addition to her numerous conference papers and journal 
articles, Hopper co-authored a textbook, Understanding Computers (1984). 

Hopper was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1973. She 
received honorary degrees from at least 10 universities in the United States and 
abroad. She received an Achievement Award of the Society of Women Engineers 
(1964) and was named "Man of the Year" by the Data Processing Management 
Association (1969). Hopper received many of her highest honors and recognition 
after her retirement, including the Defense Distinguished Service Medal (1986), 
a Computer History Museum Fellow Award (1987), and the National Medal of 
Technology (1991). In 1971, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 
created the Grace Murray Hopper Award for Outstanding Young Computer 
Professionals in her name. She was a fellow of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 
Franklin Institute, Association of Computer Programmers and Analysts, Associa- 
tion for Computing Machinery, and in 1973 was the first American (and first 
woman) named a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society. 

Further Resources 

Williams, Kathleen Broome. 2001. Improbable Warriors: Women Scientists and the US 
Navy in World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. 

Williams, Kathleen Broome. 2004. Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea. Annapolis, 
MD: Naval Institute Press. 



Horner, Matina (Souretis) 

b. 1939 
Psychologist 

Education: B.A., Bryn Mawr College, 1961; M.S., University of Michigan, 1963, 
Ph.D., psychology, 1968 

Professional Experience: lecturer, University of Michigan, 1968-1969; lecturer, 
social relations, Harvard University, 1969-1970, assistant professor, clinical psy- 
chology, 1970-1972, consultant, University Health Services, 1971-1989; associ- 
ate professor, psychology, 1972-1989, president, Radcliffe College, 1972-1989; 
executive vice president, TIAA-CREF, 1989-2003 

Matina Horner is known for her research on the analysis of achievement motiva- 
tion among women. She theorized that many highly intelligent women fear that 



520 | Horning, Marjorie G. 

academic or business success will undermine their femininity and that they will be 
criticized for their ambition rather than encouraged in it. Such women develop 
strong anxieties and unconsciously underachieve. Horner started her study of 
achievement motivation while still an undergraduate in the late 1950s; while con- 
ducting research for her doctorate in the 1960s, she found that although male stu- 
dents were confident they would achieve success in work, life, and family, female 
students were inconsistent in their replies. The mixed message that young women 
should do well academically but ultimately define success through marriage and 
family rather than personal achievement may cause the fear-of-success syndrome. 

As a psychology professor, Horner found that although Radcliffe women were 
highly intelligent and successful at college, they were not going on to high- 
profile careers. Her research revealed that male Harvard students held images of 
Radcliffe women as dull, uninteresting, and unattractive, and that the self-esteem 
of female students suffered from such stereotypes. She advocated building wom- 
en's confidence during the college years while helping men learn to be more com- 
fortable working alongside successful women. As president of Radcliffe, Horner 
worked to integrate the academic and social lives of students at the two schools. 
She came to Radcliffe at the age of only 32, the youngest president in the college's 
history. She left in 1989 to become executive vice president of TIAA-CREF, a pri- 
vate retirement insurance agency for educators. 

Horner has received 20 honorary degrees. She is a member of the American 
Psychological Association and the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Women's Research and 
Education Institute (WREI). 

Horning, Marjorie G. 

b. 1917 

Pharmacologist, Biochemist 

Education: B.A., Goucher College, 1938; M.S., University of Michigan, 1940, 
Ph.D., biological chemistry, 1943 

Professional Experience: research associate, pediatrics, University of Michigan 
Hospital, 1944-1945; research chemist, University of Pennsylvania, 1945-1950; 
biochemist, National Heart Institute, 1951-1961; associate professor, biochemis- 
try, College of Medicine, Baylor University, Texas, 1961-1969, professor, bio- 
chemistry, Institute for Lipid Research, 1969-retired 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct professor, biochemical and biophysical sciences, 
University of Houston 



Horstmann, Dorothy Millicent | 521 

Marjorie Horning is renowned for her pioneering research on techniques for study- 
ing how drugs are broken down and used by the human body. In the 1960s and 
1970s, she researched the transfer of drugs from a pregnant woman to her child. 
As late as 1968, the placenta was considered a barrier that kept the fetus from harm, 
but Horning showed that virtually every drug taken by a pregnant woman reaches 
her unborn child, either in its original form or broken down into by-products. She 
also found that drugs taken by a nursing mother reach the child through breast milk. 
This research laid the foundation for subsequent work in preventing drug-induced 
birth defects, and linking pregnancy health to later behavioral or learning prob- 
lems. Homing's research had significant implications during the 1980s and 
1990s, when the number of babies who were born with drug or alcohol addiction 
increased. Armed with research that even nonprescription medications such as 
aspirin could be passed on to the fetus with potentially harmful effects, doctors 
began to warn pregnant women to avoid alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes completely 
during pregnancy, and to limit their use even before conception. 

Homing's research methods were also pathbreaking. She and her husband, 
Evan Homing, were at the forefront of applying gas chromatology to the solution 
of biological problems in the 1950s, and their use of trace analysis by gas chroma- 
tography was a major breakthrough for the field of analytical biochemistry in the 
early 1960s. Later, Horning used mass spectrometry to identify the metabolic 
switching of drug pathways, and she has worked with the atmospheric pressure 
ionization mass spectrometer, which allows detection at minute levels. The Hom- 
ings received the Outstanding Achievement in Mass Spectrometry Award from the 
American Chemical Society in 1989. 

Horning has received the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society 
(1977), and she and her husband shared the Warner-Lambert Award of the American 
Association of Clinical Chemists (1976). She is a member of the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science, American Chemical Society, and New York 
Academy of Sciences. She was also a member of the American Society of Pharma- 
cology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET), and served as the first female 
president of that organization in 1984. 



Horstmann, Dorothy Millicent 

1911 2001 
Epidemiologist 

Education: A.B., University of California, Berkeley, 1936; M.D., University of 
California, San Francisco, 1940 



522 | Horstmann, Dorothy Millicent 

Professional Experience: fellow, School of Medicine, Yale University, 1942-1943, 
instructor, preventive medicine, 1943-1947; instructor, University of California, 
San Francisco, 1944-1945; senior fellow, University of London, 1947-1948; 
assistant to associate professor, preventive medicine, Yale, 1948-1956, associate 
professor, preventive medicine and pediatrics, 1956-1961, professor, epidemiology 
and pediatrics, 1961-1982, emeritus professor and senior research scientist, 
1982-2001 



Dorothy Horstmann conducted research on polio and rubella, and established many 
of the important characteristics of polio that aided in the eventual development of a 
vaccine. In particular, she discovered that the polio virus traveled to the brain through 
the bloodstream, rather than through nerve cells as previously thought. After earning 
an undergraduate degree from Berkeley, she received her medical degree from the 
University of California, San Francisco in 1940. In 1948, she joined the faculty at 
Yale University, where she spent more than 50 years as a professor of preventive 
medicine, epidemiology, and pediatrics. In the 1940s, there still was reluctance to hire 
women as faculty members, but she advanced in faculty rank at four-year intervals, a 
truly remarkable achievement that indicates the superiority and importance of her 

polio research. In the mid-twentieth 
century, the polio epidemic was caus- 
ing public panic, especially because 
the disease primarily attacked children 
and could cause death or paralysis. 
Horstmann was a member of the vac- 
cine development committee of the 
National Institute of Allergy and Infec- 
tious Disease, and worked with the 
World Health Organization in approv- 
ing a safe version of the oral vaccine. 

Horstmann was elected to the 
National Academy of Sciences in 
1975. She was a member of the Infec- 
tious Diseases Society of America 
and served as president of that organi- 
zation (1974-1975). She was also a 
fellow of the American Academy of 

Pediatrics, a master of the American 

Epidemiologist Dorothy Horstmann, 1956. Her „ ,, c „, . . , , 

, a , ., . , / .. , . , . College of Physicians, and an honor- 

research contributed to the development of ° J 

the polio vaccine. (National Library of ar y member of the Royal Society of 

Medicine) Medicine. 




Howard (Beckham), Ruth Winifred | 523 

Further Resources 

Oshinsky, David M. 2005. "Breaking the Back of Polio." Yale Medicine. (Autumn 2005). 



Howard (Beckham), Ruth Winifred 

1900 1997 
Psychologist 

Education: B.A., social work, Simmons College, Boston, 1922, M.S., social 
work, 1927; student, Teachers College and School of Social Work, Columbia 
University, 1929-1930; Ph.D., psychology and child development, University of 
Minnesota, 1934 

Professional Experience: intern, National Urban League, 1921-1922; social 
worker, Cleveland Urban League and Cleveland Child Welfare Agency, 
1922-1929; intern, Institute of Juvenile Research, University of Illinois, 1935— 
1936; director, Chicago Mental Health and Training, National Youth 
Administration, 1937; co-director and clinical psychologist, Center for Psycho- 
logical Services, 1940-1964; staff psychologist, McKinley Center for Retarded 
Children, 1964-1966; staff psychologist, Worthington and Hurst Psychological 
Consultants, 1966-1968; staff, Mental Health Division, Chicago Board of 
Health, 1968-1972 

Concurrent Positions: staff psychologist, Provident Hospital School of 
Nursing, Chicago, 1940-1964; lecturer and adolescent psychologist, Evanston, 
Illinois public schools, 1953-1955; University of Chicago's Reading Clinic, 
1955-1956 

Ruth Howard was one of the first African American women to receive a Ph.D. in 
psychology and was considered a pioneer for her work on triplets. Howard's 
research interests included sociology, education, the psychology of race and 
ethnicity, and developmental psychology. She combined these interests in 
her groundbreaking doctoral research on the role of both biology (nature) and 
socialization (nurture) on the development of triplets. She studied more than 
200 sets of triplets from different ethnic groups to try to understand why 
triplets did not perform as well in school as single children. At that time, many 
psychologists had studied the development of twins, but Howard was among the 
first to do a large-scale study of triplets. Much of her research was later published 
in the Journal of Psychology (1946) and the Journal of Genetic Psychology 
(1947). 



524 | Howard (Beckham), Ruth Winifred 

She received her undergraduate and master's degrees in social work and was 
particularly interested in the educational, economic, and social needs of urban 
children and families. She was dismayed, however, that the mostly white social 
workers, her colleagues, viewed the problems of their clients, who were poor 
and nonwhite, as individual failings with individual solutions, whereas Howard 
became increasingly aware of the environmental and group psychology and 
social conditions that impacted the lives of children in such communities. After 
an early internship with the National Urban League, she received a fellowship to 
pursue further graduate studies in psychology at Columbia and then went on to 
the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota, where she 
worked with several prominent female faculty members, including Florence 
Goodenough. After receiving her Ph.D. in 1934, she married psychologist 
Albert Beckham and the couple moved to Chicago, where Howard served an 
internship at the Institute of Juvenile Research at the University of Illinois 
studying parent-child relations. 

Throughout the course of her career, Howard worked at numerous institutions 
and agencies as a staff or clinical psychologist. During the Depression, she had a 
temporary position as director of a National Youth Administration job-skills train- 
ing program in Chicago. In 1940, Howard and Beckham began their own private 
practice, the Center for Psychological Services, which they directed until 1964 
when Albert Beckham died and Ruth Howard retired the practice. Over the course 
of the 24 years in which they operated the Center, Howard also held staff or con- 
sulting positions at numerous institutions, schools, and hospitals. She was on the 
staff at Providence Hospital School of Nursing in Chicago, a school that trained 
many black nurses at the time, and consulted for other nursing schools around 
the country. She also worked with children as a school psychologist, at the Univer- 
sity of Chicago's Reading Clinic, where she researched and wrote about play 
therapy among kindergarteners and fourth-graders, and with developmentally dis- 
abled children at the McKinley Center for Retarded Children. 

Howard was active professionally as a member of the American Psychological 
Association, International Psychology Association, International Council of 
Women Psychologists, International Reading Association, Friends of the Mentally 
111, and American Association of University Women. Her concern with the educa- 
tional and employment opportunities of black women led to her role in organizing 
the National Association of College Women in the 1940s. 

Further Resources 

Guthrie, Robert V. 2004. Even the Rat Was White: A Historical View of Psychology. 
Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. 



Howes, Ethel Puffer | 525 

Warren, Wini. 1999. Black Women Scientists in the United States. Bloomington: Indiana 
University Press. 

Saltzman, Ann L. 2001. "Ruth Winifred Howard." The Feminist Psychologist, Newsletter 
of the Society for the Psychology of Women, 28(2). http://www.psych.yorku.ca/ 
femhop/Ruth%20Howard.htm. 



Howes, Ethel Puffer 

1872 1950 
Psychologist 

Education: A.B., Smith College, 1891; University of Berlin and University of 
Freiburg, 1895-1897; Ph.D., Radcliffe College, 1902 

Professional Experience: teacher, Keene High School, New Hampshire, 1891- 
1892; instructor, mathematics, Smith College, 1892-1895; assistant in psychol- 
ogy, Radcliffe College, 1898-1906; instructor and associate professor, philosophy, 
Wellesley College, 1901-1906; instructor, psychology, Simmons College, 1904- 
1906; founder and director, Institute for the Coordination of Women's Interests, 
Smith College, 1925-1928, lecturer, sociology, 1928-1931 

Ethel Puffer Howes was a psychologist whose research interests in the psychology 
of esthetics and symmetry combined work from several disciplines as well as her 
interest in women's issues and women's rights. Her career followed the pattern 
of many women of her generation. After graduating from Smith College, she 
taught in a high school for one year and then returned to teach mathematics at 
Smith for three years. She traveled to Germany to study psychology at the Univer- 
sity of Berlin and the University of Freiburg, and taught psychology courses at 
Radcliffe College while completing her doctorate, which she received in 1902. 
She taught philosophy at Wellesley College for five years, and then psychology 
at Simmons College. She published a book, The Psychology of Beauty, in 1905, 
but put her psychology career on hold after her marriage in 1908. 

Undoubtedly frustrated by her domestic duties with a husband and two children, 
Howes became active in the woman's suffrage movement, serving as executive sec- 
retary of the National College Equal Suffrage League between 1906 and 1915, and 
publishing numerous articles on women's issues, including balancing career and 
family, for the Atlantic Monthly and other publications. She returned to Smith Col- 
lege as founding director of the Institute for the Coordination of Women's Interests 
in 1925 with a three-year grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. She then taught 
sociology courses at Smith for three more years, retiring in 1931. 



526 | Hoy, Marjorie Ann (Wolf) 

Howes was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence, the American Psychological Association, and the American Philosophical 
Association. 

Further Resources 

Scarborough, Elizabeth and Laurel Furumoto. 1987. Untold Lives: The First Generation of 
American Women Psychologists. New York: Columbia University Press. 



Hoy, Marjorie Ann (Wolf) 

b. 1941 

Entomologist, Geneticist 

Education: B.A., zoology and entomology, University of Kansas, 1963; M.S., 
entomology, University of California, Berkeley, 1966, Ph.D., entomology and 
biological control, 1972 

Professional Experience: research geneticist, University of California, Berkeley, 
1964-1966; lecturer, biology, Fresno State College, 1967-1968, 1973; laboratory 
technician, Division of Biological Control, University of California, Berkeley, 
1968-1970; research entomologist, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, 
1973-1975; research entomologist, Northeast Forest Experiment Station, U.S. 
Forest Service, 1975-1976; assistant professor to professor, entomological 
science, University of California, Berkeley, 1976-1992; professor, Biological 
Control, Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, 
Gainesville, 1992- 

Marjorie Hoy pioneered the development of an integrated pest management (IPM) 
program for spider mites in crop plants. The traditional methods for artificial pest 
control have been pesticide chemicals, breeding of pest-resistant plants, and using 
natural predators to control the pests. Each method has its drawbacks, but inte- 
grated pest management incorporates all three approaches and seeks control rather 
than eradication. IPM plans emphasize biological controls over chemical controls 
and use genetics to improve both the pest resistance of the crop plants and the 
predatory efficiency or survival rate of the pest's predators. Hoy's research team 
monitored the mite population in California's almond orchards relative to its prey, 
as well as its levels of pesticide resistance. Resistant species of mites lasted 
through the winter and retained their pesticide resistance for as long as three or 
four years. The control program has also been implemented for apples, peaches, 
and grapes, and it is standard procedure for many other crop plants. 



Hrdy, Sarah C. (Blaffer) | 527 

Hoy has received the Bussart Memorial Award (1986) and the Founder's 
Memorial Award of the Entomological Society of America (1992). She is the edi- 
tor or co-editor of several books: Genetics in Relation to Insect Management 
(1979), Recent Advances in Knowledge of the Phytoseiida (1982), Biological Con- 
trol of Pests by Mites (1983), Biological Control of Agricultural IPM Systems 
(1985), and Insect Molecular Genetics (1994). She is a fellow of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Entomological 
Society of America and International Organization for Biological Control of 
Noxious Animals and Plants. 

Further Resources 

University of Florida, Gainesville. Faculty website, http://www.entnemdept.ufl.edu/ 
hoy.htm. 



Hrdy, Sarah C. (Blaffer) 

b. 1946 

Evolutionary Biologist, Primatologist 

Education: B.A., Radcliffe College, 1969; Ph.D., behavioral biology, Harvard 
University, 1975 

Professional Experience: instructor, anthropology, University of Massachusetts, 
Boston, 1973; lecturer, biological anthropology, Harvard University, 1975-1976, 
postdoctoral fellow, biology, 1977-1978; senior fellow, American Institute of 
Indian Studies, New Delhi, India, 1980-1981; visiting associate professor, 
anthropology, Rice University, 1981-1982; professor, anthropology, University 
of California, Davis, 1984-1996, emeritus 

Concurrent Positions: volunteer teacher's assistant, Harvard Yard Day Care 
Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1978-1981; associate, Peabody Museum, 
1979-; visiting professor, Workshop in Evolutionary Ecology, University of 
Western Australia, Perth, 2001 

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy is renowned for her research on evolutionary biology. As a 
graduate student at Harvard in 1974, she proposed the controversial theory that 
infanticide is an adaptive evolutionary strategy among some primate species. After 
she heard Paul Ehrlich lecture about the dangers of overpopulation, she decided to 
study the monkeys called Hanuman langurs, of which there are dense populations 
in parts of India. Her original theory was that overpopulation prompted the langur 
males to kill a rival's offspring, but she found that whenever a male became 



528 | Hrdy, Sarah C. (Blaffer) 

dominant in a group, he would kill his predecessor's offspring so he could breed 
with the mothers. The next dominant male followed the same pattern. Before the 
1970s, most researchers viewed animal societies as smoothly running systems in 
which each member fulfilled his or her role in the group, and it was thought that 
primate societies in particular were Utopias that humans would do well to emulate. 
Hrdy's theory was the subject of great controversy, but by the 1980s, anthropolo- 
gists began to accept the view that infanticide was normal behavior in primates 
as well as other creatures. Among humans, the practice of preferring male off- 
spring to female can be found in both primitive tribes and modern cultures. 

Inherbook, The Woman That Never Evolved (1981), Hrdy contradicted the theory 
that women are evolutionarily selected to be weaker than men. She argued that the 
size differential between men and women has only been used to rationalize patri- 
archy. Her research also examined the evolutionary reasons for women to live 40 
or more years past menopause, or childbearing capabilities, and came to the conclu- 
sion that older women were evolutionarily important as food-gatherers while younger 
women were busy bearing and nurturing children. This also-controversial theory con- 
tradicted the view that the human family revolves around the males' ability to provide 
for mothers and children. Hrdy has published several other books, namely, Black Man 
of Zinacantan: A Central American Legend (1972), Langurs of Abu: Female and 
Male Strategies of Reproduction (1980), Human Ethology (1989), and The Evolution 
of Sex (1990). Her book Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants and Natural 
Selection (1999) won several literary awards and has been translated into 10 lan- 
guages. Since her retirement from teaching in 1996, she has remained active as an 
author, editor, visiting professor, and speaker at international conferences, and has 
been called upon as an advisor for documentaries on evolution. 

Hrdy was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1990. 
Her numerous awards include, most recently, the Howells Prize of the American 
Anthropological Association (2001) and the Centennial Medal of the Harvard 
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (2007). She is a fellow of the Animal 
Behavior Society and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a 
member of the American Society of Naturalists, American Society of Primatolo- 
gists, American Anthropological Association, and International Primatological 
Society. She has served on the Committee on Human Rights of the National 
Academy of Sciences (2001-2004). 

Further Resources 

Dowling, Claudia Glenn. 2003. "The Hardy Sarah Blaffer Hrdy." Discover Magazine. (1 
March 2003). http://discovermagazine.com/2003/mar/feathrdy/. 

"Sarah B. Hrdy, Anthropologist." http://www.citrona.com/hrdy/index.html. 



Huang, Alice Shih-Hou | 529 

Huang, Alice Shih-Hou 

b. 1939 
Microbiologist 

Education: student, Wellesley College, 1957-1959; B.A., Johns Hopkins Univer- 
sity, 1961, M.A., 1963, Ph.D., microbiology, 1966 

Professional Experience: assistant professor, zoology, National Taiwan Univer- 
sity, 1966; postdoctoral fellow, Salk Institute of Biological Science, 1967; post- 
doctoral fellow, biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1968-1969; 
assistant professor to professor, microbiology and molecular genetics, Harvard 
Medical School, 1971-1991; Dean of Science, New York University (NYU), 
1991-1997; Senior Councilor for External Relations and Faculty Associate 
in Biology, California Institute of Technology, 1997-; consultant, Baltimore 
Associates 

Concurrent Positions: director, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, Children's 
Hospital Medical Center, Boston, 1979-1989 

Alice Huang led a major breakthrough in understanding how viruses function 
with the discovery of reverse transcriptase, an enzyme that allows viruses to 
convert their genetic material into deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). In searching 
for clues on how to prevent viruses from replicating, she isolated a rabies type 
of virus that produced mutant strains that interfered with viral growth. She 
conducted research with her husband, David Baltimore, at the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, work that led to Baltimore's research on tumor viruses 
and the discovery of the enzyme called reverse transcriptase, which earned 
Baltimore and his colleague, Howard Temin, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or 
Medicine in 1975. 

Huang was born in China, where her father was a bishop in the Anglican 
Episcopal Ministry, but when China was taken over by the communists in 1949, 
her parents sent their four children to the United States for better opportunities 
and education. While in medical school at Johns Hopkins University, she decided 
to pursue research rather than become a physician. She went on to teach at Harvard 
until 1991, when she was appointed dean of science at New York University. She 
left NYU in 1997 for an affiliation with the California Institute of Technology 
(CalTech), where her husband was president for 10 years. 

Huang has received several honorary degrees and awards, including the Eli 
Lilly Award in Microbiology and Immunology (1977) and the Alice C. Evans 
Award (2001), both of the American Society for Microbiology. She also served 
as president of the American Society for Microbiology in 1988, the first Asian 



530 | Hubbard, Ruth (Hoffman) 

American to head a national scientific society in the United States. She is a fellow 
of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a member of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science (president, 2010-2011), American 
Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and New York Academy of Sci- 
ences. She and her husband have established the consulting firm Baltimore Asso- 
ciates, which specializes in the "establishment of new research institutions and 
start-up of biotechnology firms" and advising on science policy issues. 

Further Resources 

Baltimore Associates, http://www.baltimoreassociates.com. 



Hubbard, Ruth (Hoffman) 



b. 1924 

Biologist, Biochemist 

Education: B.A., science, Radcliffe College, 1944, Ph.D., biology, 1950 

Professional Experience: U.S. Public Health Service predoctoral fellow, Univer- 
sity College Hospital Medical School, London, 1948; research fellow, biology, 
Harvard University, 1950-1958, research associate and lecturer, 1959-1973, pro- 
fessor, 1973-1990, emerita 

Concurrent Positions: member, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, 
Massachusetts, 1971— 

Ruth Hubbard is best known for her research on the biochemistry and photochem- 
istry of vision in vertebrates and invertebrates. She also examined the ethics of 
gene therapy and genetic testing. After receiving her doctorate, she worked in 
George Wald's laboratory at Harvard investigating vision. She specifically studied 
the architecture of visual pigments such as rhodopsin, a molecule that responds to 
light. The team discovered that light changes the shape of visual pigments that, in 
turn, initiate all the changes that lead to electrical charges and ultimately to neuro- 
transmission, work for which Wald (whom she married) received the Nobel Prize 
in Physiology or Medicine in 1967. 

When she was asked to give a talk on women scientists to the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science, Hubbard began questioning the position 
of women in academia and research. Her interviews with women scientists begin- 
ning in the 1970s revealed similar experiences in that none of them had secure or 
high-level jobs, most having been relegated to positions as research associates, 



Hubbard, Ruth (Hoffman) | 53 I 




lecturers, or lab assistants. She joined 
a group at Harvard that petitioned the 
university to examine the status of 
women, and as a result, in 1973, she 
became the first woman to receive 
tenure in the sciences at Harvard. 
After that, she added courses on 
health and women's issues to her con- 
tinuing courses on photochemistry. 
After receiving tenure, she was asked 
by a reporter if she thought she had 
received tenure because she was a 
woman. She replied that the reason 
she had not received tenure earlier 
was that she was a woman. 

Hubbard wrote and edited a num- 
ber of books that reflected her interest 
in sex, gender, and women's health, 
including Genes and Gender II: 
Pitfalls in Research on Sex and Gen- 
der (1979), Biological Woman: The 
Convenient Myth (1982), Woman's 

Nature: Rationalizations of Inequality (1983), The Shape of Red: Insider/Outsider 
Reflections (1988), Women Look at Biology Looking at Women (1989), The Poli- 
tics of Women's Biology (1990), and Profitable Promises: Essays on Women, Sci- 
ence, and Health (1994). As a scientist and a feminist, Hubbard was concerned 
that society oversimplifies science and has had a tendency to explain every trait 
and behavior through genetics. In Exploding the Gene Myth (1993), which she 
co-authored with her son, Elijah Wald, Hubbard argued that searching to identify 
all genes, including those for diseases, presents ethical and social dilemmas. She 
warned of insurers who deny medical coverage because of genetic conditions 
and argued that finding a gene for breast cancer, for example, may obscure other 
potential causes of cancers, such as environment. 

In addition to her numerous honorary degrees, Hubbard received the Paul 
Karrer Medal (1967; jointly with George Wald) and awards from the Women's 
International League for Peace and Freedom (1985) for her advocacy of women's 
issues and the American Institute of Biological Sciences (1992) for her work on 
animal vision. She is a member of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science, American Society of Biological Chemists, Biophysical Society, and 
Society of General Physiologists. 



Sociobiologist Ruth Hubbard was one of the 
first women to hold a tenured professorship in 
the sciences at Harvard University. (National 
Library of Medicine) 



532 | Hughes-Schrader, Sally (Peris) 

Hughes-Schrader, Sally (Peris) 



1895 1984 
Zoologist 

Education: B.S., Grinnell College, 1917; M.A., protozoology, Columbia Univer- 
sity, 1922, Ph.D., zoology, 1924 

Professional Experience: instructor, zoology, Grinnell College, 1917-1919; 
lecturer, Barnard College, Columbia University, 1919-1921; demonstrator, 
biology, Bryn Mawr College, 1922-1924, instructor, 1924-1930; professor, 
Sarah Lawrence College, 1931-1941; professor, zoology, Columbia University, 
1941-1947, research associate, cytology, department of zoology, 1947-1958; 
research associate, cytology, Duke University, 1959-1972 

Concurrent Positions: independent investigator, Marine Biological Labora- 
tory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 1925-; fellow, zoology, Duke University, 
1961-1962, visiting professor, 1962-1966 

Sally Hughes-Schrader' s earlier research concentrated on insects, but her interest 
shifted in the 1940s to fishes and amphibians, specifically the cranial nerves, cell 
developments, and parthenogenesis (asexual reproduction) of amphibians and 
insects. She made innovations in the staining techniques used in cytology. In 
1920, she married fellow cytologist and renowned geneticist Franz Schrader, and 
they were considered one of the notable couples working in science prior to 
1940. After receiving her undergraduate degree, she taught at Grinnell College 
for three years before going to Barnard and Bryn Mawr for teaching and research 
while she completed her doctorate at Columbia under the direction of well-known 
cytologist Edmund Beecher Wilson. She was a member of the science faculty at 
Sarah Lawrence for 11 years and at Columbia for 18 years, where she was also 
head of the Biology Department at Barnard, the women's college affiliated with 
Columbia. She moved to Duke University in 1959 as a research associate in cytol- 
ogy. Between 1962 and 1966, she also held a visiting professorship at Duke. 
During the summers of 1914 and 1920, she had conducted research at the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Fisheries, respectively. She also 
maintained an affiliation and later lifetime membership with the Marine Biologi- 
cal Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, as a summer student and then as 
an Independent Investigator beginning in 1925. 

Hughes-Schrader was active professionally, serving on the editorial boards of 
the journals Chromosomes and Biological Bulletin, and as a member of several 
professional societies, including the American Society of Zoologists, the Genetics 



Hutchins, Sandra Elaine | 533 

Society of America, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Further Resources 

Allen, Garland E. 1999. "Edmund Beecher Wilson Letters at the Marine Biological Labo- 
ratory." Mendel Newsletter. 8:16 19. (February 1999). 

"Sally Hughes Schrader." Women of Science, Marine Biological Laboratory, http:// 
www.mbl.edu/publications/women schrader.html. 

Hutchins, Sandra Elaine 

b. 1946 

Computer Scientist, Communications Engineer 

Education: B.A., University of California, San Diego, 1967, Ph.D., information 
and computer science, 1970 

Professional Experience: assistant professor, electrical engineering, Purdue Uni- 
versity, 1970-1972; senior staff engineer, communications, TRW Defense & 
Space Systems, 1972-1977; senior scientist, communications, and engineering 
manager, Linkabit Corporation, 1977-1979; technical director, voice processing, 
ITT Defense Communications Division, 1981-1982; Chief Technical Officer, 
Natural Speech Technologies, 1983-2001; manager, Bloomberg LP, New York, 
2001- 

Concurrent Positions: instructor, Loyola Marymount University, 1973-1974; 
instructor, University of California, Davis, Extension, 1978— 

Sandra Hutchins is known for her expertise in voice processing in computer soft- 
ware and hardware. She has an undergraduate degree in physics with a minor in 
linguistics, and a Ph.D. in computer science; her research combines these interests 
and includes communications, information theory, and signal processing. After 
teaching for two years in the Electrical Engineering Department of Purdue Univer- 
sity, she worked in computer software and hardware design for a number of corpo- 
rations. She has specialized in design and management of real-time software and 
hardware for communications, specifically voice processing, message switching, 
secure computing, modems, and personal computers. She was a senior staff engi- 
neer in communications for five years with TRW Defense & Space Systems and 
technical director of voice processing at ITT Defense Communications Division. 
She served as engineering manager for two different corporations — Linkabit 



534 | Hwang, Jennie S. 

Corporation and ITT. She holds at least two patents, one for digital compression of 
speech and one for computer recognition of speech in severe noise environments. 

As CTO of Natural Speech Technologies, a software and systems design consult- 
ing firm, she oversaw a line of educational programs, games, puzzles, and software 
for home management. Several were chosen for a 1985 Smithsonian Institution 
exhibit on American games, and the company advertises its ability to create user- 
oriented programs for any computer in any language. Hutchins's primary interest is 
in programs that enable computers to respond to human speech and to natural 
English, and which enable users to bypass the keyboard. There are numerous busi- 
ness applications for this software; for example, in the healthcare industry, physicians 
could dictate directly to the computer the patient diagnosis, indicate the prescriptions 
or tests needed, and forward the file to the billing department. 

Hutchins is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 
and of the Association for Computing Machinery. 



Hwang, Jennie S. 

Materials Scientist, Engineer 

Education: B.S., chemistry, National ChengKung University, 1969; M.S., Liquid 
Crystal Institute, Kent State University, 1971; M.A., chemistry, Columbia Univer- 
sity, 1973; Ph.D., materials science and engineering, Case Western Reserve Uni- 
versity, 1976 

Professional Experience: research and technology director, chemicals, Lockheed 
Martin, 1976-1980; exploratory research and business development leader, Sher- 
win Williams Company, 1980-1982; research director, chemicals, Hanson PLC 
(SCM Corp.), 1982-1990; co-founder and CEO, International Electronic Materi- 
als Corp., 1990-1995; co-founder and CEO, H-Technologies Group, 1995- 

Concurrent Positions: columnist and advisory board member, Surface Mount 
Technology Magazine, PennWell Publications, 1991—; distinguished adjunct pro- 
fessor, engineering, Case Western Reserve University, 1996-; interim CEO, Asahi 
America, Inc., 2002-2009; columnist, Global Solar Technology Magazine, UK, 
2008- 

Jennie Hwang is a materials scientist, engineer, and businesswoman who consults 
internationally on green technologies, renewable energies, and lead-free electron- 
ics. She has successfully navigated a career across business, industry, government, 
and academia. She has published widely on environmentally friendly electronics 



Hwang, Jennie S. | 535 

and surface-mount technology, which is used in the creation of circuit boards for 
consumer, industrial, computer, telecommunication, automotive, aerospace, mili- 
tary and medical industries. She has served on the board of Fortune 500 companies 
and numerous committees and advisory boards, including for the National 
Institute of Standards and Technology, National Research Council, and 
U.S. Department of Commerce, and on cost analysis of electronic weapons for 
the U.S. Department of Defense. She has served on the advisory boards of 
numerous international corporations and the Singapore Advanced Technology 
Institute, as well as of Kent State University and Case Western Reserve University, 
where she received her doctorate. As an inventor, author, and entrepreneur, she 
has also been a consultant and invited lecturer for worldwide electronics compa- 
nies and organizations on business issues, trends, management, and women's 
leadership and career advancement, as well as on technology education and 
innovation. 

Hwang began her career in technology and chemicals research and manage- 
ment for companies such as Lockheed Martin, Sherwin Williams, and Hanson 
PLC. In 1990, she co-founded International Electronic Materials Corporation, an 
electronics manufacturing company. After the company was acquired, she co- 
founded a global manufacturing and consulting firm, H-Technologies Group, 
which focuses on intellectual property issues, global market analysis, technology 
forecast, and providing materials in compliance with international hazardous 
materials goals and legislation. She has also been the interim CEO of Asahi 
America, Inc. Additionally, she has been an invited distinguished adjunct 
professor at the Engineering School of Case Western Reserve University, and has 
served on the University's Board of Trustees since 1996. She holds numerous pat- 
ents and has published hundreds of papers, articles, and books. 

Hwang was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1998. In addi- 
tion to her numerous civic and business affiliations, she has been a member of 
the American Chemical Society, American Ceramic Society, and American Soci- 
ety of Metals (Materials Information Society), and she was the first female 
president of the Surface Mount Technology Association (1994). She has been the 
recipient of numerous awards and honors, including U.S. Congressional Certifi- 
cates of Recognition and Achievement (1998 and 2000), Ohio Senate Resolutions 
for special achievements (1999, 2001, and 2003), induction into the Women in 
Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame (2000), a Surface Mount Technol- 
ogy Association (SMTA) Founder's Award (2001), and an honorary doctorate 
from Ohio University (2007). Dr. Hwang's commitment to science and technology 
education includes the endowment of a YWCA-Cleveland Award for women sci- 
ence and engineering students, and the Jennie S. Hwang Award for Faculty 
Excellence at Cleveland State University. 



536 | Hyde, Ida Henrietta 

Further Resources 

"Jennie S. Hwang, Ph.D., D.Sc." http://www.jenniehwang.com/. 

Chung, Deborah D. L. 2006. The Road to Scientific Success: Inspiring Life Stories of Promi- 
nent Researchers. Hackensack, NJ and Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Company. 



Hyde, Ida Henrietta 

1857 1945 
Physiologist 

Education: University of Illinois, 1881; A.B., Cornell University, 1891; Bryn 
Mawr College, 1891-1893; University of Strasbourg, 1893; Collegiate Alumnae 
European fellow, 1894-1895; Ph.D., University of Heidelberg, 1896; Naples Zoo- 
logical Station, 1896; University of Berne, 1896; Radcliffe College, 1897; Harvard 
Medical School, 1897; University of Liverpool, 1904; M.D., Rush Medical Col- 
lege, 1911 

Professional Experience: teacher, public schools, 1881-1888; assistant, biology, 
Bryn Mawr College, 1891; teacher, histology and anatomy, prep school, 1897- 
1900; associate professor, physiology, University of Kansas, 1899-1905, profes- 
sor, 1905-1925 

Ida Hyde was the first woman to be elected a member of the American Physiologi- 
cal Society (1902). Her major contribution to physiology was the development of 
the microelectrode, but it has never been acknowledged officially as hers. After 
teaching public school for several years, she enrolled at the University of Illinois 
at the age of 24. She went on to Bryn Mawr College for further study, then went 
to Germany, where she received a doctorate from the University of Heidelberg in 
1896, the first woman to receive a doctorate from that institution. She conducted 
research at several other universities and institutions, and taught at a college pre- 
paratory school before accepting a position as an associate professor of physiology 
at the University of Kansas in 1899. After the university established a separate 
department of physiology in 1905, she was promoted to full professor. Later, she 
attended Rush Medical College for several summers and received an M.D. in 
1911. 

Hyde had an outstanding reputation as a teacher, and she published two text- 
books: Outlines of Experimental Physiology (1905) and Laboratory Outlines of 
Physiology (1910). She also worked to promote equal opportunities in science 
for women. She was instrumental in establishing the Naples Table Association 



Hyman, Libbie Henrietta | 537 

for Promoting Scientific Research by Women, an organization formed to provide 
fellowships for American women scientists to the prestigious Naples Zoological 
Station. She endowed scholarships for women students of science at the University 
of Kansas and at Cornell University. In 1945, she established the Ida H. Hyde 
Woman's International Fellowship of the American Association of University 
Women. She was a member of the American Physiological Society and the 
American Eugenics Society. 



Hyman, Libbie Henrietta 

1888 1969 
Zoologist 

Education: B.S., University of Chicago, 1910, Ph.D., zoology, 1915 

Professional Experience: assistant to associate in zoology, University of 
Chicago, 1910-1931; research associate, American Museum of Natural History, 
1937-1969 

Libbie Hyman was a zoologist and is best known for her multivolume work The 
Invertebrates (1940-1967). After receiving her doctorate from the University of 
Chicago, she had a position there as a researcher in zoology until 1931, when the 
department head retired. She was unable to secure another university position, 
whether because she was Jewish or because it was extremely difficult for women 
scientists to find employment during the Depression years. While employed at 
Chicago, she published several studies: A Laboratory Manual for Elementary 
Zoology (1919, 1926) and A Laboratory Manual for Comparative Vertebrate 
Anatomy (1922). Later, she wrote Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy (1942). Start- 
ing in 1937, the American Museum of Natural History provided Hyman with an 
office, laboratory use, and library privileges, but no salary. It was under this 
arrangement that she prepared the six volumes of The Invertebrates, primarily sup- 
porting herself from the sales of her earlier books. 

Hyman received many awards, including the Elliot Gold Medal of the National 
Academy of Sciences (1954) and an award from the Linnean Society of London 
(1960). She was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1961. She received honorary degrees from several colleges and was president of 
the Society of Systematic Zoology from 1959 to 1963. She was also a member 
of the American Society of Zoologists, the American Society of Naturalists, and 
the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography. 



Intriligator, Devrie (Shapiro) 



b. 1941 
Astrophysicist 

Education: B.S., physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1962, M.S., 
1964; Ph.D., planetary and space physics, University of California, Los Angeles, 
1967 

Professional Experience: assistant research geophysicist, Institute of Geophysics 
and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 1967; 
research associate, Space Science Division, Ames Research Center, National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 1967-1969; research fellow, 
physics, California Institute of Technology, 1969-1972, assistant professor, 
1972-1980, member, Space Science Center, 1978-1983; staff member, Stauffer 
Hall of Science, University of Southern California, 1974-1977, assistant profes- 
sor, physics, 1977-1979; senior research physicist, Carmel Research Center, 
1979-, director, Space Plasma Laboratory, 1980- 

Devrie Intriligator is renowned for her research in space physics and astrophysics, 
and for her expertise in designing measurement instruments for interplanetary 
spacecraft. Among the projects in which she has participated are the Pioneer 10 
and 1 1 missions to the outer planets, the Pioneer- Venus Orbiter, and the Pioneer 
6, 7, 8, and 9 heliocentric missions. Her research includes high-energy nuclear 
physics, plasma physics, and astrophysics. She began doing physics experiments 
as a high school sophomore and won a national prize in a Future Scientist of 
America contest in her senior year. She received financial aid to enroll in college, 
but the dean of women at the first school she attended would not permit her to 
enroll in physics, and she had to give up the financial aid when she transferred to 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) the following year. She was 
unable to secure any funding at MIT due to prejudices against women due to the 
belief that women would not put their education to use and find work as scientists. 
Instead, Intriligator held a number of jobs in college to support herself. She was a 
research assistant in the cosmic ray group at MIT in 1960, and prior to her senior 
year, was a consulting physicist for the Institute of Physics, University of Milan, 
where she consulted on cosmic-ray balloon experiments. She continued as a 



539 



540 | Irwin, Mary Jane 

graduate student at MIT and worked as a physicist in the cosmic -ray branch of the 
Air Force's Cambridge Research Laboratory from 1962 to 1963. When her hus- 
band received an appointment to teach at UCLA, she transferred to that school to 
complete her doctorate. 

Since UCLA would not accept her credits from MIT, she had to repeat a number 
of courses, but in the course of the three years she spent studying at UCLA, she 
became interested in solar wind plasma physics and decided to add it as a spe- 
cialty. The solar wind plasma is a stream of particles — electrons, protons, and 
other ions — that continually flow from the sun and that is responsible for many 
features of the solar system and the Earth's environment. After graduation, she 
won a prestigious National Academy of Sciences Resident Research Associate- 
ship for use at NASA's Ames Research Center, where she was the principal inves- 
tigator of the positive-ion probe on the UCLA Small Scientific Satellite. She also 
was a co-investigator of the Ames solar wind plasma probes on several Pioneer 
spacecraft in orbit around the sun. 

At the California Institute of Technology, where she began working in 1969, she 
analyzed data sent back from instruments aboard the Pioneer spacecraft in orbit 
around the sun. She was co-investigator of the Ames solar wind plasma probe 
for the Pioneer 10 and 1 1 missions to Jupiter, and she was also a member of the 
plasma measurement team for the outer planet missions to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, 
Neptune, and Pluto. In her current position as director of the Space Plasma Labo- 
ratory, she is continuing her research on cosmic rays and solar winds. 

Intriligator is co-editor of the book Exploration of the Outer Solar System 
(1976) and has written numerous scientific papers. She has received three achieve- 
ment awards from NASA and is a member of the American Geophysical Union, 
American Physical Society, and American Association for the Advancement of 
Science. 



Irwin, Mary Jane 

b. 1949 
Computer Scientist 

Education: B.S., mathematics, Memphis State University, 1971; M.S., computer 
science, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1975, Ph.D., computer 
science, 1977 

Professional Experience: associate to assistant professor, computer science, 
Pennsylvania State University, 1977-1989, professor, computer science and 



Irwin, Mary Jane | 541 

engineering, 1989-1999, Distinguished Professor, 1999-2003, A. Robert Noll 
Chair in Engineering, 2003-, Evan Pugh Professor, computer science and engi- 
neering, 2006- 

Concurrent Positions: research staff, Supercomputer Research Center, Institute 
for Defense Analysis, Maryland, 1986 

Mary Jane Irwin is a computer sciences engineer whose research focuses on com- 
puter architecture, computer arithmetic, embedded and mobile computing systems 
design, energy and reliability aware systems design, and emerging technologies in 
computing systems. She received a Ph.D. in computer science from the University 
of Illinois and has been a faculty member in computer sciences and engineering at 
Pennsylvania State University since 1977. She is co-director of the Microsystems 
Design Lab at Pennsylvania State University, a project funded collaboratively by 
both government and corporate research interests, including the National Science 
Foundation, Gigascale Systems Research Center, Semiconductor Research Corpo- 
ration, Pennsylvania Technology Collaborative, Intel, Microsoft, Honda, and 
Toyota. She has been an invited lecturer and speaker at conferences and univer- 
sities worldwide and has served on numerous government, corporate, and aca- 
demic research councils and advisory committees, including Microsoft's 
External Research Advisory Board. She was a founding editor of the Association 
for Computing Machinery's Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing 
Systems. 

Irwin was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2003. She is a fel- 
low of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Association for Computing 
Machinery (ACM), and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 
and a member of the International Federation for Information Processing. Her 
awards and honors include an honorary doctorate from Chalmers University, 
Sweden (1997), Pennsylvania State University Engineering Society's Premier 
Research Award (2001), IEEE/CAS Best Paper Award (2003), DAC Marie R. 
Pistilli Women in EDA Award (2004), ACM/SIGDA Distinguished Service Award 
(2005 and 2007), ACM Distinguished Service Award (2005), Computing Research 
Association's (CRA) Distinguished Service Award (2006), IEEE/ICPADS Best 
Paper Award (2006), and Anita Borg Technical Leadership Award (2007). 

Further Resources 

Pennsylvania State University. Faculty website, http://www.cse.psu.edu/research/mdl/mji/. 



J 



Jackson, Jacquelyne Mary (Johnson) 



b. 1932 
Sociologist 

Education: B.S., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1953, M.S., 1955; Ph.D., 
sociology, Ohio State University, 1960 

Professional Experience: assistant to associate professor, Southern University, 
1959-1962; professor and department chair, sociology, Jackson State College, 
1962-1964; assistant professor, Howard University, 1964-1966; instructor, medical 
sociology, Duke University Medical Center, 1967-1968, assistant to associate 
professor, 1968-1998, emerita 

Concurrent Positions: visiting professor, sociology, St. Augustine's College, 1969- 

Jacquelyne Jackson is known for her research on minority aging and for her par- 
ticipation in the civil rights movement. She also had a number of "firsts" in her 
career. She was the first black woman to receive a doctorate in sociology from 
Ohio State University, the first full-time black faculty member to be hired at the 
Duke University Medical Center, and the first black tenured faculty member at 
the medical school. After receiving her doctorate, she did postdoctoral study at 
the University of Colorado before becoming a faculty member at Southern Univer- 
sity, a professor of sociology at Jackson State College, an assistant professor at 
Howard University, and then joining the faculty of the Duke University Medical 
Center as an assistant professor of medical sociology. Her work has always been 
connected to real people and real issues. Her interest in minority aging grew out 
of the experience of elderly friends who had to sell their houses to pay for medical 
care. Later, one friend was in a racially segregated ward in New Orleans's Charity 
Hospital, and Jackson organized her students to donate "black" blood for the 
woman because blood was segregated at the time. In 1974, she and colleague 
Frank Cantor made a short documentary film called Old, Black and Alive, which 
investigated the living conditions and needs of elderly African Americans in one 
Alabama county. She helped found the Journal of Minority Aging, and in 1980, 
she published Minorities in Aging, which has become a classic in the field. 



543 



544 | Jackson, Shirley Ann 

Jackson became involved in the civil rights movement while teaching at 
Jackson State College. When a group of civil rights advocates was forbidden to 
hold a meeting at Jackson State for fear of creating racial unrest, she secured the 
support of Charles Evers, brother of Medgar Evers, to schedule the meeting at 
another site in the city. She took part in the 1963 march in Washington, D.C., 
and in 1962, she published These Rights They Seek, a study of the Tuskegee Civic 
Association, the Montgomery Improvement Association, and the Alabama 
Christian Movement for Human Rights. 

Jackson was elected a fellow of the National Science Foundation in 1961. In 
addition to her teaching and research, she has also served as a consultant to the 
National Center for Health Statistics and to the U.S. Senate's Special Committee 
on Aging. She was a member of numerous professional and civic organizations, 
including but not limited to the Association of Social and Behavioral Scientists, 
National Council on Family Relations, American Sociological Association, 
Caucus of Black Sociologists, National Caucus on the Black Aged, Gerontological 
Society, and Carver Research Foundation of Tuskegee Institute. 



Jackson, Shirley Ann 

b. 1946 
Physicist 

Education: B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1968, Ph.D., physics, 
1973 

Professional Experience: research associate, theoretical physics, Fermi National 
Accelerator Laboratory, 1973-1974; visiting science associate, European 
Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva, 1974-1975; research associ- 
ate, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, 1975-1976; technical staff, theoretical 
physics, AT&T Bell Laboratories, 1976-1991; professor, physics, Rutgers Univer- 
sity, 1991-1995; chair, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), 1995-1999; 
president, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1999- 

Concurrent Positions: chair, International Nuclear Regulators Association 
(INRA), 1997-1999. 

Shirley Ann Jackson is a theoretical physicist whose research has focused on par- 
ticle physics and condensed matter physics. Theoretical physics uses theories 
and mathematics to predict the existence of subatomic particles and the forces that 
bind them together. One method for this research uses a particle accelerator, a 



Jackson, Shirley Ann | 545 




Physicist Shirley Ann Jackson, President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with Senator 
Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, 2005. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



device in which nuclei are accelerated to high speeds and then forced to collide 
with a target to separate them into subatomic particles. Another method detects 
their movements using certain types of nonconducting solids. Jackson has 
conducted research using both methods at a number of prestigious physics laborato- 
ries in both the United States and Europe, such as the Fermi National Accelerator 
Laboratory in Illinois, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in 
Switzerland, and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California. 

Jackson was the first African American woman to receive a doctorate in any 
field from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and she was the first woman 
and the first African American to serve as chair of the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission (NRC), the federal agency that regulates the uses of nuclear materials 
and technology throughout the United States to ensure the protection of public 
health, safety, and the environment. At the NRC, she oversaw the process for 
renewing the licenses of existing nuclear power plants, ensuring public safety as 



546 | Jameson, Dorothea A. 

electric utilities were deregulated, and ensuring safety in the disposal of spent 
reactor fuel. In 1997, the International Nuclear Regulators Association was 
formed with Jackson elected as its first chair. She became president of Rensselaer 
in 1999, the first black woman to lead a major technology institute. Jackson brings 
to this position her commitment to the presence of more women and minorities in 
science and technology careers. 

In 2001, Jackson was the first African American woman to be elected to the 
National Academy of Engineering. She has received numerous honorary degrees 
and awards, including the Thomas Alva Edison Science Award (1993), the New 
Jersey Governor's Award in Science (1993), the Golden Touch Award for Lifetime 
Achievement from the National Society of Black Engineers (2000), the Black 
Engineer of the Year Award from US Black Engineer & Information Technology 
magazine (2001), and the Vannevar Bush Award from the National Science Board 
(2007). She has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame (1998) and 
the Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame (2000), and was a 
fellow of the Association of Women in Science (2004). She is a member of the 
American Physical Society, New York Academy of Sciences, National Society of 
Black Physicists (president, 1980), American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
and American Association for the Advancement of Science (president, 2004). In 
2002, she was named one of "The 50 Most Important Women in Science" by 
Discover magazine. In 2009, Jackson was appointed to President Obama's Council 
of Advisors on Science and Technology. 

Further Resources 

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D." http://www.rpi.edu/ 
president/profile. html. 

Williams, Clarence G. 2003. Technology and the Dream: Reflections on the Black Experience 
at MIT, 1941 1999. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 



Jameson, Dorothea A. 

1920 1998 
Psychologist 

Education: B.A., Wellesley College, 1942 

Professional Experience: research assistant, Harvard University, 1941-1947; 
research psychologist, color control department, Eastman Kodak Company, 
1947-1957; research scientist, psychology, New York University (NYU), 



Jameson, Dorothea A. | 547 

1957-1962; research associate, psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 1962-1968, 
research professor, 1968-1972, professor, psychology and visual science, 1972- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting professor, University of Rochester, 1974-1975; 
visiting professor, Columbia University, 1974-1976 

Dorothea Jameson was an expert in the new field of color vision, and she com- 
bined her work in psychology with work in optics, visual mechanisms, and human 
perception. While still an undergraduate at Wellesley, she worked as a research as- 
sistant at Harvard where, during World War II, she worked on improving the accu- 
racy of visual rangefinders. It was at Harvard that she met her future husband, 
psychologist Leo Hurvich, the beginning of a lifelong professional collaboration. 
The couple (who married in 1948) worked together as researchers at Eastman 
Kodak in Rochester, New York, spent five years at NYU, and then moved to the 
department of psychology and Institute of Neurological Sciences at the University 
of Pennsylvania. Even without an advanced degree, Jameson was hired based on 
her experience as a researcher. A bigger problem for her was that, at that time, 
most universities were opposed to hiring husband-and-wife faculty teams, so 
Jameson was not appointed a regular faculty position until the rules were loosened 
in 1968; she was promoted to full professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 
1972. Jameson and Hurvich published dozens of scientific papers together and 
were renowned for their innovations in color vision research. Much of Jameson's 
early research at NYU and the University of Pennsylvania was supported by grants 
from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation. 
She was a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences in 1981 
and 1982, and served on the national advisory eye council for the NIH starting 
in 1985. 

Jameson was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1975. Between 1983 and 1986, she was chair of the National Academy of Sciences 
psychology section. She received honorary degrees from the University of 
Pennsylvania (1972) and the State University of New York (1989). She was a fel- 
low of the Society of Experimental Psychologists and the American Academy of 
Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Optical Society of America. Her numer- 
ous awards and honors included the Warren Medal of the Society of Experimental 
Psychologists (1971), the Distinguished Science Contribution Award of the 
American Psychological Association (1972), the Inter-Society Color Council's 
Godlove Award for Research in Color Vision (1973), the Wellesley College 
Alumnae Achievement Award for Scientific Research (1974), the Tillyer Medal 
of the Optical Society of America (1982), the Judd Award of the Association 
Internationale de Couleur (1985), and the Helmholtz Award from the Cognitive 
Neuroscience Association (1987). 



548 | Jan, Lily 



Further Resources 



University of Pennsylvania. 1998. "Dorothea Jameson, Pioneer in Color Perception." 
Almanac. 44(30). (21 April 1998). http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/v44/n30/deaths.html. 



Jan, Lily 

Neurobiologist 

Education: B.Sc, physics, National Taiwan University, 1968; M.Sc, physics, 
California Institute of Technology, Ph.D., physics and biophysics 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral research fellow, California Institute of 
Technology (CalTech) and Harvard University; Lange Professor of Physiology 
and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF); Howard Hughes 
Medical Investigator, 1984- 

Lily Jan is a neurobiologist and biophysicist whose research focuses on the devel- 
opment and function of the nervous system and, in particular, how potassium 
(regulated through "potassium channels") affects the electrical impulses sent from 
the brain throughout the body. Born in China and raised in Taiwan, Jan chose 
physics to study in high school due to the inspiration of recent Nobel Prize winners 
in China. She graduated from National Taiwan University in 1968 and moved to 
the United States to attend CalTech for graduate work in theoretical physics. She 
was inspired again by another Nobel Prize winner, Max Delbriick, one of her pro- 
fessors, who encouraged her interest in biology, and she earned her doctorate in 
physics and biophysics from CalTech. Another Taiwanese student who had come 
to study at CalTech was Yuh Nung Jan. The two were lab partners and then post- 
doctoral research fellows together in neurobiology, married in 1971, and began 
collaborating on projects involving genetic explanations for certain behaviors in 
the fruit fly. They were the first to identify the DNA sequence responsible for 
potassium channels and mutations in the channels, linking it to behavioral changes 
in the fly. The Jans conducted some postdoctoral work in neurophysiology at 
Harvard and then returned to the West Coast as faculty members at UCSF. They 
raised two children together and regularly collaborate in the lab, but have also 
developed their own individual research interests and groups at UCSF and as 
Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators. 

Jan was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1995, and is 
a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Academia Sinica 
(Taiwan). Her awards and honors include a Javits Neuroscience Investigator 



Jeanes, Allene Rosalind | 549 

Award, W. Alden Spencer Award from Columbia University, K. S. Cole Award, 
Distinguished Alumni Award from California Institute of Technology, and Presi- 
dential Award of the Society of Chinese Bioscientists in America. She was named 
Harvard Foundation's 2005 Scientist of the Year. 

Further Resources 

University of California, San Francisco. "Jan Laboratory." http://physio.ucsf.edu/jan/ 
index.html. 

Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "Lily Y. Jan, Ph.D." http://www.hhmi.org/research/ 
investigators/janly bio. html. 

"Biophysicists in Profile: Lily Jan." Biophysical Society Newsletter. (September/ 
October 2002). http://www.biophysics.Org/Portals/l/PDFs/Career%20Center/Profiles/ 
jan.pdf. 



Jeanes, Allene Rosalind 

1906 1995 
Chemist 

Education: A.B., Baylor University, 1928; A.M., University of California, Berkeley, 
1929; Ph.D., organic chemistry, University of Illinois, 1938 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, mathematics and physics, 1930; 
department head, science, Athens College, Alabama, 1930-1935; instructor, 
chemistry, University of Illinois, 1936-1937; research fellow, National Institutes 
of Health, 1938-1940; research chemist, Northern Regional Research Laboratory, 
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 1941-1976 

Allene Jeanes was an organic chemist whose research group isolated and charac- 
terized over 100 different dextrans that have great value in research, especially in 
immunology and immunochemistry. She received one of the first Corn Industries 
Research Foundation fellowships at the National Institutes of Health, where she 
co-developed a new technique of periodate oxidation of starches. She joined the 
staff at Northern Regional Research Laboratory in Peoria, Illinois, a regional lab- 
oratory of the USDA, in 1941, three months after it opened. Initially she studied 
the nature and structural role of the branch points in starch and developed xanthan 
gum, a thickening substance used in numerous food and cosmetic products. 
During the Korean War, there was a need for a blood-plasma substitute, and she 
and her group were able to find a chemical, dextran, that was used successfully 
to expand plasma volume. Her technique was used for isolating and characterizing 
dextrans, and she held several patents for her work. 



550 | Jemison, Mae Carol 

In 1953, Jeanes was the first woman in the Chemistry Bureau to receive the 
USDA Distinguished Chemist Award. She was also the recipient of a Garvan 
Medal of the American Chemical Society (1956) and a Federal Woman's Award 
of the U.S. Civil Service Commission (1962). In 1999, she was posthumously 
inducted in the USDAs Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Science Hall of 
Fame. She was a member of the American Chemical Society. 



Jemison, Mae Carol 

b. 1956 

Physician, Astronaut 

Education: B.S., chemical engineering, B.A., African and Afro-American Studies, 
Stanford University, 1977; M.D., Cornell University Medical School, 1981 

Professional Experience: intern, University of Southern California Medical 
Center, 1981-1982; physician, INA-Ross Loos Medical Group, Los Angeles, 
1982; medical officer, Peace Corps, 1983-1985; physician, Cigna Health Plan of 
California, 1985-1987; astronaut, National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
(NASA), 1987-1993, mission specialist, Endeavour, 1992; founder and director, 
Jemison Group, 1993-; founder, BioSentient, 1999- 

Concurrent Positions: professor-at-large, Cornell University; teaching fellow, 
environmental studies, Dartmouth College, 1995-2002 

Mae Jemison is a physician and astronaut who was the first black woman to travel 
in space. She began her career as a Peace Corps medical officer in Africa and 
then as a physician and biomedical researcher investigating hepatitis B vaccine, 
schistosomiasis, and rabies. She entered astronaut training in 1987 and was 
assigned to the space shuttle Endeavour mission that flew September 12-20, 
1992. Aboard the Endeavour, she conducted experiments concerning weightless- 
ness, tissue growth, and the development of semiconductor materials. One of the 
experiments was to test whether motion sickness in space could be alleviated by 
the use of biofeedback techniques. She also investigated the loss of calcium in 
human bones in space and the effects of weightlessness on the fertilization and 
embryologic development of frogs. 

While in medical school, Jemison traveled to a Thai refugee camp and received 
a grant to conduct health studies in Kenya. She joined the Peace Corps and trav- 
eled to Sierra Leone and Liberia, where she managed healthcare for volunteers, 
developed and taught health classes for volunteers, and implemented public health 



Johnson, Barbara Crawford | 551 

and safety guidelines for the program. When NASA announced in 1986 that it was 
seeking candidates for the space shuttle program, she applied and was one of 
15 chosen from a field of some 2,000 applicants. After five years in the astronaut 
program, Jemison left for a teaching and science advocacy career. She has since 
founded two companies and worked on projects such as establishing a space- 
based telecommunication system to facilitate healthcare delivery in countries of 
the developing world, and marketing mobile medical technologies. She also 
directed the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries 
at Dartmouth College. 

Jemison was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of 
Science in 2001. She is a popular public figure and role model committed to 
inspiring young people, women, and minorities in the sciences. She has appeared 
in television shows and documentaries, and in 1994, she founded a science camp 
program for children aged 12 to 16 called "The Earth We Share" (TEWS). She is 
also the national science spokesperson for the Bayer pharmaceutical and medical 
research company. Her autobiography, Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from 
My Life, was published in 2001. 

Further Resources 

Kevles, Bettyann H. 2003. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. New York: 
Basic Books. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration "Mae C. Jemison (M.D.)." http://www 
.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/jemison-mc.html. 

"Meet Our National Spokesperson, Mae C. Jemison M.D." Making Science Make Sense. 
Bayer US. http://www.bayerus.com/msms/MSMS About/NationalSpokesperson/ 
Spokesperson, aspx. 



Johnson, Barbara Crawford 

b. 1925 

Aerospace Engineer 

Education: B.S., general engineering, University of Illinois, 1946 

Professional Experience: engineer, Rockwell International Space Division, 
1950s, project leader and supervisor, Entry Performance Analysis, 1961-1968, 
system engineer and manager, Apollo program, 1968-1972, manager, Mission 
Requirements and Integration, Rockwell Space Systems Group, 1973-1983 

Barbara Johnson is one of the many women scientists and engineers who have 
played significant supplementary roles in the National Aeronautics and Space 



552 | Johnson (Masters), Virginia (Eshelman) 

Administration (NASA) space program. She spent her career at the Rockwell 
International Space Division in support of the manned space flight program. 
Rockwell was one of the primary contractors for NASA, and one of Johnson's 
major contributions was to create the Entry Monitor System (EMS), the backup 
entry guidance system designed for the Apollo space missions. The EMS is a 
graphic display for the astronauts to use in the case of a primary guidance failure, 
and similar graphic displays are now a part of the instrument panels of virtually all 
spacecraft and aircraft, and are even currently available in many automobiles. She 
was supervisor of the Entry Performance Analysis team, which determined the tra- 
jectories that enabled the Apollo aircraft to reenter the Earth's atmosphere safely; 
if it entered on too shallow a trajectory, there was a danger of overheating; if too 
deep, the astronauts would experience unbearable gravitational forces. Before 
the 1960s, a spacecraft had never reentered the Earth's atmosphere from hyperve- 
locity, which is a speed greater than that of the Earth's rotation. As system engi- 
neering manager for the Apollo program, she supervised system analysis in 
support of a lunar landing and exploration. In 1973, she was named manager of 
Mission Requirements and Integration for Rockwell, which meant she directed 
the mission, flight performance, and trajectory design analysis of the space shuttle 
and orbiter projects. 

Johnson received a medallion from NASA for her role in the first Apollo landing 
on the moon, and she has also received the Achievement Award of the Society of 
Women Engineers (1974), the Distinguished Alumni Merit Award from the Univer- 
sity of Illinois (1975), and the Outstanding Engineer Merit Award of the Institute for 
the Advancement of Engineers (1976). She is a member of the American Institute of 
Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a fellow of the Institute for the Advancement of 
Engineers. 

Further Resources 

Society of Women Engineers. "Barbara Crawford Johnson." http://societyofwomenengineers 
. swe.org/index.php ?option=com content&task=view&id=46&Itemid=68. 



Johnson (Masters), Virginia (Eshelman) 

b. 1925 

Psychologist, Sex Therapist 

Education: student, Drury College, 1940-1942, University of Missouri, 1944-1947; 
student, Washington University, St. Louis 



Johnson (Masters), Virginia (Eshelman) | 553 




Psychologist and sex therapist Virginia 
Johnson and physician William H. Masters 
were known for their pioneering studies of 
human sexuality. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Professional Experience: research 
staff, Division of Reproductive Biol- 
ogy, School of Medicine, Washington 
University, St. Louis, 1957-1960, 
research assistant and instructor, 
1960-1964; research associate, 
Reproductive Biology Research 
Foundation, St. Louis, 1964-1969, 
assistant director to co-director, 
1969-1973; co-director, Masters and 
Johnson Institute, 1973-1994; director, 
Virginia Johnson Masters Learning 
Center, St. Louis, 1994- 

Virginia Johnson is renowned for her 
pioneer studies with William H. 
Masters and her unique contribution 
to our knowledge of human sexuality. 
At the Reproductive Biology Re- 
search Foundation in St. Louis, and later at the Masters and Johnson Institute, 
she counseled clients and taught sex therapy to practitioners. By the late 1950s, 
William Masters was a respected professor of obstetrics and gynecology who 
hired Virginia Johnson to interview volunteers for his research project on 
reproductive biology. Soon she was promoted to research assistant, instructor, 
and eventually co-director of the project. Gathering scientific data by electroen- 
cephalography (EEG), electrocardiography, and the use of color monitors, the 
two measured and analyzed 694 volunteers. They gathered data allowing them to 
identify the four stages of sexual arousal, the efficacy of contraceptives, and the 
observation that sexual enjoyment need not decrease with age. They created the 
nonprofit Reproductive Biology Research Foundation in 1964, began training 
couples to combat their sexual problems, and wrote a scientific text, Human 
Sexual Response (1966), describing their research. Although the book was adver- 
tised only in scientific journals, within a few months, it had become a bestseller. 
Masters and Johnson married in 1971, founded the Masters and Johnson Insti- 
tute in 1973, and went on to publish several books for a general audience, always 
inciting controversial reactions to their findings on sensitive topics. In Human Sexual 
Inadequacy (1970), they discussed the possibility that sex problems are more cultural 
than physiological or psychological. The Pleasure Bond: A New Look at Sexuality 
and Commitment (1975) advised total commitment and fidelity to the partner as the 
basis for an enduring sexual bond. In Homosexuality in Perspective (1981), 



554 | Johnston, Mary Helen 

they came to the controversial conclusion that homosexuality is a "learned" behavior 
and that homosexuals can be "converted." In Crisis: Heterosexual Behavior in the 
Age of AIDS (1988; co-authored with Dr. Robert Kolodny), they accurately predicted 
a large-scale outbreak of the virus in the heterosexual community. However, 
due to exaggerated and erroneous claims about how AIDS could be transmitted, 
many in the medical community, including the surgeon general C. Everett Koop, 
criticized the study, and the negative publicity hurt the couple's reputation. 
They divorced in 1992, and the Institute was closed in 1994 with Masters's 
retirement. Johnson, however, retained the Institute's records and went on to found 
the Virginia Johnson Masters Learning Center in St. Louis, which produces instruc- 
tional material for couples with sexual problems. William H. Masters died in 2001. 

Further Resources 

Maier, Thomas. 2009. Masters of Sex: The Life and Times of William Masters and Virginia 
Johnson, the Couple Who Taught America How to Love. New York: Basic Books. 



Johnston, Mary Helen 

b. 1945 

Metallurgical Engineer 

Education: B.S., engineering science, Florida State University, 1966, M.S., 1969; 
Ph.D., metallurgical engineering, University of Florida, 1973 

Professional Experience: metallurgical staff, University of Alabama, Huntsville, 
1969-; materials engineer, George Marshall Space Flight Center, National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 1969-1983, payload specialist, 
astronaut program, 1983-1985 

Mary Johnston is known for her expertise in failure analysis while working at the 
George Marshall Space Flight Center of NASA. As a metallurgist, she was con- 
cerned with the stability of the metal and materials parts of which the spacecraft 
was composed. There always is a possibility that a part might malfunction or break 
when exposed to the extremes of soaring heat or frigid cold in space, and the fail- 
ure could occur in any part of a spacecraft, including bolts and screws. Although 
she worked for NASA for a number of years, she was never part of the astronaut 
program. In the 1970s, she started planning for the time when women would be 
accepted into the space program, and she was among the women employees who 
taught themselves how to function in a weightless environment. When she chose 
her major of metallurgical engineering, materials processing in space did not exist 



Jones, Anita Katherine | 555 

as a specialty. However, in 1974, she participated in an all-woman crew of 
experimenters in a five-day simulation of a Spacelab mission set up by NASA at 
Marshall because NASA needed to know how difficult it would be to handle 
materials-processing experiments in space. These experiments required a lot of 
power and put out a lot of heat, and Johnston predicted that nuclear radiation 
detector material would be a good material for a Spacelab experiment. One advan- 
tage of metallurgical research in space is that the zero-gravity environment in 
space allows for more control; on Earth, it is more difficult to study the processes 
involved in metals when the metals are cooled. Later, she was assigned to be the 
backup payload specialist on Spacelab 3, but she did not go into space. 

Johnston was the first woman to graduate from Florida State University in engi- 
neering, and went on to graduate school at the University of Florida, one of the few 
female engineering students who completed that program. She is a member of 
American Society for Metals and National Society of Professional Engineers. 



Jones, Anita Katherine 

b. 1942 
Computer Scientist 

Education: B.A., mathematics, Rice University, 1964; M.A., English, University of 
Texas, Austin, 1966; Ph.D., computer science, Carnegie Mellon University, 1973 

Professional Experience: programmer, International Business Machines 
Corporation (IBM), 1966-1968; assistant to associate professor, computer science, 
Carnegie Mellon University, 1973-1981; vice president and founder, Tartan Labora- 
tories, Pittsburgh, 1981-1987; freelance consultant, 1987-1988; professor and 
department chair, computer science, University of Virginia, 1988-1993; director, 
Defense Research and Engineering, U.S. Department of Defense, 1993-1997; 
professor, computer science, University of Virginia, 1997- 

Anita Jones is renowned for her work in the area of computer software and sys- 
tems. Her research includes design and implementation of programmed systems 
on computers, including enforcement of security policies on computers, operating 
systems, and scientific databases. She was director of Defense Research and 
Engineering for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) (the highest-level defense 
job ever held by a woman), the department's senior official for research and 
technology matters. Her responsibilities included management of DOD science 
and technology programs; all in-house laboratories and research, development, 
and engineering centers; university research initiatives; and overseeing the 



556 | Jones, Mary Ellen 

Advanced Research Projects Agency, which was responsible for the development 
of ARPAnet, the predecessor of the Internet. The DOD engineering research 
would eventually serve as a basis for both commercial and military information 
technology. Early on, Jones predicted that virtual reality (VR) simulations would 
be used extensively in education and job training, pointing out that the military 
invented high-fidelity simulations for flight training, and it still bankrolls the most 
cutting-edge applications. 

Jones is married to fellow University of Virginia computer science professor 
William Wulf, who served a 10-year term as president of the National Academy 
of Engineering. Together they have formed a formidable power couple of engi- 
neering. In 1981, they launched a software firm, Tartan Laboratories, which spe- 
cialized in research for optimizing compilers. Six years later, they sold the 
company to Texas Instruments and accepted faculty positions at the University 
of Virginia. Jones took a leave from her academic position to work for the DOD, 
but returned to academia in 1997. She has edited two books — Foundations of 
Secure Computation (1971) and Perspectives in Computer Science (1977) — in 
addition to writing numerous scientific papers. She has been a consultant to or 
member of the National Research Council, the Defense Science Board (1985— 
1993), and the U.S. Air Force Science Advisory Board (1980-1985), and served 
as vice chair of the National Science Foundation (2000-2006). 

Jones was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 
1994. She is a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery and the Insti- 
tute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. She is the recipient of an Air Force 
Meritorious Civilian Service Award (1985) and a Distinguished Service Award 
of the Computing Research Association (1997). 

Further Resources 

Schrof, Joannie M. "Keeping Up with Anita Jones." http://www.cs.virginia.edu/misc/ 
news-jones-keeping up. html. 

University of Virginia. Faculty website, http://www.cs.virginia.edu/brochure/profs/ 
jones.html. 



Jones, Mary Ellen 

1922 1996 
Biochemist 

Education: B.S., biochemistry, University of Chicago, 1944; Ph.D., biochemistry, 
Yale University, 1951 



Jones, Mary Ellen | 557 

Professional Experience: research chemist, Armour and Company, 1942-1948; 
U.S. Public Health Service Fellow, physiological chemistry, Yale University, 
1950-1951; postdoctoral fellow, biochemistry research laboratory, Massachusetts 
General Hospital, 1951-1957; assistant to associate professor, biochemistry, 
Brandeis University, 1957-1966; associate professor to professor, biochemistry 
and zoology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1966-1971; professor, bio- 
chemistry, University of Southern California, 1971-1978; professor, biochemistry 
and nutrition, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1978-1995 

Mary Ellen Jones was a distinguished biochemist who contributed to early cancer 
research through her studies of DNA and RNA. Her research interests included 
biosynthetic and transfer reactions, metabolic regulation of enzymes, multifunc- 
tional proteins, and pyrimidine and amino acid biosynthesis. Her studies of meta- 
bolic pathways increased understanding of how cells, including cancer cells, 
divide and differentiate. This laid the groundwork for later, continued cancer 
research studies. She worked as a research chemist for Armour and Company 
while obtaining her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago. She 
continued her education at Yale, where her husband Paul Munson was a faculty 
member in pharmacology, and received her doctorate in 1951 under a prestigious 
U.S. Public Health Service fellowship. She held a postdoctoral fellowship at 
Massachusetts General Hospital under Fritz Lipmann, who went on to win the 
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1953. She worked at Brandeis Univer- 
sity as a biochemist until 1966, when the couple both moved to the University of 
North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNCCH). Jones became a full professor at UNCCH 
in 1968, but moved to the University of Southern California in 1971. She returned 
to her position at UNCCH in 1978, where she was the first woman to head a 
medical school department at that institution. Jones was associate editor of the 
Canadian Journal of Biochemistry from 1969 to 1974. She was co-editor of a book, 
Purine and Pyrimidine Nucleotide Metabolism (1978), which is volume 51 in the 
Methods in Enzymology series. 

Jones was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1981 and the National 
Academy of Sciences in 1984, and held several distinguished appointments, 
such as member of the grants committee of the American Cancer Society (1971— 
1973), member of the metabolic biology study section of the National Science 
Foundation (1978-1981), and member of the science advisory board for 
the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health (1980- 
1984). Her extensive professional service included terms as president of the Associ- 
ation of Medical School Departments of Biochemistry (1985), American Society for 
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1986), American Society of Biological 
Chemists (1986), and American Association of University Professors (1988). 



558 | Jones, Mary Ellen 

Among her numerous awards were the Wilbur L. Cross Medal from Yale 
University (1982), a Distinguished Chemist award of the North Carolina American 
Chemical Society (1986), the Thomas Jefferson Award from the University of North 
Carolina (1990), and an Award in Science from the state of North Carolina (1991). 
A major research building is named after her at the University of North Carolina, 
Chapel Hill medical school. She was elected a fellow of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, and was also a member of the American Chemical 
Society and the American Philosophical Society. 

Further Resources 

Traut, Thomas W. "Mary Ellen Jones, December 25, 1922 August 23, 1996." http://www 
.nap.edu/html/biomems/mjones.html. 



K 



Kalnay, Eugenia 



b. 1942 
Meteorologist 

Education: license, meteorology, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1965; 
Ph.D., meteorology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1971 

Professional Experience: assistant professor, University of Montevideo, 
Uruguay, 1971-1973; assistant to associate professor, Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology (MIT), 1973-1979; senior research meteorologist, Global Modeling 
and Simulation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/ 
Goddard Space Flight Center, 1979-1984, director, 1984-1986; director, Environ- 
mental Modeling Center (EMC), National Centers for Environmental Prediction 
(NCEP), Maryland, 1987-1997, senior scientist, 1998-2000; Robert E. Lowry Chair 
in Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, 1997-1999; professor, meteorology, 
University of Maryland, 1999-2001, Distinguished University Professor, 200 1-, 
Eugenia Brin Professor in Data Assimilation, 2008- 

Eugenia Kalnay is a meteorologist who studies global weather forecasting and 
atmospheric weather dynamics. She uses computer modeling for numerical 
weather predictions. She was the first woman to get a Ph.D. in meteorology from 
MIT. She has been an outspoken critic of those, including other scientists, who 
deny humankind's role in global climate change. She is the author of a popular 
textbook, Atmospheric Modeling, Data Assimilation and Predictability (2002). 

Kalnay was born in Argentina, the seventh of eight children, to Hungarian and 
Swiss parents. Her father died when she was a teenager, but her mother encouraged 
and supported her education. Kalnay enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires 
intending to study physics, but her mother chose meteorology as her major due to 
the availability of scholarships and job opportunities. She received her degree in 
1965 and relocated to Massachusetts to study at MIT. She married and had a child 
while in graduate school, and was the only female student in the meteorology 
program at MIT. She received her doctorate in 1971 and then returned to South 
America to teach in Uruguay for two years. She returned to MIT in 1973 as a 
research associate and then faculty member. She was then offered a position with 
NASA in the Global Modeling and Simulation laboratory. The NASA job required 



559 



560 | Kanter, Rosabeth (Moss) 



that she finally secure U.S. citizenship, 
which she did in 1978. She then joined 
the EMC/NCEP, where she oversaw 
the work of a team of scientists 
compiling computer modeling infor- 
mation on atmospheric and ocean 
climates for the National Weather 
Service. After 10 years, however, she 
stepped down as director of the EMC 
and returned to academic research as 
professor of meteorology at the 
University of Oklahoma and then the 
University of Maryland. 
1 ^^| ,t ,j0m Kalnay was elected to the National 

V / j Academy of Engineering in 1996 and 

has been named a foreign member of 
the Academia Europaea (2000) and a 
corresponding member of the Argen- 
tine National Academy of Physical 
Sciences (2003). She is also a fellow 
of American Geophysical Union, 
American Meteorological Society, and 
the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences. She has received Gold and Silver Medals from the U.S. Department of 
Commerce, a NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement (1981), the Jule 
G. Charney Award of AMS (1995), the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious 
Achievement (1997), the Kirwan Award of the University of Maryland (2006), and 
the IMO Prize of the World Meteorological Organization (2009). In 2008, she 
received an honorary doctorate from the University of Buenos Aires. 




Meterologist, Eugenia Kalnay. (Courtesy of 
University Publications, University of Maryland) 



Further Resources 

University of Maryland. Faculty website, http://www.atmos.umd.edu/~ekalnay/. 



Kanter, Rosabeth (Moss) 



b. 1943 

Sociologist, Management Consultant 

Education: student, University of Chicago, 1962-1963; B.A., Bryn Mawr 
College, 1964; M.A., University of Michigan, 1965, Ph.D., sociology, 1967 



Kanter, Rosabeth (Moss) | 56 1 

Professional Experience: instructor, sociology, University of Michigan, 1967; 
assistant professor, sociology, Brandeis University, 1967-1973; associate 
professor, administration, Harvard University, 1973-1974; associate professor, 
sociology, Brandeis, 1974-1977; associate professor, sociology, Yale University, 
1977-1978, professor, 1978-1986; professor, Harvard University Business 
School, 1986-2000, Ernest L. Arbunkle professor of business administration, 2000- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting scholar, Newberry Library, 1973; visiting scholar, 
Harvard University, 1975; faculty member, Young President's Organization of 
International University, Hong Kong, 1976; founding partner, Goodmeasure, 
Inc., 1977- ; scholar-in-residence, Miami University, Ohio, 1978; visiting profes- 
sor, Organizational Psychology and Management, Sloan School of Management, 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1979-1980; director, American Center 
for Quality of Work Life, 1978-1982; director, Educational Fund for Individual 
Rights, 1979-1984; director, Legal Defense and Education Fund, National Organi- 
zation for Women, 1979-1986 and 1993-1995; visiting scholar, Norwegian 
Research Council on Science and Humanities, 1980; editor, Harvard Business 
Review, 1989-1992 

Rosabeth Moss Kanter brought a multidisciplinary perspective to the study of 
organizations and revolutionized management by introducing humanism into the 
workplace. In her landmark book, Men and Women of the Corporation (1977), 
she debunked the notion that the right personality is the key ingredient for success. 
Her research indicated that the structure of a company and a person's position 
within it determines her or his behavior and chances of promotion. Her statements 
that people can be products of their jobs, not the reverse, was particularly impor- 
tant for women, who usually are told they do not have the personality to be man- 
agers, when they have never been able to develop leadership skills in low-level, 
powerless jobs. 

Kanter's earlier research was on the sociology of communal living. She moved 
from the study of communes to corporations and, in 1977, she and her husband, 
Barry Stein, established their own management consulting firm, Goodmeasure, 
Inc. They co-authored A Tale of "O" (1980), which described in a whimsical man- 
ner how "x's" and "o's" are treated differently and revealed the insidious effect of 
discrimination in organizations. In The Change Masters: Innovation for Produc- 
tivity in the American Corporation (1983), she advised companies on the idea of 
"intrapreneurship," or how to stimulate entrepreneurial efforts from employees 
within an organization. Kanter has kept up with changes affecting American cor- 
porations, and in World Class: Thriving Locally in the Global Economy (1995), 
she emphasized the alternatives to job insecurity and economic chaos that have 
been brought on by the increasing globalization of industry. Many of her published 



562 | Kanwisher, Nancy 

articles on topics of strategy, innovation, and leadership were collected in the book 
Rosabeth Moss Kanteron the Frontiers of Management (1997; 2nd ed., 2003). Her 
other books include Innovation: Breakthrough Thinking at Du Pont, GE, Pfizer, and 
Rubbermaid (1997), Evolve!: Succeeding in the Digital Culture of Tomorrow (2001), 
and Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End (2004). 

Kanter has been a board member, trustee, or consultant to numerous businesses, 
organizations, and government entities. She has also been an advisor to political 
campaigns, working closely with Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts in 
his campaign for the presidency in 1988. She and Dukakis wrote Creating the 
Future: The Massachusetts Comeback and Its Promise for America (1988). In 
1994, Massachusetts governor William Weld appointed her to his Council on Eco- 
nomic Growth and Technology and named her co-chair of his International Trade 
Task Force. She is also a member of the American Sociological Association, 
American Association for Higher Education, and Society for the Study of Social 
Problems. 

Further Resources 

Harvard Business School. Faculty website. http://drfd.hbs.edu/fit/public/facultyInfo.do 
?fac!nfo=ovr&facId=6486. 



Kanwisher, Nancy 

Psychologist 

Education: B.S., biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1980, Ph.D., 
cognitive psychology, 1986 

Professional Experience: visiting scholar, Institute for War and Peace Studies, 
Columbia University, 1986-1987; postdoctoral fellow, psychology, Harvard Uni- 
versity, 1987-1988; assistant research psychologist, psychology, University of 
California, Berkeley, 1988-1990; assistant and associate professor, psychology, 
University of California, Los Angeles, 1990-1994; assistant professor and John 
L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, psychology, Harvard Univer- 
sity, 1994-1997; associate professor, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology (MIT), 1997-2001, professor, 2001-, Ellen Swallow 
Richards Professor, 2004-2009, Walter A. Rosenblith Professor, 2009- 

Concurrent Positions: assistant in neuroscience, Department of Radiology, 
Massachusetts General Hospital, 2000-; investigator, McGovern Institute for 
Brain Research, MIT, 2000- 



Kanwisher, Nancy | 563 

Nancy Kanwisher is a psychologist who studies visual perception, including object 
recognition, attention, number recognition, and social cognition. Her work com- 
bines cognitive and neurological research methods and tools. One of her main con- 
tributions to the field of cognitive neuroscience has been the identification of an 
area of the brain she terms FFA (Fusiform Face Area), which is dedicated to 
processing facial recognition. Using magnetic resonance imaging, or an MRI, to 
track brain activity, Kanwisher has found that, even when vision is not impaired, 
neurological injury or problems with this specific area can impact a patient's abil- 
ity to recognize faces. Her research has also revealed other dedicated areas of the 
brain that process specific imagery related to other body parts, such as feet or 
elbows. These findings have unlimited implications for uncovering the previously 
unknown function of other brain regions, and for further research into the role of 
genetics, evolutionary biology, and environmental or social conditioning on the 
development of specific areas of the brain. 

Kanwisher received her doctorate in cognitive psychology from MIT in 1986 
and taught at several universities on the East Coast and California before 
returning to MIT as a faculty member in the Department of Brain and Cognitive 
Sciences in 1997. Since 2000, she has also been an Investigator at MIT's 
McGovern Institute for Brain Research. The McGovern Institute brings together 
researchers on brain function specifically for the purpose of understanding 
physical and cognitive brain disorders, diseases, and injuries. She has been an 
invited lecturer, committee member, and advisor for numerous schools and insti- 
tutions throughout the United States and abroad. She has published widely, 
including collaborations with Harvard psychologist Elizabeth Spelke, and 
served on the editorial boards of professional journals such as Current Opinion 
in Neurobiology, Cognition, Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Experimental 
Psychology, and several others. 

Kanwisher was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2005. She is 
a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Society of 
Experimental Psychologists, and was named a MacVicar Faculty Fellow at 
MIT (2002). She is also the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship 
in Peace and International Security (1986-1988), a National Institute of Mental 
Health FIRST Award (1988-1992), a National Academy of Sciences Troland 
Research Award (1999), and a Golden Brain Award of the Minerva Foundation 
(2007). 

Further Resources 

McGovern Institute. "Nancy Kanwisher." http://web.mit.edu/mcgovern/html/Principal 
Investigators/kanwisher. shtml. 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Kanwisher Lab." http://web.mit.edu/bcs/nklab/. 



564 | Karle, Isabella Helen Lugoski 

Karle, Isabella Helen Lugoski 



b. 1921 

Crystal lographer 

Education: B.S., University of Michigan, M.S., physical chemistry, 1942, Ph.D., 
physical chemistry, 1944 

Professional Experience: associate chemist, University of Chicago, 1944; 
instructor, chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1944-1946; physicist, 
Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), 1946-1959, scientist, x-ray defraction and 
structural chemistry, 1959-2009 

Isabella Karle is a chemist and physicist who, along with her husband Jerome 
Karle and others, developed a new mathematical technique called "direct meth- 
ods" in crystallography, or the study of the atomic structure and composition of 
crystals. Her research interests have included application of electron and x-ray dif- 
fraction to structure problems, phase determination in crystallography, elucidation 
of molecular formulae, peptides, and configurations and conformations of natural 
products and biologically active materials. Jerome (who was a co-recipient of the 
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1985) was the theorist and Isabella the experimental- 
ist. He and others developed the theory of direct method, but she applied their the- 
ories by designing a machine that could diffract and photograph images of crystals 
to determine their atomic structures, speeding up the process and thus revolution- 
izing the field. Karle's study of frog venom and other biological materials allowed 
advances in creating synthetic chemicals for everything from insect repellents to 
medicines. She published more than 200 scientific papers and has received several 
honorary degrees. She has been a consultant or advisor to government agencies, 
including the National Committee on Crystallography, the National Research 
Council, and the Atomic Energy Commission. 

Isabella Karle completed her undergraduate degree on a four-year fellowship and 
received her doctorate at the age of 22, but she was unable to secure a graduate teach- 
ing assistantship in chemistry at Michigan because women had never held such a 
position. She was granted a fellowship by the American Association of University 
Women to start her graduate studies. After she received her doctorate, she and Jerome 
worked at the University of Chicago on the Manhattan Project for six months, and 
then Isabella returned to the University of Michigan for a short time. The couple 
was unable to obtain suitable employment together in a university due to anti- 
nepotism rules, but the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) offered them an 
opportunity to work together beginning in 1946, and they were affiliated with the 
NRL until their joint retirement in July 2009. 



Karp, Carol Ruth (Vander Velde) | 565 

Isabella Karle was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1978 and received a National Medal of Science from President Clinton in 1995. Her 
awards and honors over the course of a long career are numerous, but they include 
eight honorary doctorates as well as a Superior Civilian Service Award of the Navy 
Department (1965), Annual Achievement Award of the Society of Women Engineers 
(1968), Hildebrand Award from the American Chemical Society (1969), Federal 
Woman's Award (1973), Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society (1976), 
Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Chemists (1984), Women in Science 
and Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award (1986), Gregori Aminoff Prize of 
the Swedish Academy of Sciences (1988), Bijvoet Medal from the University of 
Utrecht, Netherlands (1990), Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science 
from the Franklin Institute (1993), U.S. Department of Defense Distinguished Civil- 
ian Service Award (1995), and Merrifield Award of the American Peptide Society 
(2007). She is a member of the American Crystallographic Association (president, 
1976), the American Physical Society, and the American Chemical Society. Jerome 
and Isabella Karle had three daughters, all of whom pursued degrees in the sciences. 

Further Resources 

Naval Research Laboratory. "Jerome and Isabella Karle Retire from NRL Following Six 
Decades of Scientific Exploration." Press release. (21 July 2009). http://www.nrl.navy 
.mil/pao/pressRelease.php?Y=2009&R=58-09r. 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 



Karp, Carol Ruth (Vander Velde) 

1926 1972 
Mathematician 

Education: B.A., Manchester College, 1948; M.A., Michigan State University, 
1950; Ph.D., mathematics, University of Southern California, 1959 

Professional Experience: instructor, mathematics, New Mexico Agricultural and 
Mechanical College (now New Mexico State University), 1953-1954; instructor, 
mathematics, University of Maryland, 1958-1960, assistant to associate professor, 
1960-1966, professor, 1966-1972 

Carol Karp was renowned for her research on logic, particularly infmitary logic in 
mathematics. Logic is the science that investigates the principles governing correct 
or reliable inference, and her book Languages with Expressions of Infinite Length 



566 | Kaufman, Joyce (Jacobson) 

(1964), based on her doctoral thesis, was the first systematic explanation of the theory 
of infinitary logic. In infinitary logic, a modification of calculus, the formulas are 
formed from symbols representing variables, constants, functions, and relations. 
Karp introduced four new symbols representing conjunction of infinite sets. Her work 
was internationally recognized, and she was able to recruit other faculty and a steady 
stream of graduate students to the University of Maryland. She was instrumental in 
bringing several important participants to the colloquia that she sponsored, and she 
and her husband even had a home with an extra apartment in which visiting logicians 
were frequently housed. Karp's intellectual standards were extremely high, and she 
was unfailingly honest in appraising the mathematical contributions and research 
promise of her students, refusing to let anyone graduate until their results met her 
own high standards for publishability. 

Karp developed breast cancer in 1969, but she continued her schedule of teaching 
and research until 1971, when she was too ill to work. At the time of her death in 
1972, she was working on a second book, but it was still too incomplete to publish. 
Colleagues and friends prepared a memorial volume, Infinitary Logic: In Memoriam 
Carol Karp (1975), which incorporates many of her ideas and notes. She was a 
member of the American Mathematical Society, Mathematical Association of 
America, and Association for Symbolic Logic. 

Further Resources 

Agnes Scott College. "Carol Karp." Biographies of Women Mathematicians, http:// 
www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/karp.htm. 

Kaufman, Joyce (Jacobson) 

b. 1929 

Chemist, Pharmacologist 

Education: B.S., Johns Hopkins University, 1949, M.A., 1959, Ph.D., chemistry 
and chemical physics, 1960; DES, theoretical physics, Sorbonne, 1963 

Professional Experience: research chemist, U.S. Army Chemical Center, Maryland, 
1949-1952; research assistant, Johns Hopkins University, 1952-1960; staff scientist, 
Martin Company Research Institute for Advanced Studies, 1960-1962, head, quan- 
tum, chemistry group, 1962-1969; associate professor of anesthesiology, School of 
Medicine, and principal research scientist in chemistry, Johns Hopkins University, 
1969-1977, associate professor, Department of Surgery, 1977- 

Joyce Kaufman has gained a distinguished national and international reputation in a 
wide variety of fields — chemistry, physics, biomedicine, and supercomputers — on 



Keller, Evelyn Fox | 567 

both the experimental and the theoretical levels. Her specialties include theoretical 
quantum chemistry, experimental physical chemistry, and chemical physics of ener- 
getic compounds; the last includes explosives, rocket fuels, oxidizers, and energetic 
polymers. She has examined the application of those techniques and experimental 
animal studies to biomedical research, including pharmacology, drug design, and 
toxicology. She is also knowledgeable in nuclear chemistry and radiochemistry, 
and has been successful in using experimental chemical techniques in determining 
the guidelines for effective drug action in a number of different areas. She published 
a landmark paper in 1980 in which she introduced a new theoretical method for cod- 
ing and retrieving certain carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Since that 
time, at least 30 papers have been written by other researchers using and expanding 
upon her concept. At Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, she works with interns and 
residents studying the effect of drugs, such as narcotics, tranquilizers, psychotropic 
drugs, general anesthetics, and spinal anesthetics, on the central nervous system. 

Kaufman completed high school in two years and, after receiving her undergradu- 
ate degree, worked as a librarian at the Army Chemical Center, where she set up a 
scientific indexing system for their technical reports. During the 1950s, it was 
common practice for companies and agencies to hire women scientists as librarians 
specializing in scientific literature rather than to employ them in the laboratories. 
However, Kaufman was able to transfer to a position as a research chemist after 
one year. A chemistry professor at Johns Hopkins invited her to work with him on 
a research contract, and he later convinced her to obtain a doctorate. She later joined 
Martin Company's Research Institute for Advanced Studies to do theoretical 
research on the application of quantum mechanics to problems in chemistry, but 
returned to Johns Hopkins in 1969 as a professor and research scientist. 

Kaufman has received numerous awards, including the Gold Medal of the Martin 
Company each year for three years (1964-1966), the Dame Chevalier of the Centre 
National de la Recherche Scientifique, France (1969), the Garvan Medal of the Ameri- 
can Chemical Society (1974), and a Woman of Achievement Award from the Jewish 
National Fund (1974). She is a fellow of the American Physical Society, American 
Institute of Chemists, and the European Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters. 



Keller, Evelyn Fox 

b. 1936 

Physicist, Mathematical Biologist, Molecular Biologist 

Education: student, Queens College, 1953; B.A., Brandeis University, 1957; 
M.A., Radcliffe College, 1959; Ph.D., physics, Harvard University, 1963 



568 | Keller, Evelyn Fox 




Physicist, biologist, and feminist scholar, 
Evelyn Fox Keller. (Photograph by Marleen 
Wynants) 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
visiting professor, 1985-1986 



Professional Experience: instructor, 
New York University, 1962-1963, as- 
sistant research scientist, 1963-1966; 
assistant professor, Graduate School 
of Medical Science, Cornell Univer- 
sity, 1966-1969; associate professor 
of molecular biology, New York 
University, 1970-1972; associate pro- 
fessor, Division of Natural Science, 
State University of New York (SUNY) 
at Purchase, 1972-1982; professor 
of humanities and mathematics, 
Northeastern University, 1982; senior 
fellow, Cornell University, 1986— 
1987; professor of rhetoric, Women's 
Studies and History of Science, 
University of California, Berkeley, 
1989-1992; professor, history and 
philosophy of science, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, 1992- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting fellow, 
1979-1980, visiting scholar, 1980-1984, 



Evelyn Fox Keller is known for her work in the fields of theoretical physics, 
molecular biology, and mathematical biology, as well as her feminist critique of 
scientific methods and beliefs. She was drawn to physics as a means for deep 
inquiry into nature, and received a National Science Foundation fellowship to 
attend Harvard. She did not enjoy the competitive and discriminatory atmosphere 
at Harvard and was ready to quit school after two years. A summer at the Cold 
Spring Harbor Laboratory, however, inspired her finish her thesis on molecular 
biology, and she received her doctorate in physics in 1963. 

While teaching a women's studies course in New York in 1974, she began to 
question the treatment of women in the sciences. An article on geneticist Barbara 
McClintock turned into a full biography, A Feeling for the Organism: The Life of 
Barbara McClintock, which Keller published in 1983. McClintock had worked for 
years in relative obscurity at Cold Spring Harbor on the genetics of maize. She had 
discovered that some genes move from one area on the chromosome to another, 
but her work was ignored for many years. McClintock received the Nobel Prize for 
this discovery more than 30 years after publishing her first findings. Keller generated 



Kempf, Martine | 569 

controversy with her next book, Reflections on Gender and Science (1985), in which 
she emphasized the importance of intuition in science and speculated on what a truly 
gender-free science might look like. Her recent works include The Century of the 
Gene (2000), and Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological Development with 
Models, Metaphors and Machines (2002). 

Fox Keller has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the Blaise 
Pascal Research Chair by the Prefecture de la Region D'lle-de-France (2005- 
2007). She is a member of the American Philosophical Society and the American 
Academy of Arts and Science. 

Further Resources 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Faculty website, http://web.mit.edu/sts/people/ 
keller.html. 



Kempf, Martine 

b. 1958 
Computer Scientist 

Education: student, astronomy, Friedrich Wilhelm University, Bonn, 1981-1983 

Professional Experience: founder and CEO, Kempf USA, 1985-, CEO, Kempf 
SAS, 2002- 

Martine Kempf is known for her research on voice commands for computer pro- 
grams. In 1985, she invented a breakthrough voice recognition microcomputer 
dubbed Katalavox, a name derived from the Greek word katal, "to understand," 
and vox, which is Latin for "voice." While she was a student in Bonn, she saw 
many German teenagers who had been born without arms because their mothers 
had taken thalidomide during pregnancy, and reasoned that a voice recognition 
system would enable them to drive cars. Learning to program on an Apple com- 
puter, she succeeded in directly transforming the human voice's analog signals 
into the computer's digital signals. Further refinements enable Katalavox to 
respond to a spoken command in a fraction of a second, compared with one or 
two seconds for competing systems. She was unable to secure financing to start a 
company in France, so she moved to Sunnyvale, California, to create and market 
the voice-recognition device not only for drivers, but also for people confined to 
wheelchairs or who suffer from cerebral palsy or strokes, and for doctors to use 
surgical tools and microscopes hands-free. 

Kempf was an astronomy student who does not hold a higher degree, but taught 
herself electronics and computers. She not only designed the software for her 



570 | Kenyon, Cynthia J. 

device but designed and built the hardware, designing the board and soldering the 
circuits herself. She also invented the Comeldir Multiplex Handicapped Driving 
Systems for people who must operate cars with their feet rather than their hands. 
Kempf 's own father was a polio survivor who designed a car he could drive with 
his hands and created a business customizing more than 1,000 cars per year for 
others with disabilities. Martine's company, Kempf USA, is still headquartered 
in California, and she became CEO of Kempf SAS in Europe (her father's busi- 
ness) after his death in 2002. 

Further Resources 

Kempf USA. "Who is Martine KEMPF?" http://www.kempf-usa.com/Kempf 
Martine.html. 



Kenyon, Cynthia J. 

b. 1955 

Molecular Biologist 

Education: B.S., chemistry and biochemistry, University of Georgia, 1976; Ph.D., 
biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1981 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, Medical Research Council Labora- 
tory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England, 1982-1986; assistant professor, 
biochemistry and biophysics, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), 
1986-1992, associate professor, 1992-1994, professor, 1994- 

Concurrent Positions: director, UCSF Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging, 
2002- 

Cynthia Kenyon is a molecular biologist known for her studies of the genes of a 
microscopic roundworm or nematode called Caenorhabditis elegans, or C. ele- 
gans. Her findings that gene mutations were responsible for determining the life 
span of C. elegans led to further research on the genetic role in aging and age- 
related diseases (such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or Huntington's disease) 
in other organisms, such as mice or humans. By altering the genes of the C. 
elegans hormonally and environmentally, Kenyon found that she could increase the 
worm's life span by as much as 50% compared to normal, from 21 days to 45 days 
in some cases. While the implications for the human aging process are still being 
researched, she has reported that her findings have at least prompted her to think 
about her own aging; for example, finding that too much sugar shortened the worm's 
life span, she made dietary changes to limit the amount of high-glycemic 



Kenyon, Cynthia J. | 571 



index carbohydrates she eats, avoiding 
white flour and sugar. These dietary 
changes also promote weight loss and 
regulate insulin production, which can 
also ward off disease. In 1999, she co- 
founded a company, Elixir Pharma- 
ceuticals, to research the development 
of medications that could slow down 
the aging process and treat metabolic 
disorders. 

Kenyon earned her undergraduate 
degree in chemistry from the Univer- 
sity of Georgia in 1976 and went on 
to receive a doctorate from the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technol- 
ogy in 1981. Her thesis was on DNA 
damage in E. coli. She then went to 
Cambridge, England as a postdoc- 
toral molecular biology researcher in 
the laboratory of Nobel Laureate 
Sydney Brenner, where she began 
studying C. elegans. She joined the 
faculty at UCSF in 1986, where she 
was Herbert Boyer Distinguished 

Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics (1997-2004), and in 2005 was named 
an American Cancer Research Society Professor. She is also the founding 
director of the Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging at UCSF, established 
in 2002. 

Kenyon was elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute 
of Medicine in 2003. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sci- 
ences and the Genetics Society of America (president, 2003). Her most recent 
awards and honors include the King Faisal International Prize for Medicine 
(2000), Life Extension Prize (2002), Discover Prize for Basic Research (2004), 
American Association of Medical Colleges Award for Distinguished Research in 
Biomedical Sciences (2004), Use & Helmut Wachter Award for Exceptional Sci- 
entific Achievement in the Field of Medicine (2005), and La Fondation IPSEN 
Prize (2006). 




Molecular biologist Cynthia Kenyon 
researches the genetic role in aging and age- 
related diseases. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Further Resources 

University of California, San Francisco. "Kenyon Lab." http://kenyonlab.ucsf.edu/. 



572 | Kidwell, Margaret Gale 
Kidwell, Margaret Gale 



b. 1933 

Geneticist, Evolutionary Biologist 

Education: B.Sc, Nottingham University, 1953; M.S., animal breeding, Iowa 
State University, 1962; Ph.D., genetics, Brown University, 1973 

Professional Experience: officer, Ministry of Agriculture, London, 1955-1960; 
research fellow, Brown University, 1973-1974, research associate, 1974-1975, 
investigator, 1975-1977, assistant to associate professor, 1977-1984, professor, 
1984-1985; professor, ecology and evolutionary biology, University of Arizona, 
Tucson, 1985- 

Margaret Kidwell is renowned for her research on Drosophila, the common fruit 
fly. Her research interests include Drosophila genetics and evolution, recombina- 
tion transposable elements, and speciation. In the 1990s, her team discovered that 
sometime around 1950, genes of one fruit fly jumped to another species. Since 
that time, "the jumping genes" have spread like wildfire, so that today, essentially 
all fruit fly populations, except those maintained in isolation in laboratories, carry 
the same elements. The theory is that a tiny parasitic mite lives in association with 
both species. Although there have been reports of other possible gene transfers 
between species, principally by viruses, this discovery was the first indication that 
a mite or anything like it can transfer genetic material. The transfer of genetic 
material between species has a major impact on our understanding of evolution, 
as the "transposons" cause mutations if they happen to land in a gene. However, 
if lateral transfers of genetic material between species occur frequently, that could 
complicate the work of researchers who are attempting to study the evolutionary 
relationships among species. Kidwell, a pioneer in this research, was the one 
who zeroed in on the mite. Since the two species of fruit flies cannot breed, the 
team recognized that the material had to have been transferred by some agent. 

Born in England, Kidwell came to the United States in 1960 with a fellowship 
to pursue graduate study, receiving a master's degree from Iowa State and her doc- 
torate from Brown University in 1973 at the age of 40. She had originally planned 
to return to England, but discovered she wanted to pursue a research career in the 
United States, and had married an American and started a family as well. While 
still in graduate school, she accepted a position at Brown as a research scientist, 
then moved into the academic ranks as an assistant professor in 1977. She became 
a full professor at Brown in 1985 but was recruited to the University of Arizona as 
professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and in affiliation with the Interdis- 
ciplinary Program in Genetics. 



Kieffer, Susan Werner | 573 

Kidwell was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1996. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
and of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a member of the American 
Genetics Association (president, 1992), Society for Molecular Biology and Evolu- 
tion (1996), American Society of Naturalists (vice president, 1984), Genetics 
Society of America, and Society for the Study of Evolution. Kidwell had two 
daughters, both of whom pursued advanced degrees in the biological sciences. 

Further Resources 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 

University of Arizona. Faculty website. http://www.eebweb.arizona.edu/Faculty/Bios/ 
kidwell.html. 



Kieffer, Susan Werner 

b. 1942 

Geologist, Volcanologist, Mineral Physicist 

Education: B.S., physics and mathematics, Allegheny College, 1964; student, 
astrogeophysics (solar physics), University of Colorado, Boulder, 1964-1965; 
M.Sc, geological sciences, California Institute of Technology, 1967, Ph.D., plan- 
etary science, 1971 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral research fellow, University of California, 
Los Angeles, 1971-1973, assistant to associate professor, geology, 1973-1979; 
geologist, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Flagstaff, Arizona, 1979-1990, scientist 
emeritus; professor, geology, Arizona State University, 1990-1993; professor and 
department head, geological science, University of British Columbia, 1993-1995; 
co-founder and head, Kieffer & Woo, Inc., Ontario, 1996-2000; professor, geology 
and physics, Center for Advanced Study, and affiliated faculty member, civil and 
environmental engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2000- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting professor, geology, California Institute of Tech- 
nology, 1982; research professor, geology, Arizona State University, 1989; co- 
founder and president, Kieffer Institute for Development of Science-Based Educa- 
tion, Arizona, 1999; founder, S. W. Kieffer Science Consulting Inc., 2000- 

Susan Kieffer is renowned as an expert on volcanoes both on Earth and on Io, Venus, 
Mars, and other planets. Her research includes geological physics, high-pressure 



574 | Kieffer, Susan Werner 

geophysics and impact processes, shock metamorphism of natural materials, 
thermodynamic properties of minerals, mechanisms of geyser and volcano erup- 
tions, and river hydraulics. Her expertise on the hydraulics of lava flow also transfers 
to her studies of the hydraulics, sediment transfer, rapids, and waves in rivers. She 
also participated in the studies of asteroid impact on Earth at the Chicxulub crater 
in Mexico. She has studied geysers, volcanoes, and the volcanic environment on 
Earth as well as on other planets and has found that simulated volcanic eruptions 
on Earth, Venus, and Mars produce plumes with different fluid dynamic regimes. 
A major portion of the differences are caused by differing atmospheric pressures 
and ratios of volcanic vent pressure to atmospheric pressure. She did extensive stud- 
ies of the hydraulics of lava flow and erosion furrows after the eruption of Mount St. 
Helens in Washington State in 1980, research which earned her team a USGS Group 
Achievement Award. She has also studied the hydraulics of river flow in areas such 
as the Colorado River, and explored Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park by 
lowering a robot down its vent. 

Although it is commonplace for asteroids to strike other planets, it is a compa- 
ratively rare occurrence when they strike Earth. Kieffer collaborated with Walter 
Alvarez in his study of the crater left by an asteroid striking the Earth at Chicxulub 
in Mexico, a study that supported Alvarez's theory that the dust cloud from this 
impact blotted out the sun while circling the Earth, thus killing the vegetation that 
was the food supply for the dinosaurs. Kieffer and Alvarez co-authored a paper 
about the study, and the research is also discussed in Alvarez's book T-Rex and 
the Crater of Doom (1997). 

She has worked for government agencies as well as for several universities. 
After receiving her doctorate, she secured a position as a research geophysicist at 
the University of California, Los Angeles, and then transferred to a tenure-track 
academic position. She worked for the USGS for more than a decade, then 
returned to academia as a professor at Arizona State University before moving to 
the University of British Columbia in 1993. In 1996, she co-founded Kieffer & 
Woo, a consulting firm in Canada, and was chair of the Canadian Geoscience 
Council (CGC) committee on Geologic Disposal of High-Level Nuclear Fuel 
Waste. Most recently, she has consulted on volcanic intrusions into waste reposito- 
ries for the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board. In 2000 she became a professor 
of geology and physics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. 

Kieffer was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1986. She received a prestigious five-year MacArthur fellowship (1995-2000), 
and has also received the Mineralogical Society of America Award (1980), Distin- 
guished Alumnus Award of California Institute of Technology (1982), Meritorious 
Service Award of the Department of Interior (1987), Spendiarov Prize of the 
Soviet Academy of Sciences (1989), and Day Medal of the Geological Society 



Kimble, Judith | 575 

of America (1992). She is the co-editor of Microscopic to Macroscopic Atomic 
Environments to Mineral Thermodynamics (1985). She is a fellow of the American 
Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science (chair of Geology/Geography Section, 2002-2005), and a member of the 
Meteoritical Society, Geological Society of America, Geological Association of 
Canada, Society of Canadian Women in Science and Technology, and American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Further Resources 

University of Illinois. "The Geological Fluid Dynamics Group." http://www 
. geology, uiuc.edu/~skieffer/. 



Kimble, Judith 

b. 1949 
Geneticist 

Education: B.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1971; Ph.D., biology, 
University of Colorado, Boulder, 1978 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, 
Cambridge, England, 1978-1982; assistant to associate professor, molecular biol- 
ogy and biochemistry, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1983-1992, professor, 
1992- 

Concurrent Positions: investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 1994- 

Judith Kimble is renowned for her research on elegans, a type of nematode — 
unsegmented worms of the phylum Nematoda that have elongated, cylindrical 
bodies. Her research concerns understanding animal development at the molecular 
and cellular levels. She became interested in this field after studying human 
embryology as an undergraduate and realized that understanding stem cells and 
organ development of the simplest animals would have implications for under- 
standing all animals, including humans. After completing her undergraduate 
degree at Berkeley, Kimble spent two years at the University of Copenhagen 
Medical School as an assistant before she received a National Science Foundation 
predoctoral fellowship at the University of Colorado, Boulder. After receiving her 
doctorate, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in 
Cambridge, England, and went on to receive prestigious postdoctoral fellowships, 
including one from the National Institutes of Health (1980-1982). Kimble joined 
the faculty in molecular biology, biochemistry, and medical genetics at the 



576 | King, Helen Dean 

University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has published widely in scientific journals 
such as Developmental Biology; Genetics; Cell; Developmental Genetics; and 
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Kimble was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) 
in 1995 and was recently elected to a term on the Council of the NAS (2008-). She 
received a National Institutes of Health Research Career Development Award 
(1984-1989), and has served on several prestigious committees, such as the 
Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Research Fund Scientific Advisory 
Board (1992-1996) and the Searle Scientific Advisory Board (1997-). She has 
been active in professional organizations, such as the Society of Developmental 
Biology (secretary, 1987-1990; president, 2004-2005), Genetics Society of 
America (president, 2000), and American Society for Cell Biology (council 
member, 1994-). She is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sci- 
ences and the American Philosophical Society. 

Further Resources 

University of Wisconsin. Faculty website, http://www.biochem.wisc.edu/faculty/kimble/. 



King, Helen Dean 

1869 1955 
Geneticist 

Education: B.A., Vassar College, 1892; Ph.D., morphology, Bryn Mawr College, 
1899 

Professional Experience: fellow, biology, Bryn Mawr College, 1896-1897, assis- 
tant, 1899-1904; instructor, science, Baldwin School, Pennsylvania, 1899-1907; 
fellow, biology, University of Pennsylvania, 1906-1908; assistant, anatomy, 
Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, 1909-1912, assistant professor, 
anatomy, 1912-1927, professor, embryology, 1927-1949 

Helen King 's outstanding contribution to science was her success in breeding pure 
strains of laboratory animals, including 150 generations of rats and the "Wistar" 
rat (named after the Institute where she worked for 40 years) that became widely 
used as a lab animal. In addition to discovering new types of rats, her research shed 
light on inquiries into heredity, sex determination, fertility, and longevity. Through 
careful inbreeding experiments with brother and sister rats, a practice unpopular at 
the time, she demonstrated the capacity to improve the strain, knowledge that has 
been applied to other animals, such as racehorses. Her research was reported in the 



King, Mary-Claire | 577 

newspapers in the 1910s and 1920s at a time when there was great interest in 
eugenics. Her work on rats sparked controversy and outrage over whether she 
was advocating "human inbreeding" or incest. Her other research interests 
included sex determination in amphibians and mammals, germ cells in amphibians 
and mammals, parthenogenesis, growth and reproduction of the white rat, and 
modification of the sex ratio. 

After she received her doctorate from Bryn Mawr, she remained at the school as 
an assistant in biology and also taught science at the Baldwin School before 
accepting a research fellow position at the University of Pennsylvania. She moved 
to the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology in Philadelphia in 1909, where she 
spent the remainder of her career. She served on the institute's advisory board for 
24 years, was editor of its bibliographic service for 13 years, and was editor of the 
Journal of Morphology and Physiology for 3 years. 

King received many honors and awards for her work, including the Ellen 
Richards Prize of the Association to Aid Scientific Research for Women in 1932. 
She was elected a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. Her other mem- 
berships included the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the 
American Society of Naturalists, the American Society of Zoologists, and the 
American Association of Anatomists. 



King, Mary-Claire 

b. 1946 

Geneticist, Epidemiologist 

Education: B.A., mathematics, Carleton College, 1966; Ph.D., genetics, Univer- 
sity of California, Berkeley, 1973 

Professional Experience: visiting professor, University of Chile, Santiago, 1973; 
assistant professor, epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Califor- 
nia, Berkeley, 1974-1980, associate professor, epidemiology, 1980-1984, profes- 
sor, epidemiology, 1984-1996, professor, genetics and molecular biology, 1989- 
1996, American Cancer Society Professor, genetics and epidemiology, 1994- 
1996; professor, Genome Sciences and Medicine, University of Washington, 
1996- 

Mary-Claire King is renowned for her research on breast cancer. In 1990, she pre- 
dicted the existence of the gene BRCA1 that, if damaged, can predispose women 
to breast and ovarian cancer. The next year, she and other researchers discovered 
the chromosomal location of a gene that causes a form of inherited deafness, and 



578 | King, Mary-Claire 




another of her discoveries consists of 
the genetic clues to the reason some 
men infected with HIV-1 develop 
AIDS more rapidly than others. She 
began her research on breast cancer 
in the 1970s, but made very little 
headway until the early 1980s, when 
breakthroughs in molecular biology 
led to the mapping of more genetic 
markers. Her team was very close to 
finding the gene BRCA1 when it was 
located by a team at the University 
of Utah in 1994. Although disap- 
pointed, she continued her work on 
the location of other genes and on 
gene mutations. As a scientist, but 
also as a person with a family history 
of breast and ovarian cancer, she was 
convinced that there was a hereditary 
link to breast cancer and continues to 
call for the development of new tests to detect the gene. 

King has worked with the Human Genome Diversity Project to examine why 
some early humans became ill when exposed to viruses or bacteria, while others 
did not. This research has been applied to her study of possible genetic reasons 
why some homosexual men who have been exposed to HIV develop AIDS, while 
others do not. She is the recipient of the Genetics Prize of the Peter Gruber Foun- 
dation (2004), the Heineken Prize for Medicine from the Royal Netherlands Acad- 
emy of Arts and Sciences (2006), and the Weizmann Women & Science Award 
(2006). She has served on various committees of the National Cancer Institute, 
Institute of Medicine, Special Commission on Breast Cancer of the President's 
Cancer Panel, and National Institutes of Health (NIH). She was considered for 
the directorship of the NIH in 1991, but she declined this administrative position 
in order to focus on her research. She is a member of the American Society of 
Human Genetics and Society for Epidemiologic Research. She was elected to the 
National Academy of Sciences in 2005. 



Geneticist Mary-Claire King. (Courtesy of Uni- 
versity of Washington/UnivPhoto) 



Further Resources 

University of Washington. Faculty website, http://www.gs.washington.edu/faculty/ 
king. htm. 



Klinman, Judith (Pollock) | 579 

Davies, Kevin and Michael White. 1996. Breakthrough: The Race to Find the Breast 
Cancer Gene. NY: John Wiley & Sons. 



Klinman, Judith (Pollock) 

b. 1941 

Biochemist, Physical Organic Chemist 

Education: B.A., chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, 1962, Ph.D., organic 
chemistry, 1966 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, Isotope Department, Weizmann 
Institute of Science, Israel, 1966-1967; affiliate, chemistry, University College, 
London, 1967-1968; postdoctoral research associate, Institute for Cancer 
Research, Philadelphia, 1968-1972, assistant to associate member, 1972-1978; 
associate professor, chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, 1978-1982, 
professor, 1982-, professor, molecular and cell biology, 1993— 

Concurrent Positions: assistant professor, medical biophysics, University of 
Pennsylvania, 1974-1978 

Judith Klinman is renowned for bringing the principles and tools of physical 
organic chemistry to bear on biological processes. Her research has led to 
important breakthroughs in our understanding of protein function and structure, 
including the discovery of new cofactors (or vitamins) and the effect of oxygen 
on proteins. She also has been a leading figure in the use of isotope effects to probe 
enzymatic-reaction mechanisms and transition states. 

After she received her doctorate, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Weizmann 
Institute of Science in Israel and then was affiliated with the Department of Chem- 
istry at the University College, London. First a postdoctoral associate at the Insti- 
tute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia, she was promoted to research associate 
and later became an associate member there. Concurrently, she was assistant pro- 
fessor of biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania, where she taught and super- 
vised graduate students. She joined the University of California, Berkeley in 1978 
as an associate professor of chemistry and the first female faculty member in the 
physical sciences. She was promoted to full professor in 1982, and has held a joint 
appointment as professor of molecular and cell biology since 1993. Klinman is 
very active professionally, serving on the editorial board of scientific journals 
and giving lectures at universities and scientific organizations internationally. 



580 | Knopf, Eleanora Frances Bliss 

In 1994, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and awarded the 
Repligen Award of the Division of Biological Chemistry of the American Chemi- 
cal Society (ACS). She also received the Remsen Award of the ACS, a Merit 
Award from the National Institutes of Health (1992), and honorary doctorates from 
the University of Uppsala, Sweden (2000) and the University of Pennsylvania 
(2006). She has been named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sci- 
ences, the Japanese Ministry of Science, and the American Philosophical Society. 
She is a member of the American Chemical Society, American Society of Bio- 
chemists and Molecular Biologists (president, 1998-1999), and Protein Society. 

Further Resources 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 

University of California, Berkeley. "Klinman Research Group." http://www.cchem 
.berkeley.edu/jukgrp/index.html. 



Knopf, Eleanora Frances Bliss 



1883 1974 
Geologist 

Education: A.B., A.M., Bryn Mawr College, 1904; Ph.D., petrology, University 
of California, Berkeley, 1912; Johns Hopkins University, 1917-1918 

Professional Experience: assistant curator, geology museum, Bryn Mawr 
College, 1904-1905, 1908-1909, demonstrator, geology laboratory, 1905-1906; 
aide, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 1912-1917, assistant geologist, 1917-1918, 
associate geologist, 1918-1928, geologist, 1928-1970 

Concurrent Positions: geologist, Maryland Geological Survey, 1917-1920; 
research associate, department of earth sciences, Stanford University, 1951-1966 

Eleanora Knopf introduced rock fabric analysis and structural petrology in the 
United States. She gained recognition for her work after publishing her methods 
in the book Structural Petrology (1938). In 1913, Knopf announced her discovery 
of the mineral glaucophane in Pennsylvania; this was the first sighting of the sub- 
stance east of the Pacific coast. One of her most important projects was at Stissing 
Mountain, a region on the New York-Connecticut border. In the course of her 
studies for this project, she decided to use structural petrology in analyzing her 
data, which led to the publication of her book on the topic. 



Kopell, Nancy J. | 581 

After she received her undergraduate degree at Bryn Mawr, studying with 
Florence Bascom, she continued working at the school in the geology museum 
and the geology laboratory. She received her doctorate from the University of 
California, Berkeley in 1912, and began working with the USGS, where she spent 
her entire career. The USGS hired women geologists on a contract basis, and 
Knopf accepted other work at times. She worked for the Maryland Geological Sur- 
vey before her marriage, and she had a long-term association with the department 
of earth sciences at Stanford from 1951 to 1966, when her husband, Adolph 
Knopf, was a faculty member there. While at Stanford, she made studies of several 
locations in the Rocky Mountains in Montana and the Spanish peaks in Colorado. 
When she lived in New Haven, she was a visiting lecturer at Harvard and Yale, but 
she did not have formal appointments. 

Knopf wrote a chapter on "The Geologist" for a 1920 guide to Careers for 
Women (edited by Catherine Filene). She was elected a fellow of the Geological 
Society of America, and was a member of the American Geophysical Union. 



Kopell, Nancy J. 

b. 1942 

Applied Mathematician 

Education: B.S., mathematics, Cornell University, 1963; Ph.D., mathematics, 
University of California, Berkeley, 1967 

Professional Experience: instructor, mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology (MIT), 1967-1969; faculty, Northeastern University, 1969-1986; pro- 
fessor, mathematics, Boston University, 1986-2000, William Goodwin Aurelio 
Professor of Mathematics and Science, 2000- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting faculty, Centre National de la Recherche Scienti- 
fique, France 1970, MIT, 1975, 1976-1977, California Institute of Technology, 
1976 

Nancy Kopell is one of the few mathematicians working in the field of applied bio- 
mathematics. Her research uses mathematical models to analyze biological and 
neurophysiological features of neurons, networks of cells that are responsible for 
physical and cognitive functions such as motor skills, behaviors, perception, learning, 
and sensory processing. She studied math as an undergraduate at Cornell University 
at a time when there were few women in the discipline and received her doctorate 
in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1967. She taught at 



582 | Koshland, Marian Elliott 



MIT and Northeastern before joining 
the faculty at Boston University in 
1986, where she is also co-director of 
the Center for BioDynamics. 

Kopell was elected to the National 
Academy of Sciences in 1996 for her 
work in systems neuroscience. She 
has held several prestigious grants 
and fellowships, including a Guggen- 
heim fellowship and a five-year 
Mac Arthur "genius grant" (1990- 
1995). She has been an invited speaker 
and lecturer at numerous professional 
organizations and universities, and 
was named the John von Neumann 
Lecturer by the Society for Industrial 
and Applied Mathematics in 2007. 

Further Resources 

Boston University. Faculty website. 
Mathematician, Nancy Kopell. (Courtesy of BU http://cbd.bu.edu/members/nkopell 

Photo Services) .html. 

Case, Bettye Anne and Anne Leggett, eds. 
2005. Complexities: Women in Mathematics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press. 




Koshland, Marian Elliott 



1921 1997 
Immunologist 

Education: B.A., Vassar College, 1942; M.S., bacteriology, University of 
Chicago, 1943, Ph.D., immunology, 1949 

Professional Experience: assistant, cholera project, Office of Scientific Research 
and Development, University of Chicago, 1943-1945; assistant, Commission on 
Air Borne Diseases, University of Colorado, 1943-1944; junior chemist, atomic 
bomb project, Manhattan district, Tennessee, 1945-1946; associate bacteriologist, 
Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1953-1962, bacteriologist, 1962-1965; associate 



Koshland, Marian Elliott | 583 

research immunologist, University of California, Berkeley, 1965-1969, research 
immunologist, 1969-1970, professor, bacteriology and immunology, 1970-1997 

Concurrent Positions: fellow, bacteriology and immunology, Harvard University, 
1949-1951; visiting professor, Cancer Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technol- 
ogy, 1980, 1985-1986 

Marian Koshland was an immunologist who made important contributions to the 
study of disease. She became interested in science as a child after watching a 
younger brother suffer from typhoid fever. Koshland (known as "Bunny" to her 
family and colleagues) worked her own way through Vassar College and went on 
to earn a master's degree from the University of Chicago in 1943. She had 
intended to go to medical school, but decided to pursue research while working 
at Chicago on a project to develop a cholera vaccine. This project was funded by 
the government in an effort to develop vaccines for soldiers serving overseas. 
She was also engaged in research to prevent respiratory infections and spent time 
at the University of Colorado on a World War II-era government project for the 
Commission on Air Borne Diseases. She had a contract assignment as a junior 
chemist with the Manhattan Project studying the effects of radiation before finally 
receiving her doctorate in immunology in 1949. She spent two years as a postdoc- 
toral fellow at Harvard before returning to government work with the Brookhaven 
National Laboratory, where her husband, Daniel Koshland, was employed as a 
research scientist. When her husband accepted a position in California, she moved 
to the University of California, Berkeley as a researcher and then full-time profes- 
sor of bacteriology and immunology. She made some of her most important scien- 
tific contributions early in her career while working only part-time and raising five 
children. She eventually published more than 200 articles. 

Koshland was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1981. She was a 
member of the governing board of the National Science Foundation from 1976 to 
1982 and was selected the R. E. Dyer Lecturer by the National Institutes of Health 
in 1988. She served on numerous boards and committees, including the National 
Institutes of Health, the National Science Board, and the National Council of the 
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. She was a member of the 
American Association of Immunologists (president, 1982-1983), the Institute of 
Medicine, the American Society of Biological Chemists, and the American Academy 
of Microbiologists. She was a longtime member of the Board of Trustees for Haver- 
ford College in Connecticut, which has named its science research complex — the 
Marian E. Koshland Integrated Natural Sciences Center — in her honor. Haverford 
awarded her an honorary doctorate in 1995. In 2004, the Marian Koshland Science 
Museum of the National Academy of Science was established in Washington, D.C., 
with a gift from her husband. 



584 | Kreps, Juanita (Morris) 

Further Resources 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 

Guyer, Ruth Levy. 2007. Marian Elliot Koshland, 1921 1997: A Biographical Memoir. 
Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences. 

Marian Koshland Science Museum, http://www.koshland-science-museum.org. 



Kreps, Juanita (Morris) 

b. 1921 
Economist 

Education: B.A., Berea College, 1942; M.A., Duke University, 1944, Ph.D., eco- 
nomics, 1948 

Professional Experience: instructor, economics, Denison University, 1945-1946, 
assistant professor, 1947-1950; lecturer, Hofstra College, 1952-1954, and Queens 
College, 1954-1955; visiting assistant professor, economics, Duke University, 
1955-1958, assistant to associate professor, 1958-1967, professor, 1967-1977, 
director, undergraduate economics studies and Dean of Women's College, 1969- 
1972, vice president, Duke University, 1973-1977; Secretary of Commerce, U.S. 
Department of Commerce, 1977-1979 

Juanita Kreps is an economist focused on women's employment and was the first 
woman Secretary of Commerce of the U.S. Department of Commerce. She was 
also the first professional economist to hold that cabinet post. Prior to that time, 
the Secretaries had supported the interests of business, but she stated that she 
would support the interests of the public, including consumers, as well as those 
of business. The late 1970s was a period of high unemployment owing to the 
restructuring of industries, and corporations were experiencing increased competi- 
tion from abroad in industries such as steel and automobiles, traditionally the 
strong sectors of U.S. industry. While she was working to revitalize industry, she 
was also working to increase social consciousness among businesspeople. 

Kreps specialized in labor demographics with particular emphasis on the employ- 
ment of women and older workers. In Sex in the Marketplace: American Women at 
Work (1971), she explored such questions as why women enter into the same types 
of occupations, why their proportion of advanced degrees remains so low, and why 
so many exchange the monotony of housework for equally dull and low-paying 
office and factory jobs. Another book, Sex, Age, and Work: The Changing Composi- 
tion of the Labor Force (1975), explored the effect of women's increased presence in 



Krim, Mathilde (Galland) | 585 



the workplace. In 1975, she organized 
a conference called "Women and the 
American Economy" that produced a 
statement endorsing the Equal Rights 
Amendment, recommending stronger 
affirmative action programs at univer- 
sities, and urging public education for 
preschool children. 

Kreps was born in a coal-mining 
region of Kentucky and grew up during 
the Great Depression. She worked her 
way through college on a work-study 
program. She decided to major in eco- 
nomics after her first class in the sub- 
ject because it seemed especially 
relevant to her situation. As a highly 
respected economist, Kreps attracted 
attention from leading corporations 
that were under pressure in the early 
1970s to add women to their boards 
of directors. She was named to the 
board of the New York Stock Exchange 
plus the boards of several companies such as Western Electric and Eastman Kodak. 
After she completed her term as Secretary of the Department of Commerce, she con- 
tinued to write and lecture, and she served on many committees and commissions. 
She is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and of the American Acad- 
emy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Economic Association. 




Economist Juanita Kreps served as Secretary 
of Commerce under President Jimmy Carter 
from 1 977 to 1 979. (Department of Commerce) 



Krim, Mathilde (Galland) 



b. 1 926 

Geneticist, Virologist 

Education: B.S., genetics, University of Geneva, Switzerland, 1948, Ph.D., 
cytogenetics, 1953 

Professional Experience: junior scientist and research associate, Weizmann Insti- 
tute, Israel, 1953-1959; research associate, virology, Division of Virus Research, 
Cornell University Medical College, 1959-1962; associate, Sloan-Kettering Insti- 
tute of Cancer Research, 1962-1975, associate and member, 1975-1986; associate 



586 | Krim, Mathilde (Galland) 



research scientist, St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center and College of Physicians 
and Surgeons, New York City, 1986— 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct professor, public health and management, 
Columbia University; founder and co-chair, American Foundation for AIDS 
Research (amfAR), 1985, chair, 1990-2004 

Mathilde Krim is a distinguished geneticist and virologist who, since the 1980s, has 
devoted her time to raising funds for AIDS research. While working at the Sloan- 
Kettering Institute for Cancer Research on cancer viruses, she became intrigued with 
the possibility that the protein interferon, which is produced naturally by almost all 
animal species and even some plants, might inhibit tumors and modify some proper- 
ties of the immune system in animals. She felt this would be a significant area of 
research, particularly in 1974, when a Swedish physician announced some success 
with interferon's stopping the recurrence of highly malignant bone cancer in a num- 
ber of patients. She pressed Sloan-Kettering to establish an interferon laboratory 

and also sought funding from the 
National Institutes of Health and 
the National Cancer Institute. When 
the results of the Swedish tests were 
discredited, there was great contro- 
versy over the efficacy of interferon, 
which was very expensive as a natural 
substance. After a researcher cloned 
the interferon gene, it was possible to 
produce interferon in large quantities, 
and Krim was then appointed as 
head of Sloan-Kettering's interferon 
evaluation program; the Institute won 
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 
approval to use interferon to treat 
certain types of leukemia. 

Krim initially became involved in 
AIDS research through studies of the 
effectiveness of interferon in treating 
Kaposi's sarcoma, a cancer that 
afflicts many AIDS patients. She 
realized that the funding for AIDS 
research was inadequate, and in 1983, 
she founded the AIDS Medical Foun- 
dation, later merged with another 




Mathilde Krim at a benefit for amfAR, 
the American Foundation for AIDS 
Research, in New York, 2007. (AP/Wide 
World Photos) 



Krueger, Anne (Osborn) | 587 

group to form the American Foundation for AIDS Research; amfAR is now the larg- 
est nonprofit AIDS research organization, funding all areas including gene therapy, 
prevention, drug treatments, and public -policy initiatives. Krim was able to unite the 
scientific and entertainment communities through her husband, the founder of Orion 
Pictures, and celebrity spokespersons such as actress Elizabeth Taylor helped raise 
public awareness about AIDS and the efforts of amfAR. In recent years, Krim has 
also focused on another health threat, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDRTB), 
which is a serious problem among people who are HIV-positive as well as the home- 
less, people in prison, and the poor. 

Krim has been a member of the Committee of 100 for National Health Insurance 
and president of the Commission to Study Ethical Problems in Medical, Biomedical, 
and Behavioral Research. She is a member of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, American Cancer Society, and American Association on 
Mental Deficiency. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000 by 
President Clinton in recognition of her "extraordinary compassion and commitment." 

Further Resources 

amfAR Aids Research, http://www.amfar.org. 



Krueger, Anne (Osborn) 

b. 1934 
Economist 

Education: B.A., economics, Oberlin College, 1953; M.S., University of Wisconsin, 
1956, Ph.D., economics, 1958 

Professional Experience: instructor, economics, University of Wisconsin, 
Madison, 1958-1959; assistant to associate professor, economics, University of 
Minnesota, 1959-1966, professor, 1966-1982; vice president, economics and 
research, World Bank, Washington, D.C., 1982-1986; professor, economics, Duke 
University, 1987-1993; professor, economics, Stanford University, 1993-2001; 
First Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, 2001-2006; pro- 
fessor, international economics, Johns Hopkins University, 2007- 

Anne Krueger is an economist with expertise in international trade and economic 
development. She has been involved in developing international economic policy 
as a vice president and consultant for the World Bank and director of the 
International Monetary Fund from 2001 to 2006. She has been a longtime member 
or consultant on a variety of government and academic councils, including the 



588 | Kiibler-Ross, Elisabeth 

National Bureau of Economic Research, Institute for Global Economics, and 
Center for Policy Studies. While a professor of economics at Stanford, she was 
also director of the Center for Research on Economic Development and Policy 
Reform. She has authored, co-authored, or edited more than 15 books on trade, 
development, economic change, developing countries, exchange rates, and eco- 
nomic aid. The National Bureau of Economic Research sponsored her three- 
volume Trade and Employment in Developing Countries (1983; 2nd ed., 1988), 
and her other books include Political Economy of Policy Reform in Developing 
Countries (1994), American Trade Policy: A Tragedy in the Making (1995), The 
World Trade Organization as an International Organization (2000), Transforming 
India 's Economic, Financial and Fiscal Policies (co-author, 2003), Latin American 
Macroeconomic Reform: The Second Stage (co-author, 2003), and Economic 
Policy Reform and the Indian Economy (2003). 

Krueger was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1995. Due to her international reputation, she has received honorary doctorates from 
Hacettepe University in Turkey (1990), Georgetown University (1993), Monash 
University in Melbourne, Australia (1996), and Chinese University of Hong Kong 
(2003). Among the other honors she has received are the Robertson Prize of the 
National Academy of Sciences (1984), Bernhard-Harms Prize of the Kiel Institute 
of World Economics (1990), Kenan Enterprise Award of the Kenan Charitable Trust 
(1990), and Frank E. Seidman Distinguished Award in Political Economy (1993). 
She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric 
Society, and a member of the American Economic Association (vice president, 
1977-1978; president, 1996) and the Royal Economic Society. 

Further Resources 

Johns Hopkins University. Faculty website, http://www.sais-jhu.edu/faculty/krueger/ 
index.htm. 



Kiibler-Ross, Elisabeth 

1926 2004 
Psychiatrist 

Education: M.D., University of Zurich, 1957 

Professional Experience: intern, Community Hospital, Glen Cove, New York, 
1958-1959; research fellow, Manhattan State Hospital, 1959-1962; fellow, psy- 
chiatry, Psychopathic Hospital, University of Colorado Medical School, 1962- 
1963, instructor, psychiatry, Colorado General Hospital, 1962-1965; assistant 



Kiibler-Ross, Elisabeth | 589 

professor, psychiatry, Billings Hospital, University of Chicago, 1965-1970, assis- 
tant director, Psychiatric Consultation and Liaison Service, 1965-1969, 
acting chief, Psychiatric Inpatient Service, 1965-1966, associate chief, Psychiatric 
Inpatient Service, 1966-1967; medical director, Family Service and Mental 
Health Center, South Cook County, Illinois, 1970-1973; president, Ross Medical 
Associates, 1973-1976; president and chair of the board, Shanti Nilaya Growth 
and Health Center, Escondido, California, 1977-1995; founder and president, 
Elisabeth Kiibler-Ross Center, Virginia, 1990-1995 

Concurrent Positions: resident, Montefiora Hospital, 1961-1962; staff member, 
LaRabida Children's Hospital and Research Center, Chicago, 1965-1970; clinical 
professor, Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry, University of Virginia, 1985 

Elisabeth Kiibler-Ross was a psychiatrist who challenged the taboos surrounding 
death in our culture. She pioneered a new field of healthcare, "thanatology," the 
study of the effects of death and dying, especially the investigation of ways to lessen 
the suffering and address the needs of the terminally ill and their survivors. While 
teaching psychiatry courses in the 1960s, Kiibler-Ross ran a series of conversations 
with the terminally ill in order to assess their feelings about the process of dying. 
She pointed out that treatment of the dying had changed over time, from taking 
place at home in the comforting presence of family and friends to occurring in 
impersonal institutional settings where death is seen as a failure of the technological 
expertise of physicians, who wish to prolong life. In her landmark book, On Death 
and Dying (1969), she identified the five stages that dying patients experience — 
denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance — and her work paved the 
way for the more humane treatment of the terminally ill by medical personnel. Hos- 
pice care was established as an alternative to dying in hospitals, and more emphasis 
was put on the emotional needs of patients and their families. The rights of termi- 
nally ill patients, however, have been the topic of much debate in recent years 
around the issue of assisted suicide. 

After Life magazine published an article about her work, Kiibler-Ross gained 
public attention and began receiving invitations to speak at seminars throughout 
the United States and Canada. She also continued to see patients and their families 
in her regular practice. Her book AIDS: The Ultimate Challenge (1987) was written 
for those suffering from the disease and focused on the medical, moral, and social 
implications of AIDS. She was committed to working with the patients directly 
and, in 1977, she created a center for the terminally ill and their families called 
"Shanti Nilaya" (Home of Peace) in Escondido, California, which continues her 
work to this day. She also operated the Elisabeth Kiibler-Ross Center in Virginia 
to train those working professionally with the terminally ill, and co-founded the 
American Holistic Medical Association. 



590 | Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf, Doris 

She received numerous honorary degrees and was a member of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, American Holistic Medical Associ- 
ation, American Medical Women's Association, American Psychiatric Associa- 
tion, and American Psychosomatic Society. She published numerous books, 
including her autobiography, The Wheel of Life: A Memoir of Living and Dying 
(1997), in which she claimed she had out-of-body experiences, meetings with 
spirit guides, and visions of fairies. An earlier biography was published by Derek 
Gill entitled Quest: The Life of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (1980). 

Further Resources 

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. http://www.elisabethkublerross.com/. 



Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf, Doris 

b. 1922 

Physicist, Metallurgist 

Education: B.S., materials science, University of Gottingen, 1944, M.S., physics, 
1946, Ph.D., materials science, 1947 

Professional Experience: fellow, materials science, University of Gottingen, 
1947-1948; fellow, physics, Bristol University, England, 1949-1950; lecturer, 
physics, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 1950-1956; associate pro- 
fessor, metallurgy, University of Pennsylvania, 1957-1961, professor, 1962- 
1963; professor, engineering physics, University of Virginia, 1963-1966, profes- 
sor, physics and metallurgical science, 1966-2005 

Concurrent Positions: visiting professor, physics, Pretoria University, 1982-1983 

Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf is a metallurgist and materials scientist renowned for 
her design for electrical metalfiber brushes to be used as sliding electrical contacts. 
She holds patents on six inventions related to the electrical brushes. The brushes 
have application in electric motors that could replace the heavier and less efficient 
diesel engines. Her area of expertise is called tribology, which is the study of the 
effects of friction on moving machine parts and of methods of lubrication. Another 
of her contributions is the development of a model for surface deformation, which 
takes into account erosion as well as friction and wear. She has also investigated 
the behavior and properties of various metals, such as studying why rolled alumi- 
num sheets crinkle under pressure, while other sheet metals break. 

Prior to entering college in Germany, she served as an apprentice metallographer 
and materials tester for two years. After receiving her doctorate from Gottingen, 



Kurtzig, Sandra L. (Brody) | 59 1 

she continued her research and studied under Nobel Laureate Nevill F. Mott. She 
and her husband, Heinz G. F. Wilsdorf, came to the United States and eventually 
both received appointments at the University of Virginia as professors in the Phys- 
ics and Materials Science Departments. In 1994, the Wilsdorf s funded a professor- 
ship in their name, and in 2001, a gift from one of Doris Kuhlmann- Wilsdorf 's 
former students established a memorial building on campus in their name. 

Kuhlmann- Wilsdorf has published over 250 scientific papers and has served as 
a consultant to corporations such as General Motors Technical Center, Chem- 
strand Research Laboratories, and General Dynamics Corporation, as well as for 
the National Institute for Standards and Technology. She was elected to member- 
ship in the National Academy of Engineering in 1994. She has received numerous 
honors and awards, including the Society of Women Engineers Achievement 
Award (1989), Ragnar Helm Scientific Achievement Award of the Institute of 
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (1991), Medal for Excellence in Research 
of the American Society of Engineering Education (1965 and 1966), and Heyn 
Medal of the German Society of Materials Science (1988), and was named Chris- 
topher J. Henderson Inventor of the Year by the University of Virginia Patent 
Foundation in 2001 and 2006 Fellow of TMS-AIME (the Minerals, Metals, and 
Materials Society and the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petro- 
leum Engineers). She is also a fellow of the American Society for Metals and the 
American Physical Society, and a member of the American Society of Mechanical 
Engineers and Society of Women Engineers. 



Kurtzig, Sandra L. (Brody) 

b. 1946 

Computer Scientist, Aeronautical Engineer 

Education: B.S., chemistry and mathematics, University of California, Los 
Angeles, 1968; M.S., aerospace engineering, Stanford University, 1968 

Professional Experience: mathematical analyst, TRW Systems, 1967-1968; mar- 
keting representative, General Electric Corporation, 1969-1972; president and 
CEO, ASK Computer Systems, 1972-1993; co-founder, eBenefits, 1996- 

Sandra Kurtzig is a computer pioneer who founded ASK Computer Systems in 
1972, the largest public company founded by a woman and one of the biggest suc- 
cess stories of the 1970s minicomputer boom. The company's integrated software 
products for manufacturers, primarily its MANMAN Information System, are 
industry standards and are available as turnkey solutions for minicomputers, 



592 | Kwolek, Stephanie Louise 

particularly those manufactured by Digital Equipment and Hewlett-Packard. In the 
1990s, Kurtzig expanded the product line by developing portable applications soft- 
ware to run on multiple computer platforms and adapted the software to specific 
niche markets, such as the automotive industry. Kurtzig was a young mother when 
she started ASK out of her apartment with only a $2,000 investment. The name of 
the company was derived from her and her husband's initials — Arie and Sandra 
Kurtzig. She started developing innovative programs for businesses, such as one 
for a newspaper company to monitor its carriers, and later created minicomputer 
programs and information systems to help manufacturers optimize inventory, 
improve product quality, reduce operating expenses, and improve customer ser- 
vice. She had the foresight to design software to run on minicomputers when they 
were just starting to become popular. 

In 1994, her company was purchased by Computer Associates International for 
$310 million. She has since formed an online business software consulting firm 
with her son. Kurtzig's autobiography, CEO: Building a $400 Million Company 
from the Ground Up (1991), describes her experiences starting and running a suc- 
cessful business in a male-dominated field. She was one of only a few women 
studying math and aeronautical engineering in college, and she has rarely encoun- 
tered other women in manufacturing companies or in upper management. 



Kwolek, Stephanie Louise 

b. 1923 
Polymer Chemist 

Education: B.S., chemistry, Carnegie Institute of Technology, 1946 

Professional Experience: chemist, Fibers Department, Experimental Station, E. I. 
Du Pont de Nemours and Company, 1946-1959, research chemist, 1959-1967, 
senior research chemist, 1967-1974, research associate, 1974-1986; consultant, 
E. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company, 1986— 

Stephanie Kwolek invented a polymer that is manufactured by Du Pont under the 
trade name Kevlar. After graduating from college, she took what was supposed 
to be a temporary job at Du Pont while saving money to attend medical school. 
Her work was so interesting, however, that she stayed on with the company and 
became involved in the research that led to the discovery of low-temperature 
polymerization. She gained national attention in 1960 for her work creating long 
molecule chains at low temperatures and her discovery of the method to spin syn- 
thetic, petroleum-derived fibers in a liquid crystalline solution. The compound had 



Kwolek, Stephanie Louise | 593 

such high tensile strength that she ran the tests again and again to make sure she 
had not made an error before reporting her discovery to the laboratory director. 
The resulting product, Kevlar, eventually led to a multimillion-dollar industry with 
more than 200 commercial applications, including use in radial tire cords, compo- 
sites, rope, thermal insulating clothing, and bulletproof vests. At the time of her 
retirement, Kwolek owned 17 U.S. patents. 

The use of Kevlar in bulletproof vests has earned Kwolek many fans and acco- 
lades. More than 2,000 police officers whose lives were saved due to wearing Kev- 
lar vests formed a Survivors Club, a joint venture between Du Pont and the 
International Chiefs of Police Association. Kwolek is regularly contacted by indi- 
viduals thanking her and even asking for an autograph. Even after her retirement, 
Kwolek continues to consult with Du Pont, as well as to give public and school 
lectures about careers in science. In 1996, she was featured along with other Du 
Pont employees in a series of print and television ads describing the company's 
research. 

Kwolek was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2001 for "the 
discovery, development, and liquid-crystal processing of high-performance aramid 
fibers." She won an early publication prize from the American Chemical Society 
(1959), and has also received the Creative Invention Award of the ACS (1980) 
and the Perkin Medal of the Society of Chemical Industry (1997), only the second 
woman to receive that prize. She was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of 
Fame (1995) and the Women in Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame 
(1996), and has received the nation's highest technology honor, the National Medal 
of Technology (1996). She has received honorary doctorates from Worcester Poly- 
technic Institute (1981) and from the University of Delaware (2008). She is a 
member of the American Chemical Society and American Institute of Chemists. 



L 



LaBastille, Anne 



b. 1938 
Ecologist 

Education: B.S., conservation, Cornell University, 1955; M.S., wildlife 
management, Colorado State University, 1958; Ph.D., wildlife ecology, Cornell 
University, 1969 

Professional Experience: wildlife tour leader, National Audubon Society, Palm 
Beach, Florida, 1955-1956; organizer and co-leader, Caribbean Wildlife Tours, 
Miami, Florida, 1956-1963; owner, co-manager, and naturalist, Covewood Lodge, 
Big Moose, New York, 1956-1964; ranger-naturalist, Everglades National Park, 
Florida, 1964; assistant professor, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell 
University, 1969-1971, research associate, Laboratory of Ornithology, 1971-1973; 
freelance wildlife ecologist, consultant, writer, and photographer, 1971- 

Concurrent Positions: commissioner, Adirondack Parks Agency, 1976-1993; 
visiting lecturer and Basler Chair of Excellence for the Integration of the Arts, 
Rhetoric and Science, East Tennessee State University, 2001; owner, West of the 
Wind Publications, Eagle Bay, New York 

Anne LaBastille is an ecologist who has fulfilled a variety of roles in support of 
wilderness conservation. She has done extensive work on preserving the wildlife 
habitat of several species of birds, including a project with a flightless bird known 
as the giant pied-billed grebe that was found at only one large lake in Guatemala. 
There was little known about this water bird until she began the first systematic 
study of its characteristics, and no photographs or drawings of it had ever been 
made. She established a sanctuary for the birds and monitored the population, 
obtaining grants from the World Wildlife Fund and the Smithsonian Institution 
to support her work. She persuaded the Guatemalan government to designate the 
grebe's habitat as the country's first wildlife refuge, but even so, the population 
dwindled. She published two early books on the folklore of birds, Birds of the 
Mayas (1964) and Bird Kingdom of the Mayas (1967). The local people called 
her "Mama Poc," based on the Indian name for the grebe, and she recorded her 
experiences in her book Mama Poc: Story of the Extinction of a Species (1990). 



595 



596 | LaBastille, Anne 




After receiving her undergraduate 
degree from Cornell University, 
LaBastille spent her summers con- 
ducting wildlife tours in Florida and 
winters operating a lodge in upstate 
New York while working on her 
master's degree at Colorado State 
University. She returned to Cornell 
to obtain her doctorate and worked 
as a research associate in the inter- 
nationally known Laboratory of 
Ornithology at Cornell while she 
started working freelance as a wild- 
life ecologist, writer, and photogra- 
pher for organizations such as 
National Geographic. She has lived 
alone in two cabins she built in the 
upstate forestland of New York and 
is best known for her four-part auto- 
biographical series describing her 
life among the plant and animal life 
in the Adirondacks: Woodswoman 
(1976), Woodswoman II (1987), 
Woodswoman III (1997), and Woods- 
woman IV (2003). Her book, The Wilderness World of Anne LaBastille (1993), 
consists of selections from never-before-published poems and short stories as 
well as color photographs. In Women and Wilderness (1980), she examines the 
historical role of other women living and studying in wilderness, including sci- 
entists such as Eugenie Clark, Jane Goodall, and others employed as park rang- 
ers, marine and wildlife biologists, professional environmentalists, or naturalists. 
LaBastille's writings and activism have earned her the devotion of fans, both 
local and international. She has been a wilderness guide as well as an invited lec- 
turer at universities and conservation groups. Her many awards and honors include 
a World Wildlife Fund Gold Medal (1974), Literature Award of the New York 
State Outdoor Education Association (1977), Citation of Merit from the Explorers 
Club (1987), Chevron Conservation Award (1988), Jade Chief's Award of the Out- 
doors Writer Association of America, and research grants from the International 
Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Caribbean Research 
Institute, World Wildlife Fund, Smithsonian Institution, and other agencies. She 
has been a member of the Society of Women Geographers, American Women in 



Ecologist Anne LaBastille has written 
numerous books and articles on wildlife and 
wilderness conservation. (AP/Wide World 
Photos) 



Ladd-Franklin, Christine | 597 

Science, Association for Tropical Biology, Wildlife Society, Outdoor Women 
Writers of America, and Explorer's Club. 

Further Resources 

Holmes, Madelyn. 2004. American Women Conservationists: Twelve Profiles. Jefferson, 
NC: McFarland. 



Ladd-Franklin, Christine 

1847 1930 
Psychologist 

Education: A.B., mathematics, Vassar College, 1869; Ph.D., mathematics, Johns 
Hopkins University, 1926; University of Gottingen, 1891-1892; University of 
Berlin, 1892, 1894, 1901 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, 1869-1878; lecturer, psychology 
and logic, Johns Hopkins University, 1904-1909; lecturer, psychology and logic, 
Columbia University, 1914-1927 

Christine Ladd-Franklin was one of the foremost women psychologists of the early 
twentieth century. Her research interests included color vision, deductive reason- 
ing, the doctrine of histurgy, the one-time one-place theory of judgment, and proof 
that a nerve when stimulated emits physical light. Although she published papers 
on symbolic logic, her primary contribution to the history of psychology is her 
emphasis on the evolutionary development of increased differentiation in color 
vision, known as the Ladd-Franklin color theory. She published a compilation of 
her papers in Colour and Colour Theories (1929) and was invited to contribute 
an appendix to the English translation of Hermann von Helmholtz's classic Hand- 
book of Physiological Optics (1924). 

Ladd-Franklin studied mathematics at Vassar because there were no laboratory 
facilities available for study in physics. After she graduated in 1869, she taught 
high school science for 10 years, during which time she published articles on 
mathematics in the British journal Educational Times and the American journal 
Analyst. Originally denied admission to graduate study due to her sex, she was 
eventually admitted to Johns Hopkins University on a fellowship due to the recom- 
mendation of a mathematics professor who had read her papers. Although she 
fulfilled the requirements for a Ph.D. by 1882 with a thesis on "The Algebra of 
Logic," the trustees refused to grant the degree to a woman, as was the custom at 
that time; she finally received the degree in 1926. Still, even without the formal 



598 | Laird, Elizabeth Rebecca 



degree, she held a lectureship in logic 
and psychology at Johns Hopkins 
from 1904 to 1909. In 1882, she mar- 
ried Fabian Franklin, a member of the 
mathematics department, and the 
couple moved to New York City in 
1910 when he was appointed to an 
associate newspaper editor position. 
She spent the remainder of her career 
lecturing on logic and psychology at 
Columbia University. 

Ladd-Franklin was a strong sup- 
porter of higher education, and she 
was instrumental in establishing 
research fellowships and even giving 
her money directly to women scientists 
who needed funds for research or 
travel. She published newspaper 
articles and editorials on women's 
education and status. Vassar College 
awarded her an honorary degree in 
1887. She was a member of the Ameri- 
can Association for the Advancement 
of Science, the American Society of Naturalists, the American Psychological Associ- 
ation, the Optical Society of America, and the American Philosophical Association. 




Psychologist and mathematician Christine 
Ladd-Franklin. (National Library of Medicine) 



Further Resources 

Scarborough, Elizabeth and Laurel Furumoto. 1987. Untold Lives: The First Generation of 
American Women Psychologists. New York: Columbia University Press. 



Laird, Elizabeth Rebecca 



1874 1969 
Physicist 

Education: B.A., University of Toronto, 1896; Ph.D., physics and mathematics, 
Bryn Mawr, 1901 

Professional Experience: instructor, mathematics, Ontario Ladies' College, 
1896-1897; assistant, physics, Mount Holyoke College, 1901-1902, instructor, 



La Monte, Francesca Raimond | 599 

1902-1903, acting head, 1903-1904, professor, 1904-1940; physicist, radar 
development, University ofWestern Ontario, 1941-1945, honorary professor of 
physics, 1945-1953 

Concurrent Positions: Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University, 1909; 
physics laboratory, University of Chicago, 1919; honorary research fellow, Yale 
University, 1925 

Elizabeth Laird was regarded as a notable physicist who spent most of her career 
teaching at Mount Holyoke College. Her research interests included spectroscopy, 
thermal conductivity, spark radiation, soft x-rays, the Raman effect, and electrical 
properties of biological material in the microwave region. 

A native of Canada, she received her undergraduate degree at the University of 
Toronto, where she was awarded honors and fellowships in mathematics and phys- 
ics. Denied a scholarship reserved for men to continue their graduate studies, she 
instead taught math for two years at an Ontario women's college before applying 
for admission at Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania. For her research, she received a phys- 
ics fellowship to work at the University of Berlin and received the doctorate in phys- 
ics and mathematics from Bryn Mawr in 1901. She immediately joined the faculty of 
Mount Holyoke College, advancing very quickly in three years from instructor to 
professor. She stayed at Mount Holyoke for 40 years, training an entire generation 
of young women in the sciences. During World War II, she returned to Canada, 
where she spent four years as a physicist in radar development at the University of 
Western Ontario and also taught radio techniques for the Royal Canadian Air Force. 
Even after she officially retired, she continued her research on microwave radiation 
until at least 1953 as an honorary professor. She received honorary degrees from the 
University of Toronto (1927) and the University ofWestern Ontario (1954). 

Laird was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society and was a member 
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Optical Society 
of America, the American Association of Physics Teachers, the Canadian Associa- 
tion of Physicists, and the History of Science Society. She received several awards 
and honors. She received the American Association of University Women Sarah 
Berliner Research fellowship for study at the University of Wurzburg (1913-1914). 



La Monte, Francesca Raimond 

1895 1982 
Ichthyologist 

Education: B.A. and certificate of music, Wellesley College, 1918 



600 | La Monte, Francesca Raimond 

Professional Experience: secretary, Department of Ichthyology, American 
Museum of Natural History, 1919-1923, 1925-1928, staff assistant, Department 
of Fishes and Aquatic Biology, 1928-1929, assistant curator, 1929-1935, associate 
curator, 1935-1962 

Francesca La Monte was recognized for her work as an ichthyologist at the 
American Museum of Natural History. Her primary interests were marlin and 
swordfish (she participated in big-game fishing as a hobby), and she developed 
exhibits at the museum on these and other species. Soon after receiving her 
undergraduate degree from Wellesley, she joined the museum and she rose 
through the ranks to become associate, curator, retiring in 1962. It was not 
unusual for a woman to be appointed curator of a museum. In the nineteenth cen- 
tury, many women worked with fathers, husbands, or brothers as underpaid or 
unpaid staff in museums, arboreta, and herbaria; these positions sometimes 
evolved into paid professional jobs. La Monte was a specialist in taxonomic ich- 
thyology and a valued member of the staff at the American Museum of Natural 
History. She was a member of the museum's Lerner-Cape Breton expeditions 
of 1936 and 1938, the Lerner-Bimini expedition of 1937, and the Chile-Peru 
expedition of 1940. She was a member of the fisheries committee for the 
1939-1940 World's Fair in New York City. At the museum, she worked on the 
Bibliography of Fishes and, having grown up in Russia and England and also 
having spent time in France, Italy, and Germany as a child, she was able to trans- 
late numerous documents for the American bibliography as well as articles for an 
English-speaking audience. She was the museum's delegate to the International 
Zoological Congress in Padua, Italy in 1930, one of only five representatives 
from U.S. institutions. 

La Monte was co-editor of Field Book of Fresh Water Fishes of North America 
(1938), Game Fish of the World (1949), and The Fisherman's Encyclopedia 
(1950). She was co-author of Vanishing Wilderness (1934) and author of North 
American Game Fishes (1945), Marine Game Fishes of the World (1952), and 
Giant Fishes of the Ocean (1966). She was elected a fellow of the New York Acad- 
emy of Sciences. Her other professional memberships included the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Ichthyolo- 
gists and Herpetologists, and the Society of Systematic Zoology. 

Further Resources 

Brown, Patricia Stocking. 1994. "Early Women Ichthyologists." Environmental Biology of 
Fishes. 41:9 30. http://swfsc.noaa.gov/uploadedFiles/Education/Women%20in%20 
Ichthyology.pdf. 



Lancaster, Cleo | 601 

Lancaster, Cleo 

b. 1948 
Physiologist 

Education: B.S., Elizabeth City State University, 1971; M.S., biomedical science, 
Western Michigan University, 1979 

Professional Experience: research assistant, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 
1971; research associate, Upjohn Company, 1971-1989, senior research associate, 
pharmacology, 1989— 

Cleo Lancaster is a pioneer in biological research leading to new ulcer therapies 
and an expert in the field of prostaglandin cytoprotection, which is the cellular 
protection of the gastric lining by the use of hormonelike fatty acids. At Upjohn 
Company (later acquired by Pfizer), she has developed experimental models of 
such gastrointestinal diseases as ulcers, diarrhea, pancreatitis, and colitis in order 
to discover natural or synthetic chemicals to treat such conditions. In the early 
1970s, she studied the ulcer-causing effects of nicotine and linked smoking to duo- 
denal ulcers in humans. She has examined the effects of ibuprofen, aspirin, and 
alcohol as irritants to the gastrointestinal tract, and she has also examined a steroid 
used in organ transplant patients that causes ulcers. Her research revealed that 
fatty acids known as prostaglandins can be used to inhibit gastric acid secretion 
by stimulating mucus/bicarbonate production and increasing the cell resistance 
of the stomach lining, thus preventing ulcers. She holds two patents: one for a 
treatment of pancreatitis and the second for treating ulcers with oxalate deriva- 
tives. She also contributed to developing surgical techniques for the research of 
gastric secretion. 

Lancaster grew up on a farm learning about anatomy and veterinary science 
from working with animals. She originally planned to be a biology teacher, but 
in her third year of college, she decided on a career in research because she 
wanted the challenge of discovery. She worked as a research assistant in radia- 
tion genetics the summer after she received her undergraduate degree, and she 
joined the Upjohn Company in the fall as a research associate in gastrointestinal, 
or ulcer, research. She received her master's degree in biomedical science from 
Western Michigan University while working for Upjohn. She received the Labo- 
ratory Special Recognition Award of the Upjohn Company and the Mary 
McLeod Bethune Award for Science and Technology. She is a member of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science and the New York Academy 
of Sciences. 



602 | Lancefield, Rebecca Craighill 
Lancefield, Rebecca Craighi 



1895 1981 
Bacteriologist 

Education: A.B., Wellesley College, 1916; A.M., Columbia University, 1918, 
Ph.D., immunology and bacteriology, 1925 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, 1917; technical assistant, Rockefeller 
Institute, 1918-1919; department of genetics, Carnegie Institution, 1919-1921; 
instructor, bacteriology, University of Oregon, 1921-1922; technical assistant, 
Rockefeller Institute, 1922-1929, associate, 1929-1958, professor, microbiology, 
1958-1965 

Rebecca Lancefield was recognized among microbiologists as the outstanding 
authority on streptococci. Her research was in immunochemical studies of strepto- 
cocci, and the chemical composition and antigenic structure of hemolytic strepto- 
cocci. Both national and international organizations devoted to streptococcal 
problems have renamed their groups the Lancefield Society in her honor. While 
she was attending Wellesley College, she became interested in the biology course 
her roommate was taking, and she switched her major from French and English to 
biology. She was able to receive a scholarship offered specifically for daughters of 
Army and Navy officers to attend Columbia University. Lancefield obtained a 
position as a technical assistant at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, 
working on streptococci. The group identified four distinct serological types that 
served to classify 70% of the 125 strains studied; her name was included as a co- 
author of the paper reporting this work, a distinct honor so early in her career. 

After teaching for a year at the University of Oregon, she and her husband 
returned to Rockefeller, where Lancefield remained the rest of her career. She 
worked with rheumatic fever research and received her doctorate in 1925. She 
returned to her studies of hemolytic streptococci, in which she provided a basis 
for understanding the clinical and epidemiological patterns of disease caused by 
these organisms. The research at that time was concentrated on puerperal fever, 
wound infections, and pneumonia that followed measles or influenza. Later 
research involved scarlet fever and rheumatic fever. In the mid- 1920s, she suc- 
ceeded in obtaining two antigens in soluble form from hemolytic streptococci, 
one that was type-specific and one that was species-specific. She continued her 
research on streptococci until a few months before her death in 1981. 

Lancefield was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1970. 
Among the other honors and awards she received were the Jones Memorial Award 
of the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation (1960), the Research Achievement Award 
of the American Heart Association (1964), and the Medal of the New York 



Leacock, Eleanor (Burke) | 603 

Academy of Medicine (1973). As further recognition within the field, she was 
elected president of the American Society for Microbiology in 1943, the second 
woman to be elected president of the organization, and served as the first woman 
president of the American Association of Immunologists in 1961 and 1962. She 
also was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
and the Harvey Society. She received honorary degrees from the Rockefeller Insti- 
tute (1973), and from Wellesley College (1976) on the sixtieth anniversary of her 
graduation. 



Leacock, Eleanor (Burke) 

1922 1987 

Cultural Anthropologist 

Education: student, Radcliffe College, 1939-1942; B.A., Barnard College, 1944; 
M.A., Columbia University, 1946, Ph.D., anthropology, 1952 

Professional Experience: research assistant, psychiatry, Cornell University Medi- 
cal College, 1952-1955; lecturer, anthropology and sociology, Queens College, 
1955-1956; special consultant, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and 
Welfare, 1957-1958; co-director of research, suburban interracial housing, Teaneck, 
New Jersey, 1958-1960; senior research associate, schools and mental health 
project, Bank Street College of Education, 1958-1965; lecturer, history and eco- 
nomics, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, 1962-1963, associate professor to 
professor, anthropology, 1963-1972; professor, anthropology, City College of 
New York, 1972-1987 

Concurrent Positions: lecturer, City College of New York, 1956-1960, 1966- 
1967, and Washington Square College, 1960-1961 

Eleanor Leacock was a prominent cultural anthropologist known for her studies of 
the changing social and gender relations among the natives of Labrador, her 
reevaluations of the work of the Marxist Friedrich Engels, her contributions to 
feminist theory, and her analyses of racism in American education. When she 
accompanied her first husband, a filmmaker, to Europe in 1948, she began archival 
research on changes in the social organization of an Indian people in Labrador, the 
Montagnais-Naskapi (Innu), following the introduction of the fur trade. The next 
year, she started her field research in Labrador, and her research changed the pre- 
vailing interpretation of private property in hunter-gatherer societies. She found 
that although the rights to trap in given places were privatized, the rights to gather, 
fish, or hunt for food were still communal. It had been thought that these societies 



604 | Leavitt, Henrietta Swan 

were patriarchal, but she found that there was flexibility in the relations between 
women and men. She recorded stories that the residents told her, typed them, 
and presented them to the tribes. 

Leacock was exposed to radical social theories early in life, for her father was a 
literary critic and social philosopher whose social circle included artists, political 
radicals, and writers in Greenwich Village. As a college student, she was active 
in student radical groups, and when she applied for a job in Washington, D.C., in 
1944, the Federal Bureau of Investigation denied her clearance. She held various 
research and teaching positions before becoming a professor of anthropology 
and achieved recognition for her work on anthropology and education, on class 
and culture in urban schools, and on reevaluating the work of early Marxists. She 
published more than 70 papers and books before dying unexpectedly in Honolulu 
in 1987 after suffering a stroke in Western Samoa, where she was conducting field- 
work. She was a fellow of the American Anthropological Association and the 
Society for Applied Anthropology, and a member of the American Ethnological 
Society. 

Further Resources 

Gacs, Ute et al. 1988. Women Anthropologists: Selected Biographies. Westport, CT: 
Greenwood Press. 



Leavitt, Henrietta Swan 

1868 1921 
Astronomer 

Education: Oberlin College, 1885-1886; A.B., Radcliffe College, 1892 

Professional Experience: volunteer research assistant, Harvard College Observa- 
tory, 1895-1900, staff member, 1902-1921 

Henrietta Leavitt discovered the period-luminosity law, that is, the relation 
between a star's magnitude and its period of luminosity. This work involved deter- 
mining the magnitude (brightness) of a star from a photographic image. At the turn 
of the century, visual photometry was superseded by photographic methods 
because the photographic plate is more sensitive to light of certain wavelengths 
than is the human eye. Another of her contributions to astronomy was the discov- 
ery of 2,400 variable stars, about half of the total known at the time. Her most 
important scientific contribution resulted from her study of the Cepheid variable 
stars in the Magellanic Clouds. She also studied color indices, which is the 



Ledley, Tamara (Shapiro) | 605 

difference in magnitude of a star depending on the color-sensitivity of photo- 
graphic plates. 

Born in Massachusetts, she began her college studies in music at Oberlin 
College in Ohio. She moved to Radcliffe College in 1888, where she earned a bache- 
lor's degree in 1892. She took a course in astronomy during her senior year and 
another after graduation. She returned to Harvard College Observatory as a volun- 
teer research assistant in 1895 and was appointed to the permanent staff in 1902. 
She was assigned by the director of the Harvard College Observatory to develop 
photographic measurements that were eventually accepted among the astronomers 
of the world and became known as the Harvard Revised Magnitude Scale, or Har- 
vard Standard. Leavitt soon became head of the department of photographic stellar 
photometry at the Observatory, although much of her work was published in reports 
under the name of the Observatory Director at the time, Edward C. Pickering. 
Although she never received the recognition as some other female astronomers 
of her generation, such as Annie Jump Cannon, Leavitt certainly deserved it. 
Her research revealed what are now known to be satellite galaxies of the Milky 
Way, and her methods helped later astronomers to determine the distances from 
the Earth of similar stars within our own galaxy and in distant galaxies. Interest- 
ingly, in a discipline that relied so heavily on sight and analysis of detailed 
imagery, both Cannon and Leavitt were partially deaf. 

Leavitt was a member of the American Association of University Women, the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Astro- 
nomical and Astrophysical Society. She was elected an honorary member of the 
American Association of Variable Star Observers. Both an asteroid and a moon 
crater are named after her. 

Further Resources 

Byers, Nina and Gary A. Williams. 2006. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth- 
Century Women to Physics. New York: Cambridge University Press. 

Johnson, George. 2005. Miss Leavitt 's Stars: The Untold Story of the Woman Who 
Discovered How to Measure the Universe. New York: W.W. Norton. 



Ledley, Tamara (Shapiro) 

b. 1954 
Climatologist 

Education: B.S., University of Maryland, 1976; Ph.D., meteorology, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, 1983 



606 | Ledley, Tamara (Shapiro) 

Professional Experience: research associate, Space Physics and Astronomy and 
Earth Systems and The Energy and Environment Systems Institute, Rice Univer- 
sity, 1983-1985, assistant research scientist, 1985-1990, senior faculty fellow, 
1990-1998; senior scientist, TERC, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1997-, interim 
director, Center for Science Teaching and Learning, 2009- 

Concurrent Positions: consultant, Houston Museum of Natural Science, 1989— 
1990; director, teacher training program, George Observatory, Rice University, 
1990-1992; visiting lecturer, geology and geophysics, Rice University, 1993; 
assistant director, Summer Solar Institute, Rice-Houston Museum of Natural 
Science, 1993; associate editor, Journal of Geophysical Research — Atmosphere, 
1993; associate research scientist, Texas A&M University, 1995-1996; lecturer, 
mathematics and sciences, Babson College, Massachusetts, spring 1997; visiting 
scientist, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, 1997-1998; adjunct professor, University of Massachusetts, 
Dartmouth, 2008-2009 

Tamara Ledley is known for her research on the role of the polar regions in 
shaping climate and has examined how the interaction of atmosphere and sea 
with ice and oceans influences climate change. She has conducted research in 
both Alaska and Antarctica, and been active in presenting information on clima- 
tology to elementary school children as well as to university students. There is 
sometimes confusion about the difference between meteorology and climatol- 
ogy. Meteorology is the science dealing with the atmosphere and its phenomena, 
including weather, while climatology is the science that deals with the phenome- 
non of climate or climatic conditions. Ledley has consulted on numerous private 
and government projects related to climate change. She was a member of the 
working team at the Alaska facility for the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA) (1988) and a member of the McMurdo Sound working 
team (1990). She also was a participant in the workshop on the Arctic initiative 
of the Office of Naval Research (1988), a participant in the U.S. Global Change 
Research program's climate modeling forum (1988), and a member of the com- 
mittee on global and environmental change of the American Geophysical Union 
(1993). 

In addition to several academic affiliations, Ledley has participated in many 
outreach programs bringing science to the public and the schools through science 
curriculum building and teacher training programs on climatology, and is a senior 
scientist at TERC, Inc., a producer of science and math education curriculum and 
programs. She has received grants from the National Science Foundation to fund 
various classroom and teacher professional development materials, including the 
Earth Exploration Toolbook and the Digital Library for Earth System Education. 



Leeman, Susan (Epstein) | 607 

Ledley is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
American Meteor Society, and Ocean Society. 

Further Resources 

TERC. "Tamara Shapiro Ledley." Earth Exploration Toolbook, TERC, Carleton College. 
http://serc.carleton.edu/eet/people/ledley.html. 



Leeman, Susan (Epstein) 

b. 1930 

Endocrinologist, Physiologist 

Education: B.A., Goucher College, 1951; M.A., Radcliffe College, 1954, Ph.D., 
physiology, 1958 

Professional Experience: instructor, physiology, Harvard Medical School, 
1958-1959; fellow, neurochemistry, 
Brandeis University, 1959-1962, 
senior research associate, biochemis- 
try, 1962-1966, adjunct assistant pro- 
fessor, 1966-1968, assistant research 
professor, 1968-1971; assistant to 
associate professor, physiology, Lab- 
oratory of Human Reproduction and 
Reproductive Biology, Harvard 
Medical School, 1972-1980; profes- 
sor, physiology, Medical School, Uni- 
versity of Massachusetts, 1980-1992, 
director, Interdepartmental Neurosci- 
ence Program, 1984-1992; professor, 
pharmacology, Boston University 
Medical School, 1992- 

Susan Leeman is considered one of 
the founders of the field of neuroendo- 
crinology based on her research on 
peptides. She is renowned for her 
work with substance P and neuroten- 
sin, peptides that help govern the Endocrinologist and physiologist, Susan 
functioning of the nervous, endocrine, Leeman. (Courtesy of BU Photo Services) 




608 | LeMone, Margaret Anne 

and immune systems. Neuroendocrinology is the study of the anatomical and 
physiological interactions between the nervous and endocrine systems. During 
the 1960s, she made a chance finding of a chemical that turned out to be substance 
P, a transmitter that is distributed throughout both the central and the peripheral 
nervous systems and the spinal cord, which had been discovered in the 1930s but 
had never been isolated. She and her colleagues isolated and characterized the 
peptide as well as discovering another one, neurotensin, which is involved in the 
relaxation and contraction of the blood vessels and may be involved in psychiatric 
disorders and, perhaps, regulation of the menstrual cycle. While in graduate school, 
Leeman began her work on corticotropin, a hormone used in the treatment of rheu- 
matoid arthritis and rheumatic fever. It was while she was trying to purify cortico- 
tropin that she made the chance finding of substance P. 

Leeman was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1991 and received the Academy's Fred Conrad Koch Award in 1994. She has 
received numerous other awards, including the Excellence in Science Award of 
Eli Lilly and Company (1993). She is a member of the Endocrine Society, Society 
for Neuroscience, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and 
American Physiological Society. 

Further Resources 

Boston University Medical School. Faculty website. http://www.bumc.bu.edu/Dept/ 
Content.aspx?DepartmentID=65&PageID=7764. 



LeMone, Margaret Anne 

Meteorologist 

Education: A.B., mathematics, University of Missouri, 1967; Ph.D., atmospheric 
sciences, University of Washington, 1972 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, Advanced Study Program, 
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), 1972-1973, acting project 
leader, GATE Group, 1974-1975, Ph.D. scientist, 1973-1978, staff scientist, Mes- 
oscale Research Section, 1978-1980, staff scientist, GATE Group, Cloud Systems 
Division, 1980-1982, scientist, 1982-1992, senior scientist, 1992- 

Concurrent Positions: affiliate professor, Colorado State University, 1984-1990; 
adjoint professor, University of Colorado, 1994-; affiliate professor, Colorado State 
University, 1996-; Advanced Study Program and National Oceanic and Atmospheric 



LeMone, Margaret Anne | 609 

Administration (NOAA) Aeronomy Lab, 1998-1999; Chief Scientist, Global Learn- 
ing and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE), 2003- 

Margaret "Peggy" LeMone is a meteorologist whose research focuses on storm 
and cloud systems. She is considered an observational meteorologist because she 
focuses on the lower area of the Earth's atmosphere known as the planetary boun- 
dary layer. She combines aircraft and radar observations with mathematical mod- 
els to understand the relationship between atmospheric weather systems and the 
Earth's surface in terms of vegetation, soil properties, and terrain. She has con- 
ducted weather-watching fieldwork around the world, including in West Africa, 
Australia, the Solomon Islands, Mexico, and Taiwan. She has been affiliated with 
NCAR in a variety of staff scientist and researcher positions since 1972, and has 
been senior scientist there since 1992. Since 2003, she has served as Chief Scien- 
tist of GLOBE, an international earth sciences educational program supported in 
part by the National Science Foundation and National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA). 

LeMone has written numerous scientific, articles, pamphlets, encyclopedia 
entries, and weather portions of elementary and high school textbooks. She has 
served and consulted on numerous government research boards, including 
National Research Council Committees on Road Weather, on Tools for Tracking 
Chemical/Biological/Nuclear Releases in the Atmosphere, on Improving the 
Effectiveness of U.S. Climate Modeling, and on Atmospheric Sciences and Cli- 
mate. She has also consulted for the U.S. Department of Energy, National Science 
Foundation, and NOAA. LeMone has also been committed to science education 
from elementary through high school and college, and has been an invited speaker 
and mentor for organizations promoting women and minorities in the sciences, 
including as founding chair (1975-1978) of the American Meteorological Society 
(AMS) Board on Women and Minorities. She has also written several articles on 
women scientists working in meteorology. 

LeMone was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1997. She is a 
fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American 
Geophysical Union, and American Meteorological Society (president, 2010). She 
is the recipient of an Editor's Award of the AMS Journal of Atmospheric Sciences 
(1989), the NCAR Education Award (1995), and the AMS Charles Anderson 
Award (2004). 

Further Resources 

National Corporation for Atmospheric Research. "Margaret (Peggy) LeMone." http:// 
box.mmm.ucar.edu/individual/lemone/. 



610 | Leopold, Estella Bergere 



Leopold, Estella Bergere 



b. 1927 

Paleoecologist 

Education: B.A., University of Wisconsin, 1948; M.S., University of California, 
Berkeley, 1950; Ph.D., botany, Yale University, 1955 

Professional Experience: assistant research hydrologist, Laboratory of Tree Ring 
Research, University of Arizona, 1951; mycologist, Forest Products Laboratory, 
Madison, Wisconsin, 1952; research assistant, Genetics Experiment Station Research, 
Smith College, 1952; teaching assistant, plant science and zoology, Yale University, 
1952-1954; research botanist, Paleontology and Stratigraphy Branch, U.S. Geologi- 
cal Survey, Denver, Colorado, 1955-1976; director, Quaternary Research Center, 
University of Washington, Seattle, 1976-1982; professor, Department of Botany and 
College of Forest Resources, University of Washington, Seattle, 1982-1999, emeritus 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct professor, biology, University of Colorado, 1967- 
1976; visiting professor, Department of Botany and Institute for Environmental 
Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1971-1972; member and chair, Aldo 
Leopold Foundation, 1996-2004 (president 1996-1998 and 2004) 

Estella Leopold is one of the leading 
authorities on paleoecology, which is 
the study of prehistoric organisms 
and their environments. She describes 
her work as comparing the pollen and 
spores that exist today with those 
found in rocks for a particular earlier 
time period. In this way, researchers 
try to determine the landscape and cli- 
mate represented by fossils, which are 
probably the most important evidence 
of environments of the past. In her 
research in the Rocky Mountains, she 
found that extinction and evolution 
are highest in the middle of the conti- 
nent because of the variable seasonal 
changes, while the coastal areas, 
which have more moderate climates, 
are able to sustain older species, such 
as the giant redwood. She was one of 




Paleoecologist, Estella Leopold. 
(Courtesy of University of Washington/ 
UnivPhoto) 



Lesh-Laurie, Georgia Elizabeth | 61 I 

the leaders in the successful campaign to save Colorado's Florissant fossil beds, 
and in 1962, the National Park Service decided to designate the fossil beds as a 
national monument, but did not enact legislation. Meanwhile, developers started 
building recreational subdivisions in the park. In 1969, the Defenders of Florissant, 
Inc. persuaded the U.S. Congress to enact legislation to designate 6,000 acres for 
the national monument. She was a past director of the Quaternary Research Center 
at the University of Washington, Seattle (the Quaternary period, the present period 
of the Earth's history, originated about 2 million years ago). 

Leopold developed her interest in ecology in her childhood under the tutelage 
of her father, the conservationist and writer Aldo Leopold. Estella received an 
undergraduate degree in botany from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, 
where her father taught wildlife management. Growing up, the family regularly 
spent weekends on a farm, where they planted tree seedlings and restored an old 
cornfield back to a tall-grass prairie. All five Leopold children followed careers 
in science, and Estella and her two brothers, Starker and Luna, are all members 
of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Leopold was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1974. She has served on many distinguished scientific committees on conservation 
and ecology, and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science (president, 1995) and of the Geological Society of America. She is a 
member of the American Quaternary Association (president, 1982-1984), Botani- 
cal Society of America, Ecological Society of America, and American Academy of 
Arts and Sciences. She is also on the board and past president of the Aldo Leopold 
Foundation, which works for ecological and environmental awareness and protec- 
tion in her father's name. 

Further Resources 

University of Washington, Seattle. "Pollen and Seed Laboratory." http://protist 
.biology.washington.edu/eleopold/. 

The Aldo Leopold Foundation, http://www.aldoleopold.org. 



Lesh-Laurie, Georgia Elizabeth 

b. 1938 
Developmental Biology 

Education: B.S., Marietta College, 1960; M.S., University of Wisconsin, 1961; 
Ph.D., biology, Case Western Reserve University, 1966 



612 | L'Esperance, Elise Depew Strang 

Professional Experience: instructor, biology, Case Western Reserve University, 
1965-1966; assistant professor, biological science, State University of New York, 
Albany, 1966-1968; assistant professor, Case Western Reserve University, 1969- 
1973, associate professor, 1974-1977, assistant dean, 1973-1976; professor, biol- 
ogy, Cleveland State University, 1977-1990, dean, College of Graduate Studies, 
1981-1986, dean, College of Arts and Sciences, 1986-1990, interim provost, 
1989-1990; vice chancellor of academic affairs, University of Colorado, Denver, 
1990-1995, interim chancellor, 1995-1997, chancellor, 1997-2003 

Georgia Lesh-Laurie is renowned for her research on a drug that can be used in 
place of digitalis for the treatment of congestive heart failure. Digitalis, made from 
the purple foxglove plant, increases the heart's pumping power without increasing 
oxygen demand, but patients with kidney problems are unable to use it. Lesh- 
Laurie's stimulant is a protein found in the toxin of the hydra, a small freshwater 
cousin of the jellyfish, and the protein was discovered after people stung by jelly- 
fish noticed a sudden neurological and cardiovascular response. Sponsored by the 
American Heart Association, she continued work in the 1980s on developing a 
drug incorporating the protein. 

Early in her career, Lesh-Laurie assumed administrative responsibilities in 
addition to her teaching and research. She served as assistant dean for three years 
at Case Western Reserve, and at Cleveland State University, she was department 
chair, dean of the College of Graduate Studies, dean of the College of Arts and 
Sciences, and interim provost for a year. She moved to the University of Colorado 
as vice chancellor of academic affairs in 1990 and then served as chancellor of that 
institution for seven years before retiring in 2003. Lesh-Laurie has been a member 
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society of 
Zoologists, Society for Developmental Biology, New York Academy of Sciences, 
and American Society for Cell Biology. 



L'Esperance, Elise Depew Strang 

1878 1959 

Pathologist 

Education: M.D., Woman's Medical College of New York, 1900 

Professional Experience: intern, New York Babies Hospital, 1900; physician, 
private practice, 1901-1908; physician and instructor, Cornell University Medical 
Center, 1910-1920, assistant professor, 1920-1932; director, Kate Depew Strang 



L'Esperance, Elise Depew Strang | 613 

Tumor Clinic, New York Infirmary, 1933-1941; associate professor to professor, 
Cornell University Medical Center, 1942-1950 

Concurrent Positions: editor, Medical Woman's Journal, 1936-1941; editor, 
Journal of the American Medical Women's Association, 1946-1948 

Elise L'Esperance was a physician who established family clinics and promoted 
the early detection and treatment of cancer. Her research focused on the pathology 
and treatment of malignant tumors. Because their mother died from cancer, L'Esp- 
erance and her sister, May Strang, used an inheritance to open the first of three 
clinics in New York City devoted to the detection of cancer in 1933. The clinic 
offered complete physical examinations to apparently healthy women and pro- 
vided referral service for any sign of cancer. Several new techniques were devel- 
oped at the Strang clinics, such as the Pap smear for the diagnosis of cervical 
cancer. She staffed the clinic entirely with women physicians, and she conducted 
an extensive campaign of public education. Later, she opened other clinics where 
the services were expanded to men and children. Other groups in other cities built 
upon this model; the value of early detection became more widely accepted both 
by the public and the medical profession. She also worked in the fields of tubercu- 
losis and Hodgkin's disease. 

L'Esperance was a member of the last class to graduate from the Women's 
Medical College of New York in 1899, but, due to an attack of diphtheria, did 
not receive her degree until the next year. After serving her internship, she 
engaged in private practice in New York and Detroit. She became increasingly 
interested in pathology, and she accepted a position at Cornell's medical college. 
She left Cornell to direct the Kate Depew Strang Tumor Clinic in New York for 
eight years, but returned to teaching, eventually advancing to full professor right 
before she retired in 1950. 

In addition to focusing her efforts on women's health, and serving as editor of 
two women's health journals, L'Esperance actively promoted careers in medicine 
for women. She received numerous awards, the most prestigious of which was 
the Albert Lasker Award of the American Public Health Association (1951). She 
also received the Elizabeth Blackwell Citation in 1950 for her achievements in 
pathology and cancer detection. She was elected a fellow of the New York Acad- 
emy of Medicine, and she was named an honorary member of the American Radi- 
ologists Society. She was president of the American Medical Women's 
Association in 1948. Her other memberships included the American Medical 
Association, the American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists, the 
American Association of Immunologists, the American Radium Society, the Har- 
vey Society, and the American Cancer Society. 



614 | Levelt-Sengers, Johanna Maria Henrica 

Levelt-Sengers, Johanna Maria Henrica 



b. 1929 
Physicist 

Education: B.Sc, physics and chemistry, University of Amsterdam, 1950, M.S., 
1954, Ph.D., physics, 1958 

Professional Experience: research associate, Van der Waals Laboratory, Univer- 
sity of Amsterdam, 1958-1959; research physicist, 1959-1963; physicist, Heat 
Division, U.S. National Bureau of Standards, 1963-1984, physicist and senior fel- 
low, National Bureau of Standards/National Institute of Standards and Technology, 
1984-1995, emeritus 

Concurrent Positions: research associate and instructor, theoretical chemistry, Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, 1958-1959; lecturer, University of Nijmegen, Netherlands, 
1962-1963; visiting professor, University of Louvain, Belgium, 1971; visiting 
research scientist, Instituut voor Theoretische Fysica, Amsterdam, 1974-1975 

Johanna Levelt-Sengers is renowned for her research on critical phenomena and 
fluid mixtures. Her research included thermodynamic properties of fluids and fluid 
mixtures; critical phenomena in fluids; equation of state, theoretical and experi- 
mental; and supercritical aqueous systems. She has been involved in establishing 
indexes or standards on water and steam properties and power for the 
International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam (IAPWS) and 
the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Steam Tables. Her hus- 
band, Jan V. Sengers, is also a physicist, and the two came to the United States 
in 1963 to work for the National Bureau of Standards. The Sengers have collabo- 
rated and published numerous papers together, and in 1992, the couple were 
awarded honorary doctorates from the Technical University of Delft in their home 
country of The Netherlands. In 1995, she retired from a more than 30-year career 
at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (formerly National Bureau 
of Standards), but has remained active as a conference organizer, committee 
member on the ASME International Steam Tables, and author of a book on 
thermodynamics, How Fluids Unmix, published in 2002. She has also co-chaired 
the InterAcademy Council's advisory panel on promoting women in science and 
technology careers. 

Levelt-Sengers is one of the few women scientists who has been elected a 
member of both the National Academy of Engineering (1992) and the National 
Academy of Sciences (1996). She has received numerous other awards, such as 
the Edward Uhler Condon Award (1975), Special Achievement Award (1977), 
and Certificate of Recognition (1978), all from the National Bureau of Standards; 



Leverton, Ruth Mandeville | 615 

the Department of Commerce Silver Medal (1972) and Gold Medal (1978) awards; 
the Interagency Committee for Women in Science and Engineering's WISE Award 
(1985); the Alexander von Humboldt Award (1991); the L'Oreal-UNESCO Women 
in Science Award (2003); and ASME's Yeram S. Touloukian Award (2006). She is 
a fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the American Society 
of Mechanical Engineers, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American 
Chemical Society, and International Association for the Properties of Water and 
Steam (president, 1991-1991; U.S. national representative, 1990-2004). She is also 
a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal 
Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities. 

Further Resources 

National Institute of Standards and Technology. "Johanna M. H. Anneke Levelt Sengers 
(Scientist Emeritus)." http://www.boulder.nist.gov/div838/ProfilesSengers.html. 



Leverton, Ruth Mandeville 

1908 1982 
Nutritionist 

Education: B.S., home economics, University of Nebraska, 1928; M.S., nutrition, 
University of Arizona, 1932; Ph.D., nutrition, University of Chicago, 1937 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, 1928-1930; teaching fellow, home 
economics, University of Arizona, 1930-1932, assistant, experiment station, 
1932-1934; assistant professor, home economics, University of Nebraska, 1937- 
1940; associate specialist, Bureau of Home Economics, U.S. Department of Agri- 
culture (USDA), 1940-1941; associate professor, home economics and director, 
human nutrition research, University of Nebraska, 1941-1949, professor, 1949- 
1953; professor, home economics and assistant director, agricultural experiment 
station, Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, 1954-1957; assistant 
director, human nutrition research division, USDA, 1957-1958, associate director, 
institute of home economics, 1958-1961, assistant director of administration, 
1961-1971, science advisor, 1971-1974 

Concurrent Positions: Fulbright professor, University of the Philippines, 
1949-1950 

Ruth Leverton was a nutritionist whose research included human metabolism 
and requirements of minerals, nutritive value of food products, and blood 



616 | Leverton, Ruth Mandeville 

regeneration and prevention of anemia. Her research had an important impact on 
American food practices at mid-century, including decisions about wartime food 
rationing and nutrition, the development of a system of Recommended Dietary 
Allowances, the fortification of grains, and food assistance programs. Following 
a pattern of many educated women of her generation, she taught school for sev- 
eral years after she received her undergraduate degree. But Leverton decided to 
continue her own education, earning a master's degree in nutrition at the Univer- 
sity of Arizona before moving to the University of Nebraska for a doctorate. Her 
research focused on women's iron needs and made connections between insuffi- 
cient protein intake and iron-deficiency anemia. Leverton's research was among 
the first to highlight the differences between men's and women's dietary and 
nutritional needs. 

Leverton worked briefly for the U.S. Department of Agriculture at the begin- 
ning of World War II, but returned to academia at Nebraska where she rose from 
associate professor to professor of home economics between 1941 and 1953. She 
accepted a position at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Okla- 
homa State University) as professor of home economics and assistant director of 
the agricultural experiment station. She returned to the USDA in 1957 as assistant 
director of Human Nutrition Research, the highest-ranking woman at the USDA at 
that time. She remained at the USDA in various positions until her retirement in 
1974. Throughout this time, she also traveled extensively throughout Asia, Africa, 
Latin America, and Europe. She represented the United States on the International 
Rice Commission and the International Congress of Nutrition, and lectured on 
nutritional health at conferences worldwide. 

Leverton published more than 200 academic papers, was the author of the 
classic book Food Becomes You (1952), and was the co-author of Your Diabetes 
and How To Live with It (1953). Leverton received the Borden Award for Dairy 
Foods Research (1942 and 1953), the Distinguished Service Award from the 
USDA (1972), the Conrad A. Elvehjem Award of the American Institute of 
Nutrition (1973), the Federal Woman's Award (1977), and a Medallion Award 
of the American Dietetic Association (1977). She was the first woman to receive 
an honorary doctorate of science from her alma mater, University of Nebraska, 
in 1961. She was a member of the American Dietetic Association, the American 
Home Economics Association, the American Public Health Association, the 
American Institute of Nutrition, and the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science. 

Further Resources 

Hampl, Jeffrey S. and Marylynn I. Schnepf. "Ruth M. Leverton (1908 1982)." http:// 
jn.nutri tion.org/cgi/content/full/129/10/1769. 



Leveson, Nancy G. | 617 

Leveson, Nancy G. 

Aerospace Engineer, Computer Scientist 

Education: B.A., mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles, 1965, M.S., 
Graduate School of Management, 1967, Ph.D., computer science, 1980 

Professional Experience: systems engineer, IBM, 1967-1970; assistant profes- 
sor, information and computer science, University of California, Irvine, 1980- 
1985, associate professor, 1985-1990, professor, 1990-1993; Boeing Professor 
of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, 1993- 
1998; professor, aeronautics and astronautics, and professor, engineering systems, 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1998— 

Concurrent Positions: visiting professor, Laboratory for Computer Science, MIT, 
1988-1989; adjunct professor, computer science, University of British Columbia, 
1993-; Hunsaker Visiting Professor, aeronautics and astronautics, MIT, 1997-1998 

Nancy Leveson is an aerospace engineer who pioneered a new research field in 
software safety systems, which involves using computer programs to prevent and 
analyze safety situations where property or life are at risk. Her research has 
focused particularly in the area of air and space flight, and involves creating acci- 
dent models that take into account the role of computers as well as human 
decision-making in risk management. She has published over 200 scientific papers 
and articles, and her system for aircraft collision avoidance has been adopted by 
the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for use in commercial airlines. She 
has been a distinguished invited guest lecturer at national and international univer- 
sities and a consultant or advisory council member for numerous industry and 
government organizations related to software-related safety issues in nuclear 
power plants, transportation, air traffic control, and aerospace systems and 
accidents, including authoring an analysis of the Columbia space shuttle explosion 
of 2003. Leveson completed her undergraduate and graduate education at 
the University of California, Los Angeles, including a doctorate in computer 
science in 1980. She taught at the University of California, Irvine and at the Uni- 
versity of Washington, Seattle before joining the faculty at MIT, where she holds 
joint appointments in the departments of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and in 
Engineering Systems. 

Leveson was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2000. She is a 
fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the International 
Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS), and has been on the 
Board of Directors of the Computing Research Association (CRA), International 
Council on System Engineering, and Geisinger Institute on Electronic Health 



618 I Levi-Montalcini, Rita 

Records Safety. She was the recipient of the AIAA Information Systems Award 
(1995), ACM Allen Newell Award (1999), CRA Habermann Award (2004), 
ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Software Engineering Research Award (2004), and 
System Safety Society Professional Achievement Award. 

Further Resources 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Faculty website, http://sunnyday.mit.edu/. 



Levi-Montalcini, Rita 



b. 1909 
Neuroembryologist 

Education: M.D., University of Turin, 1936, 1940 

Professional Experience: research associate, zoology, Washington University, 
St. Louis, 1947-1951, associate professor, 1951-1958, professor, 1958-1981 

Concurrent Positions: director, Research Center of Neurobiology of the Consi- 
glio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Rome, 1961-1969, Laboratory of Cellular 
Biology, 1969-1978 

Rita Levi-Montalcini is a neurologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or 
Medicine in 1986 with colleague Stanley Cohen for their discovery of the nerve 
growth factor (NGF), responsible for the rapid growth of immature cells impli- 
cated in diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's. Born and educated in Italy, she 
conducted the early stages of her prize- winning research beginning in 1952 while 
on the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Her research was 
focused on the effect of a nerve growth factor isolated from the mouse salivary 
gland on the sympathetic nervous system and of an antiserum to the nerve growth 
factor. In order to advance the work more quickly, she smuggled two tumor- 
infected mice on the plane to Rio de Janeiro to consult with a colleague about 
the process of growing tissues in vitro. She spent the next six years on the project 
until she achieved success. With a National Science Foundation grant in 1961, she 
set up a small research unit in Rome so she could be close to her family. After a 
few years, when she received grants from the Italian government to establish an 
independent research institute, she alternated six months in Rome and six months 
in the United States. 

As teenagers in Italy, she and her twin sister Paola were sent to a finishing 
school until, at age 20, she finally convinced her father that she would never marry, 



Levi-Montalcini, Rita | 619 




so he hired tutors in mathematics, sci- 
ence, Latin, and Greek to prepare her 
for university entrance examinations. 
After completing her medical degree, 
she continued research at the Univer- 
sity of Turin. There she learned a 
new technique of staining embryonic 
chick neurons with chrome silver to 
make nerve cells stand out in the 
smallest detail. She continued using 
this technique in her private research 
when she was dismissed from her 
position at the University of Turin 
because her family was Jewish. She 
was unable to practice medicine, use 
the university library, or even visit 
friends at the university. During 
World War II, she set up a laboratory 
in her home and hid her experiments 
from the authorities. Since she was 
unable to publish her papers in Italian 
journals, she received international 
attention when they were published 
in Swiss and Belgian journals that 

could be read in the United States. After the war, she returned to the laboratory 
at the University of Turin until she was invited to join a research group in 1947 
at Washington University after the director read the papers she had published. 
She spent 30 years in St. Louis, returning to Italy permanently upon her retirement 
in 1981. In 2009, Levi-Montalcini celebrated her hundredth birthday. 

Levi-Montalcini was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1968, and 
in 1987, she was awarded the National Medal of Science, the highest scientific 
honor in the United States. With her collaborator, Stanley Cohen, she also jointly 
received the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University (1983) and 
the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research (1986). In 2001, she was 
named an honorary Senator for Life in the Italian Senate. She has received honor- 
ary degrees from Polytechnic University of Turin (2006) and Complutense Univer- 
sity of Madrid, Spain (2008). She has been a member of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, Society for Developmental Biology, American 
Association of Anatomists, and Pontifical Academy of Sciences. In 1988, she pub- 
lished an autobiography, In Praise of Imperfection: My Life and Work. 



Rita Levi-Montalcini shared the 1986 Nobel 
Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Stanley 
Cohen for her discovery of nerve growth factor, 
the protein that promotes cell growth in the 
peripheral nervous system. (Nobel Foundation) 



620 | Lewis, Margaret Adaline Reed 

Further Resources 

McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch. 1993. Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, 
and Momentous Discoveries. Secaucus, NJ: Birch Lane Press. 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 



Lewis, Margaret Adaline Reed 

1881 1970 
Embryologist 

Education: Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, 1900; A.B., Goucher 
College, 1901; Bryn Mawr College, 1902-1903, 1908-1909; Columbia Univer- 
sity, 1903-1906; University of Zurich, 1906; University of Paris and University 
of Berlin, 1908 

Professional Experience: assistant, zoology, Bryn Mawr College, 1901-1902; 
lecturer, physiology, New York Medical College for Women, 1904-1907; lecturer, 
Barnard College, 1907-1909; instructor, anatomy and physiology, training school 
for nurses, Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1911-1912; collaborator, department of 
embryology, Carnegie Institution, 1915-1927, research associate, 1927-1940; 
member, Wistar Institute, 1940-1958, emeritus member, 1958-1964 

Concurrent Positions: preparator in zoology, Columbia University, 1903-1906; 
lecturer, New York Medical College, 1904-1905 

Margaret Lewis was a world-renowned authority on tumors, with expertise in the 
chemotherapy of cancer, the cytology of living cells in tissue cultures, the origin of 
epithelioid cells, and the relation of white blood cells to tumors. While working in 
Berlin, she may have conducted the first known successful in vitro mammalian tissue 
culture experiment. She and her husband, Warren H. Lewis, perfected the technique 
to develop clear solutions on special slides. This technique is known as the Lewis cul- 
ture, and the medium is called the Locke-Lewis solution. In later years, they studied 
the chemotherapy of dyes in cancer. As early as 1915, they were able to provide a rea- 
sonably complete description of a number of living cells microscopically. By 1917, 
they had begun to determine some physiological activities. Later, at the Carnegie 
Institution, she added important studies of the effects of acidity on these processes. 
She published nearly 150 scientific papers, often co-authored with her husband. 

Lewis received her undergraduate degree from Goucher College in 1901 and 
studied at a number of universities in the United States and Europe without com- 
pleting a graduate degree. She held brief appointments at several U.S. colleges 



Libby, Leona Woods Marshall | 621 

before joining the Carnegie Institution department of embryology. In 1940, she was 
elected a member of the Wistar Institute, where she held emeritus status for several 
years after her retirement. She and her husband jointly received the Gerhard Gold 
Medal of the Pathological Society of Philadelphia and an honorary degree from 
Goucher College in 1938. She was an honorary life member of the Tissue Culture 
Society and a member of the American Association of Anatomists. She is identified 
in some sources as "Margaret Reed" or as "Mrs. Warren H. Lewis." 



Libby, Leona Woods Marshall 

1919 1986 
Physicist 

Education: B.S., University of Chicago, 1938, Ph.D., chemistry, 1943 

Professional Experience: research associate, metallurgical laboratory, Manhattan 
Project, 1942-1944; physicist, Hanford Engineering Works, Washington, 1944- 
1946; fellow, Institute for Nuclear Studies, University of Chicago, 1946-1947, 
research associate, 1947-1953, assistant professor, physics, 1953-1960; associate 
professor, physics, New York University, 1960-1962, professor, 1962-1963; associ- 
ate professor, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1963; staff member, Rand Corpora- 
tion, California, 1963-1970; staff member, R&D Associates, California, 1970-1976 

Concurrent Positions: consulting physicist, E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Com- 
pany, 1944-1946; fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton, New Jersey, 
1957-1958; visiting scientist, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1958-1960; visit- 
ing scientist, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1958-1986; visiting adjunct pro- 
fessor, University of California, Los Angeles, 1973-1986 

Leona Marshall Libby was a physicist whose research focused on high-energy 
nuclear physics, nuclear reactions, fundamental particles, astrophysics, and stable 
isotopes in tree thermometers. She discovered that historical climate could be 
measured from the isotope ratios in tree rings. She also conducted early research 
on neutron and proton scattering. She was a member of the Manhattan Project, 
the group that built the first and second Argonne reactors, the Oak Ridge reactor, 
and the three Hanford reactors. She worked with the most important scientists in 
this field in the mid-twentieth century, including several Nobel Laureates. For 
her doctorate, she studied with Robert Mulliken, who won the Nobel Prize in 
Chemistry in 1966; even before completing her Ph.D., she became the first female 
researcher at the Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory working with Enrico Fermi, 
who had won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938. Their top-secret work on the first 



622 | Libby, Leona Woods Marshall 



nuclear fission reactor and develop- 
ment of the atomic bomb became 
later known as the Manhattan Project. 
Many women scientists were able to 
secure government contracts and 
positions during World War II, and 
numerous women physicists and 
chemists were ultimately involved in 
the Manhattan Project. Libby (in this 
early period known professionally by 
her first married name, Marshall) 
spent several years as a researcher 
and then assistant professor with 
the Institute for Nuclear Studies at 
the University of Chicago, where she 
studied nuclear explosions and 
neutron diffusion. 

In 1958, Leona Marshall moved to 
the Brookhaven National Laboratory 
in New York and later taught atomic 
and nuclear physics at New York Uni- 
versity. She left New York in 1964 to 
teach physics at the University of 
Colorado, Boulder, and in 1966 mar- 
ried her second husband, Willard 
Frank Libby, another prominent 
chemist who had recently received 
the Nobel Prize in 1960 for his work 
on radio-carbon dating. In 1972, the 
couple relocated to California, where 
Leona worked first as a visiting 
professor and then adjunct instructor 
at University of California, Los 
Angeles. There she continued her 
research in particle physics and began 
her work on environmental engineer- 
ing, tree rings and ancient climates, publishing two books in the 1970s on environ- 
mental issues. After Willard Libby's death in 1980, Leona Marshall Libby 
collected and edited his papers and published The Life Work of Nobel Laureate 
Willard Frank Libby in 1982. 




Nuclear physicist Leona Woods Marshall 
Libby worked on the Manhattan Project during 
World War II. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Linares, Olga Frances | 623 

In the 1970s and 1980s, Leona Marshall Libby remained an outspoken advocate 
for nuclear power in the face of increasing public criticism. In 1979, she published 
an autobiography of her early work in nuclear physics entitled The Uranium 
People. She was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Royal 
Geographical Society, and was a member of the National Science Foundation 
Postdoctoral Fellowship Evaluation Board. 

Further Resources 

Howes, Ruth and Carolyn L. Herzenberg. 1999. Their Day in the Sun: Women of the 
Manhattan Project. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. 



Linares, Olga Frances 

b. 1936 
Anthropologist 

Education: B.A., anthropology, Vassar College, 1958; Ph.D., anthropology, 
Harvard University, 1964 

Professional Experience: instructor, anthropology, Harvard University, 1965; 
lecturer, anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, 1966-1971; research scientist 
to senior scientist, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, 1973-2008, emerita 

Concurrent Positions: research curator, Center for American Archaeology, 
Peabody Museum, Harvard University, 1974- 

Olga Linares is an anthropologist recognized for her research on the rural popula- 
tions of western Africa and Central America. Her research centers on the agrarian 
practices and political economy of western African and Central American rural 
populations, and on human adaptations to the tropical forest, past and present. 
She is working in the area of economic anthropology among primarily agrarian 
populations and looks not only at the types of crops that are grown and marketed 
but also at the sexual division of labor. She examines the social, spatial, and tem- 
poral relations in archaeological perspective. 

The strength of her research can be seen in the book Power, Prayer, and Produc- 
tion: The Jola of Casamance, Senegal (1992). The central thesis is that ideology 
and production are part of the same system and any consideration of the division of 
labor — whether by gender, age, status, or ethnic identity — must take into account 
the influence of ideology. She compares three communities that are engaged in inten- 
sive wet-rice cultivation but structure their agriculture very differently. One is a non- 
Muslim community in which both men and women commune with spirit shrines, and 



624 | Lippincott, Sarah Lee 

relations between the generations and the sexes tend to be reciprocal and cooperative. 
Another community has adopted Islam and has divided production along territorial, 
generational, gender, and kinship lines. The third community also is Islamic and there 
is a strong Islamic community nearby; this group has more extreme inequality and 
social separation between the sexes and the generations. In each case, Linares exam- 
ined the same set of factors: marriage and residence patterns, cropping and land ten- 
ure arrangements, the role of ritual and religious powers and duties, the organization 
of labor, the effects of introduced technologies, and the dynamics of social power 
and conflict. After an appointment as a lecturer in anthropology at the University of 
Pennsylvania, Linares secured joint appointments with the Smithsonian Tropical 
Research Institute, first as a research scientist and then as a senior scientist, and with 
the Center for American Archaeology at the Peabody Museum of Harvard University 
as a research curator. She has written numerous journal articles and book chapters. 

Linares was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1992. 
She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a 
member of the American Anthropological Association, African Studies Association, 
Royal Anthropological Association, and Latin American Studies Association. 

Further Resources 

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. "Olga F. Linares." http://www.stri.org/english/ 
scientific staff/staff scientist/scientist. php?id=24. 



Lippincott, Sarah Lee 

b. 1920 
Astronomer 

Education: student, Swarthmore College, 1938-1939; B.A., University of 
Pennsylvania, 1942; M.A., astronomy, Swarthmore College, 1950 

Professional Experience: research assistant, astronomy, Swarthmore College, 
1942-1951, research associate, 1952-1972, lecturer, 1961-1976, director, Sproul 
Observatory, 1972-1981, professor, 1977-1981, emerita 

Concurrent Positions: visiting astronomer, Lick Observatory, University of 
California, Santa Cruz, 1949; visiting astronomer, California Institute of Technol- 
ogy, 1978 

Sarah Lippincott is known for her research in astrometry, which is the branch of 
astronomy that deals with the measurement of the positions and motions of 
celestial bodies. One of her projects was to look for extrasolar planets or planetlike 



Liskov, Barbara Huberman | 625 

companions to nearby stars. The Sproul Observatory at Swarthmore College has 
had a long-term program of tracing the motions of stars within five parsecs of 
the Earth to look for such perturbations. The data, going back an average of 
50 years, are on photographic plates containing images of those stars; these are 
in the archives of the observatory. Lippincott found three stars that were candi- 
dates for having unseen companions. In addition to her work at Swarthmore, she 
was a visiting astronomer at major West Coast observatories. She held a Fulbright 
fellowship in France and was a member of the French solar eclipse expedition to 
Oland, Sweden, in 1954. Lippincott spent her entire professional career at Swarth- 
more College, beginning as a research assistant and eventually becoming professor 
and director of the Sproul Observatory. She trained many female astronomers at 
Swartmore, including well-known cosmologist Sandra Faber. 

Lippincott held a master's degree, but received an honorary doctorate from 
Villanova University in 1973. She published numerous papers in scientific journals 
and is co-author of the book Point to the Stars, of which three editions were pub- 
lished between 1963 and 1976. She is a member of the American Astronomical 
Society and International Astronomical Union (president, 1973-1976). In some 
sources she is identified by her married name, Zimmerman. 



Liskov, Barbara Huberman 

b. 1939 
Computer Scientist 

Education: B.A., mathematics, University of California, Berkeley, 1961; M.S., 
computer science, Stanford University, 1965, Ph.D., 1968 

Professional Experience: applications programmer, Mitre Corporation, 1961-1962; 
programmer, language translation project, Harvard University, 1962-1963; graduate 
research assistant, artificial intelligence, Stanford University, 1963-1968; member of 
technical staff, computer science research and development, Mitre Corporation, 
1968-1972; assistant to associate professor, computer science and electrical engi- 
neering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1972-1980, professor, 
1980-, NEC Professor of Software Science and Engineering, 1986-1997, Ford Pro- 
fessor of Engineering, 1997-, associate head, computer science, 2001- 

Barbara Liskov is recognized as an expert on computer software, and her research 
on programming methodology, distributed computing, programming languages, 
and operating systems has been at the forefront of the field of software and com- 
puter operating systems. She has been instrumental in designing software that 



626 | Lochman-Balk, Christina 

has formed the basis of widely used programming languages such as C++ and 
Java. She worked for Mitre Corporation for several years before joining MIT as a 
faculty member in 1972. As a member of the Programming Methodology Group 
of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, her work 
has focused on distributed systems, object-oriented databases, programming lan- 
guages, software design and upgrades, and, most recently, systems operations 
plans due to computer failure or hacking, an important area of research in the 
Internet age. In addition to her academic duties, she has consulted for major com- 
puter companies such as Digital Equipment, Hewlett-Packard, NCR, Prime Com- 
puters, Cadence, Intermetrics, BBN Corporation, and Cisco Systems. 

Liskov received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1968, the first woman to 
earn a doctorate in a computer science program. She was elected to membership in 
the National Academy of Engineering (1988) and received an honorary doctorate 
from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich (2005). She 
is the recipient of an Achievement Award from the Society of Women Engineers 
(1996), the John von Neumann Medal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics 
Engineers (IEEE) (2004), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 
SIGPLAN Lifetime Achievement Award (2008), and the A. M. Turing Award of 
the Association for Computing Machinery (2009), one of the highest awards 
in computer science, for her contribution to "virtually every modern computing- 
related convenience in people's daily lives." In 2002, she was profiled as a top 
scientist in both Popular Science and Discover magazines. She is a member 
of the IEEE and the ACM, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences. 

Further Resources 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "MIT's Magnificent Seven: Women Faculty 
Members Cited as Top Scientists." http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2002/women.html. 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Faculty website, http://www.pmg.csail.mit.edu/~liskov/. 



Lochman-Balk, Christina 

1907 2006 

Geologist, Paleontologist 

Education: A.B., Smith College, 1929, A.M., geology, 1931; Ph.D., paleontology, 
Johns Hopkins University, 1933 

Professional Experience: assistant geologist, Smith College, 1929-1931; instructor, 
Mount Holyoke College, 1935-1940, assistant to associate professor, 1940-1947; 



Loeblich, Helen Nina Tappan | 627 

lecturer, physical science, University of Chicago, 1947; lecturer, life sciences, New 
Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, 1954, professor, geology, 1955-1972 

Concurrent Positions: strategic geologist, New Mexico State Bureau of Mines 
and Mineral Resources, 1955-1957 

Christina Lochman-Balk was a prominent geologist whose research area was the 
Cambrian paleontology and stratigraphy of the western United States, Mexico, 
and Newfoundland. In particular, she studied Cambrian trilobites and published 
several important papers and updates on invertebrate paleontology in North 
America. She held positions at several universities and eventually rose through 
the ranks to full professor in a predominantly male profession. After receiving her 
doctorate, she accepted a position at Mount Holyoke in 1935, advancing to assistant 
professor and associate professor. After her marriage in 1947, she followed her hus- 
band Robert Balk to the University of Chicago, where he was appointed a professor 
of geology; there, she could only get a position as a lecturer. The couple relocated to 
New Mexico where, again, he was a professor and she a lecturer until she was pro- 
moted after his death in 1955. She remained at the New Mexico Institute of Mining 
and Technology (New Mexico Tech) until her retirement in 1972, also serving a two- 
year appointment as a strategic geologist for the New Mexico State Bureau of Mines. 
During her tenure at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, she 
was renowned as a teacher and as a researcher, and helped expand the program's 
offerings for doctoral studies in the earth sciences. She supervised numerous doc- 
toral students who went on to make important geological discoveries of their own. 
As Dean of Women, she was particularly interested in promoting the careers of 
female scientists. She also established two fellowship opportunities for student 
research in geology and earth sciences. Lochman-Balk was elected a fellow of both 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Geological 
Society of America, and was a member of the Paleontological Society, which 
awarded her its President's Citation in 1996. 

Further Resources 

New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Faculty website, http://www.ees.nmt 
.edu/balk/. 



Loeblich, Helen Nina Tappan 

1917 2004 
Paleontologist 

Education: B.S., University of Oklahoma, 1937, M.S., 1939; Ph.D., geology, 
University of Chicago, 1942 



628 | Loeblich, Helen Nina Tappan 

Professional Experience: assistant geologist, University of Oklahoma, 1937- 
1939; instructor, Tulane University, 1942-1943; geologist, U.S. Geological Survey 
(USGS), 1943-1945, 1947-1959; research associate, paleontology, Smithsonian 
Institution, 1954-1957; lecturer, geology, University of California, Los Angeles 
(UCLA), 1958-1965, associate research geologist, 1961-1963, senior lecturer, 
geology, 1965-1966, professor, 1966-1984 

Helen Loeblich was a renowned researcher in micropaleontology whose research 
focused on living and fossil foraminiferans, tintinnids, the camoebians, and 
organic-walled siliceous and calcareous phytoplankton. She was an assistant geolo- 
gist at the University of Oklahoma before taking over her the teaching responsibil- 
ities of her husband, fellow paleontologist Al Loeblich, at Tulane University while 
he was on active military duty during World War II. After the war, she held positions 
with the USGS working at the Naval Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, and, with Al and 
their children, traveled to Europe on a Guggenheim Fellowship to conduct research 
on historical collections of forminifera for the Smithsonian Institution. The family 
relocated to California in 1957, where Al worked as a researcher for Chevron Oil 
and Helen returned to academia as a lecturer in geology at UCLA, where she even- 
tually advanced to full professor and remained until her retirement in 1984. 

With Al Loeblich she co-published more than 200 papers, articles, and books, 
and helped update the 1964 edition of Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. She 
received high praise for her 1980 book The Paleobiology of Plant Protists, and 
their joint 1987 two-volume work Foraminfiera Genera and Their Classification 
was designated the best geography and earth science book of 1988 by the Associ- 
ation of American Publishers. Helen Loeblich was also an accomplished scientific 
artist who, in 1976, designed a stamp for the fiftieth-anniversary celebration of the 
Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists (now the Society for 
Sedimentary Geology). 

Among the awards Helen Loeblich received were the Woman of Science Award 
from UCLA (1982), Paleontological Society Medal (1983), Raymond C. Moore 
Medal for Excellence in Paleontology (1984), and Woman of the Year Award in 
Natural History from the Palm Springs Desert Museum (1987). The Loeblich's 
were named honorary directors of the Cushman Foundation of Foraminiferal 
Research in 1982 and Helen Loeblich was elected president of the Paleontological 
Society in 1985. She was also a fellow of the Geological Society of America, an 
honorary member of the Society for Sedimentary Geology, and a member of the 
American Microscopical Society. 

Further Resources 

"In Memoriam: Helen Nina Tappan Loeblich." University of California, Los Angeles, http:// 
www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/inmemoriam/helenninaloeblich-tappan.html. 



Long, Irene (Duhart) | 629 

Long, Irene (Duhart) 

b. 1951 

Aerospace Physician 

Education: B.A., biology, Northwestern University, 1973; M.D., St. Louis 
University School of Medicine, 1977; M.S., aerospace medicine, Wright State 
University School of Medicine, Ohio, 1981 

Professional Experience: medical resident, Ames Research Center, National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 1981-1982, John F. Kennedy 
Space Center, 1982; chief, Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health 
Office, NASA John F. Kennedy Space Center, 1982-1994, director, Biomedical 
Office, 1994-2000, Chief Medical Officer and Associate Director of Spaceport 
services, 2000- 

Irene Long is one of the highest-ranking professional women at NASA. She was the 
first black female chief of the Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health 
Office, and is responsible for overseeing not only the health of the astronauts but also 
the health of some 18,000 workers, civil servants, and contractors at the Kennedy 
Space Center. She works with a team of physicians to provide medical services to 
the astronauts in emergency cases, such as an aborted mission, and she oversees 
inspecting workspaces at the Kennedy Space Center to protect employees from 
exposure to various possible hazards — toxic chemicals, fire, or decompression, for 
example — when a spacecraft is launched. She coordinates the efforts of the Depart- 
ment of Defense, environmental health agencies, and the astronaut office when they 
work together to stage successful launches, as well as to prepare for emergency situa- 
tions. In her own research, Long has found that lower oxygen levels do not impede 
the flow of blood in people with the sickle-cell trait, and so they should not be banned 
from flying. She has also used the Johnson Space Center's collection of medical data 
to research the physical condition of astronauts, including the effects of space on the 
individuals' physiology and the consequences of weightlessness. 

Long has also worked to encourage women and minorities to have careers in 
science and engineering through the Space Life Sciences Training Program. Par- 
ticipants in the program spend six weeks at the Kennedy Space Center studying 
space physiology in plants, animals, and humans, learning how to develop experi- 
ments, and becoming acquainted with the basic concepts of teamwork. Long 
received the Presidential Award of the Society of NASA Flight Surgeons (1995) 
and later served as president of the society (1998). She also received an Outstand- 
ing Achievement Award from Women in Aerospace (1998) and the Lifetime 
Achievement Award from the National Women of Color Technology Awards 
Conference (2005). Long is a member of the Aerospace Medical Association. 



630 | Long, Sharon (Rugel) 



Further Resources 



National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Irene Duhart Long, M.D.: Chief Medi- 
cal Officer and Associate Director, Center Operations." http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ 
kennedy/about/biographies/long.html. 



Long, Sharon (Rugel) 



b. 1951 

Developmental Biologist, Molecular Biologist 

Education: B.S., biochemistry, California Institute of Technology, 1973; Ph.D., 
cell and developmental biology, Yale University, 1979 

Professional Experience: research fellow, biology, Harvard University, 1978- 
1981; assistant to associate professor, biological science, Stanford University, 
1982-1992, professor, 1992- 

Concurrent Positions: investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 1994-2001; 

dean, School of Humanities and Sci- 
ences, Stanford Univeristy, 2001-2007 

Sharon Long is renowned for her stud- 
ies in plant genetics. Her research 
includes genetics and developmental 
biology of symbiotic nitrogen fixation 
in legumes, the role of plasmids in 
symbiosis, plant cell biology, and plant 
molecular biology. She identified and 
cloned the genes that allow bacteria to 
locate and enter certain plants; she 
has worked with the rhizobium bacte- 
rium that invades the roots of such 
legumes as alfalfa, soybeans, and peas, 
and lives symbiotically with the plant, 
receiving moisture and protection from 
it and producing nitrogen for the 
plant's growth. Her specific contribu- 
tion is to genetically alter the bacte- 
rium to make better invaders. Her 
research involves allowing the bacte- 
rium to invade other major food crops, 




Developmental and molecular biologist, 
Sharon Long. (Courtesy of Stanford University 
News Service Library) 



Love, Susan M. | 63 I 

which will enable farmers to reduce the amounts of nitrogen fertilizer that are spread 
on food crops and eventually are washed off by rain into streams and rivers. 

Long was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1993 
and has had a distinguished career as a teacher, researcher, and administrator. After 
a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard, she joined the faculty at Stanford University in 
1982, serving as full professor since 1992, and was dean of the School of Human- 
ities and Sciences for six years. At Stanford, she has twice received the Dean's 
Award for Distinguished Teaching (1988 and 1992). Among her prestigious national 
honors are a Presidential Young Investigators Award of the National Science Foun- 
dation (1984-1989) and a MacArthur fellowship (1992-1997). She has also been 
the recipient of a Shell Foundation Research Award, a Charles A. Schull Award 
from the American Society of Plant Physiology, a National Science Foundation Fac- 
ulty Award for Women, and the Wilbur Cross Medal for alumni from Yale Univer- 
sity (2002). She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Philosophical 
Society. She is a member of the American Academy of Microbiology and a member 
of the Genetics Society of America, American Society of Plant Physiologists, 
American Society for Microbiology, and Society for Developmental Biology. 

Further Resources 

Stanford University. "Sharon R. Long Lab." http://cmgm.stanford.edu/biology/long/. 



Love, Susan M. 

b. 1948 
Surgeon 

Education: B.S., Fordham University, 1970; M.D., State University of New York 
Medical Center, 1974; M.B.A., Anderson School of Business, University of 
California, Los Angeles, 1998 

Professional Experience: surgical intern, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, 
Massachusetts, 1974-1975, surgical resident, 1975-1979, surgical coordinator, 
1979, clinical fellow, pathology, 1980, assistant in surgery, Beth Israel Hospital, 
1980-1987, director, Breast Clinic, 1980-1988, associate surgeon, 1987-1992, 
director of research, Faulkner Breast Center, 1992; clinical fellow, surgery, Harvard 
Medical School, Boston, 1977-1978, clinical instructor, 1980-1987, assistant clini- 
cal professor, surgery, 1987-1992; associate professor, clinical surgery, University 
of California, Los Angeles, 1992-1996, Revlon Chair in Women's Health, 1995- 
1996, director, Revlon/UCLA Breast Center, 1992-1996, adjunct associate 



632 | Love, Susan M. 




professor, 1996-1997, adjunct profes- 
sor, general surgery, 1997-; president 
and medical director, Dr. Susan Love 
Research Foundation (formerly Santa 
Barbara Breast Cancer Institute), 1 996— 

Concurrent Positions: visiting 
registrar, Guy's Hospital, London, 
England, 1977-1978; clinical associ- 
ate, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, 
1981-1992 

Susan M. Love is a surgeon who 
retired from medical practice to advo- 
cate for breast cancer research. She 
had a distinguished career as a physi- 
cian, rising to become the first female 
general surgeon at Beth Israel Hospi- 
tal in Boston and a professor at Har- 
vard Medical School. She founded 
the National Breast Center Coalition 
in 1990 to bring together the latest 
research and political advocacy for 
greater awareness and more funding 
dedicated to breast cancer. She 
moved to California in 1992 as a professor at the University of California, Los 
Angeles and served as director of the Revlon/UCLA Breast Center before found- 
ing the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation in 1996. Love's work focuses on 
the lack of research funding, misinformation among doctors and patients, and con- 
cern about drastic and unnecessary treatment methods offered to women in the 
past, such as radical mastectomies. Her message to women diagnosed with breast 
cancer is that they should do their own research, be informed, get second opinions, 
and be their own advocates in the battle against the disease. 

Love has published two books: Dr. Susan Love's Breast Book (1990; 4th ed., 
2005) and Dr. Susan Love's Menopause and Hormone Book (1998; 2nd ed., 
2003). She has contributed to numerous medical textbooks and has been a member 
of editorial or review boards of medical journals. Love's high-profile research 
center and popular books have made her a prominent public figure, and she has 
made several television appearances on Discovery Health channel, Lifetime, the 
Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, the Today Show, and other news 
programs. She lectures often for women's health groups and has served as a 



Surgeon Susan Love, 1996. She is the founder 
and director of the Dr. Susan Love Research 
Foundation for breast cancer research. 
(AP/Wide World Photos) 



Love, Susan M. | 633 



Breast Cancer Research 

Breast cancer is said to strike one in eight American women and, although more 
women die of heart disease and lung cancer each year, breast cancer is seen as 
a particularly insidious and dreaded disease among women. The fear of the disease 
stems, in part, from the historically brutal nature of the treatment. The first radical 
mastectomies were performed in the nineteenth century, with removal of the 
breasts, lymph nodes, and chest muscles. By the late twentieth century, as greater 
understanding of the course and spread of the disease was achieved, a greater 
range of treatments were offered, including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, 
but also new experimental drug options. Emotional support for the disease has also 
increased as patient advocacy groups have created support networks and called for 
earlier diagnosis, more humane treatments, increased research funding, and public 
campaigns such as the pink ribbon crusade and October as National Breast Cancer 
Awareness Month. Women scientists who have died of breast cancer include early- 
nineteenth-century British paleontologist Mary Anning, environmental scientist 
Rachel Carson, mathematician Carol Karp, and American physician Jerri 
Nielsen, who attracted worldwide media attention in 1998 after performing a 
lumpectomy on her own breast while stranded at the South Pole research center. 



medical advisor or board member for the National Alliance of Breast Cancer 
Organizations, Lesbian Health Foundation, Wellness Community, International 
Breast Cancer Research Foundation, President's National Action Plan on Breast 
Cancer, and numerous other organizations. Her own research on breast ducts led 
to the co-founding in 1998 of a medical device company, now known as Pro- 
Duct Health, for which she remains a consultant. In 2008, her own Dr. Susan Love 
Research Foundation joined with the Avon Foundation's "Army of Women" to 
support breast cancer awareness and research. 

Love's numerous awards and honors include, but are not limited to, the follow- 
ing: Women Who Have Made a Difference by the International Women's Forum 
(1991), Achievement Award of the American Association of Physicians for 
Human Rights (1992), Women of Distinction by the National Council on Aging 
(1994), Spirit of Achievement Award from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 
Yeshiva University (1995), Alumni Achievement Award from the State University 
of New York (SUNY) College of Medicine (1999), Radcliffe Medal of the 
Radcliffe College Alumnae Association (2000), Humanitarian of the Year Award 
of Western University of Health Sciences (2001), Excellence in Cancer Awareness 
Award from Congressional Families for Cancer Awareness (2002), Women Inspir- 
ing Hope and Possibility from the National Women's History Project (2004), 
Director's Award of the National Cancer Advisory Board and National Cancer 



634 | Lubchenco, Jane 

Institute (2004), and induction into the International Women's Forum Hall of 
Fame (2006). She has also received honorary degrees from several universities. 

Love has been a member of the North American Menopause Society, American 
Medical Women's Association (branch president, 1987), American College of 
Surgeons, American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Association of 
Physicians for Human Rights, American Society of Preventive Oncology, Society 
for the Study of Breast Disease, American Association for Cancer Research, Asso- 
ciation of Women Surgeons, American College of Women's Health Physicians 
(founding member), American College of Physicians Executives, Doctors against 
Abuse from Steroid Sex Hormones (DASH), Longmire Surgical Society, Massa- 
chusetts Medical Society, Los Angeles Medical Society, and Los Angeles Acad- 
emy of Medicine. She is married to California surgeon Dr. Helen Sperry Cooksey. 

Further Resources 

Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, http://www.dslrf.org/. 

Stabiner, Karen. 1998. To Dance with the Devil: The New War on Breast Cancer. NY: 
Delta Books. 



Lubchenco, Jane 



b. 1947 

Marine Ecologist, Conservation Biologist 

Education: B.A., biology, Colorado College, 1969; M.S., zoology, University of 
Washington, 1971; Ph.D., marine ecology, Harvard University, 1975 

Professional Experience: assistant professor, ecology, Harvard University, 1975— 
1977; assistant to associate professor, zoology, Oregon State University, 1977- 
1988, professor and department chair, 1988-1992, distinguished professor, 
1993-2009; Under Secretary of Commerce and Administrator, National Oceanic 
and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2009- 

Concurrent Positions: principal investigator, National Science Foundation, 
1976-; visiting professor, University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica, 
1976; visiting professor, Discovery Bay Marine Lab, 1977; research associate, 
Smithsonian Institution, 1978-1984; visiting professor, Universidad Catolica, 
Santiago, Chile, 1986; visiting professor, Institute of Oceanography, Qingdao, 
China, 1987; visiting professor, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New 
Zealand, 1995-1996, 1999-2000, and 2002-2003. 



Lubchenco, Jane | 635 

Jane Lubchenco is a marine ecologist interested in biodiversity and sustainable 
ecological systems, and is active in national and international studies in ecology 
and global climate change. In 2009, she was chosen by President Obama as head 
of NOAA, the first woman to hold that post. She had previously served on the 
National Science Board under President Clinton from 1996 to 2006 and advised 
the president, vice president, and U.S. Congress on issues related to climate 
change. Her work has focused on marine plant-herbivore interactions, chemical 
ecology, predator-prey interactions, algal ecology, and life histories. She is also 
interested in biodiversity and sustainable ecological systems. She conducted her 
early field research in Panama from 1977 to 1983. She helped draft the Sustainable 
Biosphere Initiative of the Ecological Society of America in 1991 and co-authored 
a 1997 article entitled "Human Domination of Earth's Ecosystems," in which the 
authors warned that human alteration of the Earth was substantial and growing. 

She began her career at Harvard University, but after she and her husband, 
marine biologist Bruce A. Menge, had been married for several years, they sought 
joint employment at a research university where they could combine family and 
career. Oregon State University allowed them to split one tenure-track position 
into two separate, half-time tenure-track positions so that each of them could 
engage in research and work toward tenure while their children were young. As 
their children grew older, the couple were able to gradually move into full-time 
status, a model they actively endorse as an alternative for faculty with families. 
Some of her early papers were published under her married name, Jane Menge. 

Lubchenco was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1996 and is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Science 
(president, 1997), American Philosophical Society, and Royal Society. She is also 
a member of the Phycological Society of America, American Society of Natural- 
ists, American Institute of Biological Sciences, International Council for Science, 
and Ecological Society of America (president, 1992-1993). She has served as 
advisor for numerous marine organizations including the Ocean Trust Fund, Envi- 
ronmental Defense Fund, and Monterey Bay Aquarium. She has received numer- 
ous honorary degrees as well as the Mercer Award of the Ecological Society of 
America (1979), a MacArthur Foundation "genius" fellowship (1993-1998), a 
Pew fellowship (1993), the Heinz Award for the Environment (2002), the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Award for Public Under- 
standing of Science and Technology (2005), and the Zayed International Prize 
for the Environment (2008). 

Further Resources 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 



636 | Lubic, Ruth (Watson) 



National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "NOAA Leadership: Dr. Jane 
Lubchenco." http://www.noaa.gov/lubchenco.html. 



Lubic, Ruth (Watson) 

b. 1927 
Nurse-Midwife 

Education: diploma, School of Nursing Hospital, University of Pennsylvania, 
1955; B.S., Teachers College, Columbia University, 1959, M.A., applied 
anthropology, 1961; certificate, nurse-midwifery, State University of New York 
at Brooklyn, 1962; Ed.D., applied anthropology, Columbia, 1979 

Professional Experience: faculty member, School of Nursing, New York Medical 
College, and Maternity Center Association, State University of New York School 
of Nurse-Midwifery, Downstate Medical Center, 1955-1958; nurse, Memorial 
Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases, New York, 1955-1958; clinical associ- 
ate, Graduate School of Nursing, New York Medical College, 1962-1963; general 
director, Maternity Center Association, New York, 1970-1995; founder, president, 
and co-CEO, District of Columbia Developing Families Center, 2000- 

Concurrent Positions: consultant, midwifery, nursing, and maternal and child 
health, Office of Public Health and Science, U.S. Department of Health and 
Human Services, 1995- 

Ruth Lubic is known for her contributions to the public health field, particularly 
those related to childbearing women, and has been a driving force behind the expan- 
sion of the midwifery profession in the United States. During her nursing training, 
Lubic observed that doctors often treated maternity patients with condescension 
and insensitivity, and that women often did not receive the prenatal and postnatal 
information they needed. These observations contrasted with her own experience 
in 1959, when her obstetrician allowed her husband to be present in the delivery 
room and to remain there with her and their newborn child for an hour after birth. 
For more than 25 years, she was director of the Maternity Century Association of 
New York, which was founded in 1918 as a nonprofit health agency dedicated to 
the advancement of education about childbearing and improving the care given to 
women during pregnancy and birth, and after delivery. Under Lubic 's direction, 
the Maternity Center Association open the nation's first freestanding birth centers. 
Lubic 's father was a pharmacist; after his death, her mother ran the pharmacy, 
and Ruth worked there to save money to enter nursing school at the age of 25. 



Lubic, Ruth (Watson) | 637 



Martha Ballard, Early American Midwife 

Martha Moore Ballard (1 735-1 812) was a midwife and healer who, for more than 
25 years, kept a detailed diary of her medical practice and domestic work in the fron- 
tier town of Hallowell, Maine. In addition to raising her own nine children and assist- 
ing her husband in the family business, Ballard contributed to her family income and 
community life as a midwife who delivered hundreds of babies and treated a variety 
of illnesses in her small town. Ballard's diary (which was recovered and published 
by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich in the 1991 Pulitzer Prize-winning book The 
Midwife's Tale and also inspired a documentary film and a student research 
website, http://dohistory.org/) reveals important information about childbirth and 
medicine in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, in particular highlight- 
ing the differences in obstetrical practice between midwives such as Ballard and a 
new class of professionally trained male doctors. 

Interestingly, medicine seemed to be part of the female family legacy, as Martha 
Ballard's diary was eventually handed down to and preserved by a great-great- 
granddaughter, Mary Hobart, who in 1 884 was one of the first American women 
to earn a medical degree and was the first woman admitted to the Massachusetts 
Medical Society. 



She graduated from college in 1959 and went on to receive a certificate in nurse- 
midwifery from State University of New York at Brooklyn in 1962, but while 
working for the center, she realized that her limited knowledge of different cul- 
tures was barring her from responding adequately to the needs of some of her cli- 
ents. Therefore, she entered the graduate program in applied anthropology at 
Columbia University's Teachers College and earned an educational doctorate 
(Ed.D.) in 1979. She had already become director of the Maternity Center Associ- 
ation in 1970. In 1993, she was the first nurse ever to be honored with a MacArthur 
Foundation grant (1993), which she used to open the District of Columbia Devel- 
oping Families Center in 2000. The Center's stated goal is "to meet the primary 
health care, social service, and child development needs of underserved individ- 
uals and childbearing and childrearing families through a collaborative that builds 
on their strengths and promotes their empowerment." 

Lubic received the Rockefeller Public Service Award from Princeton University 
(1981), the Lillian D. Wald Spirit of Nursing Award from the Visiting Nurse Service 
of New York (1994), and the Gustav O. Lienhard Award of the Institute of Medicine 
(2001). She is co-author of Childbearing: A Book of Choices (1987). She is a member 
of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the American 
Public Health Association, and the American College of Nurse-Midwives. She was 



638 | Lubkin, Gloria (Becker) 

founder of the National Association of Childbearing Centers and served as that 
organization's president from 1983 to 1992. 

Further Resources 

Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. "Past Recipients of the Gustav O. Lienhard 
Award." http://www.iom.edu/Activities/Quality/Lienhard/Past-Recipients.aspx. 

DC Developing Families Center, http://www.developingfamilies.org/. 

Andrews, Wyatt. "The Midwife on a Mission." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/ 
08/eveningnews/main4428250.shtml. 



Lubkin, Gloria (Becker) 

b. 1933 
Physicist 

Education: B.A., physics, Temple University, 1953; M.A., physics, Boston 
University, 1957 

Professional Experience: mathematician, Aircraft Division, Fairchild Stratos Cor- 
poration, 1954, and Letterkenny Ordnance Depot, U.S. Department of Defense, 
1955-1956; physicist, technical research group, Control Data Corporation, 1956- 
1958; acting chair, physics, Sarah Lawrence College, 1961-1962; vice president, 
Lubkin Associates, 1962-1963; associate to senior editor, Physics Today, 1963— 
1984, editor, 1985-1994, editorial director, 1994-2000, editor at large, 2001-2003 

Gloria Lubkin has contributed to the physics profession in her 40-year career as 
editor of Physics Today, the publication of the American Institute of Physics. Her 
research includes nuclear physics and the history of physics, and in the 1960s, 
she began conducting oral histories of famous physicists. She is also an expert 
on science policy and has conducted several roundtables on issues in science that 
have been published in the journal, including issues of funding and scientists' rela- 
tionship to government and to industry. Lubkin came to the journal with a solid 
background of experience. While working on her master's degree, she worked as 
a mathematician for Fairchild Stratos Corporation and the U.S. Department of 
Defense, and she was a physicist with Control Data Corporation before serving 
as acting chair of the physics department at Sarah Lawrence College. She joined 
the staff of Physics Today as an associate editor and rose through the ranks to 
editor and then editorial director before retiring emeritus in 2003. 

Lubkin has served on numerous commissions and has received appointments to 
significant committees. She was a member of the Nieman Advisory Committee of 



Luchins, Edith Hirsch | 639 

Harvard University (1978-1982) after being a recipient of a Nieman fellowship 
(1974-1975). In the American Physical Society, she has been a member of the 
executive commission of the Forum of Physics and Society (1977-1978) and a 
member of the executive committee of the History of Physics Division. She was 
also a consultant for the Center for the History and Philosophy of Physics of the 
American Institute of Physics (1966-1967). She was co-chair of the advisory com- 
mission for and co-founder of the Theoretical Physics Institute of the University of 
Minnesota (1987-1988), which now has a Gloria Becker Lubkin professorship of 
Theoretical Physics named in her honor. 

Lubkin is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Associ- 
ation for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the New York Academy 
of Science and the National Association of Science Writers. 



Luchins, Edith Hirsch 

1921 2002 
Mathematician 

Education: B.A., Brooklyn College, 1942; M.S., New York University, 1944; 
Ph.D., mathematics, University of Oregon, 1957 

Professional Experience: inspector, Sperry Gyroscope Company, New York, 
1942-1943; instructor, mathematics, Brooklyn College, 1944-1946, 1948-1949; 
assistant, applied mathematics laboratory, New York University (NYU), 1946; 
research fellow and research associate, mathematics, University of Oregon, 
1957-1958; research associate to associate professor, mathematics, University of 
Miami, Florida, 1959-1962; associate professor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 
New York, 1962-1970, professor, 1970-1992 

Concurrent Positions: visiting professor, mathematics, U.S. Military Academy, 
West Point, 1991-1992, adjunct professor, cognitive sciences, 1994 

Edith Luchins was recognized for her research on Banach algebras, functional 
analysis, and mathematical psychology. She was particularly interested in cogni- 
tive processes in mathematical problem solving, as well as the role of gender in 
learning and teaching mathematics. She especially wanted to encourage more 
women to pursue mathematics as a field of study. Luchins (then Hirsch) had emi- 
grated to the United States from Poland when she was just six years old and, 
although (or because) neither parent had been formally educated, they stressed 
the importance of an education for Edith. In her New York City high school, she 
excelled in math, even tutoring other students and assisting teachers with grading. 



640 | Lucid, Shannon (Wells) 

Not only her family but her future spouse supported her education; Abraham 
Luchins insisted that she complete her undergraduate degree before they were 
married in 1942. She completed her bachelor's degree and then master's at NYU 
in quick succession, also teaching at Brooklyn College and working during World 
War II as a government inspector of anti-aircraft equipment at Sperry Gyroscope. 
Female mathematicians and scientists were in great demand in government and 
industry to fill in for men during the war. 

Luchins had begun doctoral work at NYU but eventually took several years off 
from her studies to raise children and follow her husband's career to Montreal, 
Canada, and then to Oregon, where she finally received her doctorate from the Uni- 
versity of Oregon in 1957 before giving birth to her fifth child. Her years in Canada 
were also important to her career, however, as she worked closely with her 
husband, an educational psychologist, and developed an interest in mathematics edu- 
cation that would influence her commitment to teaching and learning as well as 
research. Her collaborations with her husband also led the two to co-author several 
books. She taught at the University of Miami for four years before being appointed 
associate professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic in 1962, and in 1970 became the first 
woman promoted to full professor there. She formally retired in 1992 but remained 
active in her research until her death in 2002. She was a member of the Mathematical 
Association of America, the American Mathematical Society, the Society for Indus- 
trial and Applied Mathematics, the American Education Research Association, and 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Further Resources 

Murray, Margaret Anne Marie. 2000. Women Becoming Mathematicians: Creating an 
Identity in Post World War II America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "Obituary: Edith Luchins." http://www.rpi.edu/web/ 
Campus.News/dec 02/dec 2/luchins.html. 



Lucid, Shannon (Wells) 

b. 1943 

Biochemist, Astronaut 

Education: B.S., chemistry, University of Oklahoma, 1963, M.S., 1970, Ph.D., 
biochemistry, 1973 

Professional Experience: teaching assistant, chemistry, University of Oklahoma, 
1963-1964; senior laboratory technician, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, 



Lucid, Shannon (Wells) | 641 







Astronaut Shannon Lucid exercises on a treadmill which has been assembled in the 
Russian Mir space station Base Block module, 1996. (NASA) 



1964-1966; chemist, Kerr-McGee, 1966-1968; graduate assistant, biochemistry 
and molecular biology, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center, 1969— 
1973; research associate, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, 1974-1978; 
astronaut, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 1978-1996; 
chief scientist, Solar System Exploration Division, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 
2002-2003, CAPCOM, mission control, Johnson Space Center, 2005-, manage- 
ment, Astronaut Office, 2008- 

Shannon Lucid is a biochemist and astronaut who set the record for the most hours 
in space of any U.S. astronaut after she stayed aboard the Russian space station Mir 
for 179 days in 1996. Her task on the Mir was to conduct biomedical experiments 
on the effects of long-term space flight on humans. In addition her work on the 
space station, she flew as a mission specialist on the space shuttles Discovery 
(1985), Atlantis (1989), Atlantis (1991), and Columbia (1993). In 2002, Lucid 
became chief scientist of NASA's Solar System Exploration program, directing 
future space research and explorations and communicating NASA's missions to 
the public. Since 2005 she has served as CAPCOM (capsule communicator) for 
several space shuttle missions. 



642 | Lurie, Nancy (Oestreich) 

Lucid was born in Shanghai, China to missionary parents and was raised in 
Oklahoma. She earned both her undergraduate and graduate degrees in chemistry 
and biochemistry from the University of Oklahoma, receiving her doctorate in 
1973. She then worked as a laboratory research associate at the Oklahoma Medical 
Research Foundation before joining the astronaut training program as part of the first 
group of women to be selected for the space program in 1978, along with Judith 
Resnik, Sally Ride, and others; Lucid was the only mother among the original group 
of female astronauts. During the 1980s, there was much publicity about the women 
astronauts, and their photos and interviews appeared in numerous magazines. 

In 1996, Lucid was the first female astronaut to be awarded the Congressional 
Space Medal of Honor. She was recognized by Russian President Yeltsin in 1997 
with the highest honor given to noncitizens, the Order of Friendship Medal. 

Further Resources 

Kevles, Bettyann H. 2003. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. New York: 
Basic Books. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Shannon W. Lucid (Ph.D.)." http:// 
www.j sc .nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/lucid.html. 



Lurie, Nancy (Oestreich) 

b. 1924 
Anthropologist 

Education: B.A., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1945; M.A., University of 
Chicago, 1947; Ph.D., anthropology, Northwestern University, 1952 

Professional Experience: instructor, anthropology and sociology, University of 
Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 1947-1949, 1951-1952; instructor, anthropology, University 
of Colorado, 1950; research associate, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, 1954- 
1956; lecturer, anthropology, Rackham School, University of Michigan, 1957-1959, 
lecturer, School of Public Health, 1959-1961, assistant professor, 1961-1963; associ- 
ate professor, anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 1963-1967, pro- 
fessor, 1967-1972; Anthropology Curator, Milwaukee Public Museum, 1972-1994, 
emerita 

Concurrent Positions: American Association for the Advancement of Science 
grant, National Archives, 1953-1954; adjunct faculty member, University of 
Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 1972-1994 



Lurie, Nancy (Oestreich) | 643 

Nancy Lurie is a cultural anthropologist known for her studies of North American 
Indians and her work in applied and action anthropology aimed at identifying 
and solving community problems. Her work centered on the Winnebago or 
Ho-Chunk tribe of Wisconsin, and she was adopted by a member of that tribe, 
Mitchell Redcloud, Sr., whom she interviewed during the course of her graduate 
research. Her adoption gave her an entree to Redcloud's family when she later 
conducted extensive research into the role of Native American women, who 
she felt were ignored in most histories of Native Americans. Her book, Moun- 
tain Wolf Woman, Sister of Crashing Thunder (1961), is the autobiography of 
one of Redcloud's family members, as Mountain Wolf Woman dictated it to 
Lurie, her adopted niece. As part of her activist anthropology, Lurie has also 
consulted with and served as an expert witness and researcher for Indian clients 
before the U.S. Indian Claims Commission on issues related to tribal identities, 
boundaries, land use, and occupancy. 

As a child, Lurie's father took her to learn about American Indians at the 
Milwaukee Public Museum. As soon as she was old enough to ride the public 
transportation alone, she spent many hours at the museum and worked in the 
anthropology department as a volunteer. She conducted her first fieldwork among 
the Winnebago while still an undergraduate. There was very little information 
about this group available at the time, and she continued her research in graduate 
school. Her doctoral thesis compared cultural change in the Nebraska and Wiscon- 
sin enclaves of the Winnebago. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, she col- 
laborated on research with June Helm on the northern Athabaskan Indians, 
studying the Dogrib settlements in the Canadian Northwest. Among her action 
anthropology projects, several involved the Winnebago and Menominee tribes. 
In 1972, she left the university and spent the next 20 years of her career as curator 
and head of the anthropology section of the Milwaukee Public Museum, the first 
woman to head one of the museum's scientific sections. 

Lurie has received numerous honors and awards and is a fellow of the American 
Anthropological Association (president, 1983-1985) and a member of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, American Ethnological Society, 
and Society for Applied Anthropology. In 2004, the Ho-Chunk Nation formally 
recognized Lurie for her work on behalf of their people by presenting her with a 
custom-made blanket. 

Further Resources 

Gacs, Ute et al. 1988. Women Anthropologists: Selected Biographies. Westport, CT: 
Greenwood Press. 



M 



Maccoby, Eleanor (Emmons) 



b. 1917 
Psychologist 

Education: student, Reed College, 1934, 1936; B.S., University of Washington, 
Seattle, 1939; M.A., University of Michigan, 1949, Ph.D., psychology, 1950 

Professional Experience: study director, Division of Program Surveys, U.S. 
Department of Agriculture, 1943-1946; study director, Survey Research Center, 
University of Michigan, 1946-1948; lecturer and researcher, Laboratory of 
Human Development, Department of Social Relations, Harvard University, 
1950-1958; associate professor, psychology, Stanford University, 1958-1966, 
professor, 1966-1987, emeritus 

Eleanor Maccoby is a developmental and social psychologist whose studies of the 
social behavior of young children continue to influence research and theories of 
gender differences. She edited and wrote a chapter for The Development of Sex 
Differences (1966) on the differences in the development of male and female 
children, and, in particular, the reasons boys and girls perform differently on intel- 
lectual tests. In The Psychology of Sex Differences (1974), she and her co-author, 
Carol Nagy Jacklin, examined the research on gender differences and theorized 
that gender-typed behavior is a joint product of biological predispositions, social 
shaping, and cognitive self-socialization processes, and that there was no evidence 
for many widely held beliefs about the differences between boys and girls. The book 
was immediately controversial, but it was a first step toward more objective scientific 
investigations of sex differences. In Social Development (1980), she examined 
family socialization and argued that children's development is influenced by the 
nature and effect of parent-child interactions. 

In the late 1980s, Maccoby and her team of researchers began a long-term study 
of the effect of divorce on young children. They followed 500 divorcing families 
for the book Dividing the Child: Social and Legal Dilemmas of Custody (1992; 
co-authored with legal scholar Robert Mnookin). Maccoby and her researchers fol- 
lowed up four years later when the children were adolescents and found that they 
did well as long as there was minimal parental conflict involved in joint-custody 
arrangements, results published in Adolescents After Divorce (1996; co-authored 



645 



646 | Macklin, Madge Thurlow 

with Christy M. Buchanan and Sanford M. Dornbusch). Maccoby again turned to 
her interest in sexual identity and gender differences in The Two Sexes: Growing 
Up Apart, Coming Together (1998), which explores how individuals express their 
sexual identity at successive periods of their lives and in different social contexts. 

Maccoby's interest in psychology began in 1940 when she obtained a position 
doing public-opinion surveys for the Department of Agriculture. There she gained 
experience in applied psychology by conducting surveys of wartime programs such 
as fuel oil rationing and the sale of war bonds. She conducted research for her doc- 
toral thesis in B. F. Skinner's laboratory at Harvard. Through the Laboratory of 
Human Development, she conducted interviews of mothers for a socialization study 
on childrearing practices. When the major investigator left the department, she 
was assigned to teach his courses in child psychology. After moving to Stanford 
University, she began her work on gender studies. 

Maccoby was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1993. She has received numerous prizes, such as the Distinguished Scientific Con- 
tributions Award of the American Psychological Association (1988), the Kurt 
Lewin Memorial Award (1991), and the Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement 
in Psychological Science of the American Psychological Association (1996). She 
is a member of the Society for Research in Child Development (president, 1981- 
1983), the American Psychological Association, the Social Science Research 
Council, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 



Macklin, Madge Thurlow 

1893 1962 
Geneticist 

Education: A.B., Goucher College, 1914; M.D., Johns Hopkins University, 1919 

Professional Experience: instructor, embryology, University of Western Ontario, 
1921-1930, assistant professor, 1930-1945; research associate, Ohio State 
University, 1945-1959 

Madge Macklin performed pioneering research in medical genetics, and she cam- 
paigned to include genetics in the standard medical school curriculum. Eventually, 
she was able to convince her contemporaries of the clinical importance of the fam- 
ily history in diagnosis, therapy, prognosis, and prevention of disease. She demon- 
strated that both environment and hereditary factors are significant in specific 
cancers, such as those of the stomach and breast. After her marriage in 1918 and 
receiving her M.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1919, she moved to the University of 



MacLeod, Grace | 647 

Western Ontario as a lecturer in embryology classes for first-year medical 
students. Despite her significant work, she received only successive one-year 
appointments at Western Ontario, perhaps due to her controversial views on 
eugenics. She viewed eugenics as a branch of preventive medicine in that physicians 
should determine which people are physically and genetically qualified to be parents 
of the next generation. She advocated sterilization of people with certain mental 
diseases. Another factor for her short appointments was that her husband taught at 
the university, and many institutions were reluctant to hire both husband and wife 
as faculty, although they did not specifically forbid it. 

Macklin was meticulous in her research in preparing carefully controlled 
experiments and data analysis. The contributions she made in applying sound stat- 
istical techniques to genetics were of great significance. In 1945, when she was 
notified that her contract at Western Ontario would not be renewed, she accepted 
a position at Ohio State as a National Research Council associate and as a lecturer 
in medical genetics. Her husband remained at Western Ontario. Macklin received 
an honorary degree from Goucher College in 1938, and the Elizabeth Blackwell 
Medal from the American Medical Women's Association in 1957. She was elected 
president of the American Society of Human Genetics in 1959. 



MacLeod, Grace 

1878 1962 
Nutritionist 

Education: B.S., chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1901; A.M., 
Columbia University, 1914, Ph.D., 1924 

Professional Experience: teacher, Massachusetts public schools, 1901-1910; 
teacher, chemistry and physics, Pratt Institute, 1910-1917; assistant editor, Indus- 
trial and Engineering Chemistry, 1917-1919; instructor, nutrition, Teachers College, 
Columbia University, 1919-1924, assistant professor to professor, 1924-1944 

Concurrent Positions: cooperating investigator, nutrition laboratory, Carnegie 
Institution, 1922-1928 

Grace MacLeod was recognized by her contemporaries for her work in nutrition. 
Her research involved utilization of calcium and other supplements, efficiency of 
proteins, energy metabolism of children, and availability of iron. She spent nearly 
25 years at Teachers College, Columbia University, building one of the outstand- 
ing nutrition programs in the United States. After the retirement of her colleague 
and former professor, Mary Swartz Rose, in 1940, MacLeod was the head of 



648 | Macy-Hoobler, Icie Gertrude 

the nutrition program. In 1944 and 1956, she helped revise and then co-author two 
new editions of Rose's book, Foundations of Nutrition, and she co-authored the 
fifth edition of Rose's Laboratory Handbook for Dietetics. During World War II, 
she worked on food and nutrition guidelines, becoming chair of the Food and 
Nutrition Council of Greater New York. After her formal retirement in 1944, she 
continued to consult for government agencies (such as the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture [USDA]) on children's nutritional and energy needs. 

Born in Scotland, MacLeod came to the United States when she was only four 
years old. She majored in chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
(MIT) after being encouraged in science and math by her high school teachers. 
She went on to Columbia, but her career followed the general pattern for a woman 
of her generation. She taught public school for more than 10 years after receiving 
her undergraduate degree and then taught college chemistry and physics while 
working on her master's degree at Columbia. She spent two years as an assistant 
editor of a major journal in chemistry, Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 
before joining the staff of Columbia University while she completed her doctorate. 
She rose through the academic ranks to full professor and did significant work in 
the field of nutrition, which was just being recognized as a profession, thanks in 
large part to the work of her team at Columbia. Her sister, Florence MacLeod, 
was also a nutritionist, working at the University of Tennessee. 

MacLeod published numerous papers and articles, and was on the editorial 
board of the Journal of Nutrition and the Journal of the American Dietetic Associ- 
ation. She was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, American Society of Biological Chemistry, American Chemical Society, 
Society of Biological Chemists, Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, 
American Institution of Nutrition, American Dietetic Association, and American 
Home Economics Association. 



Macy-Hoobler, Icie Gertrude 

1892 1984 
Chemist 

Education: A.B., English and music, Central College for Women, Missouri, 1914; 
B.S., chemistry, University of Chicago, 1916; A.M., chemistry, University of 
Colorado, Boulder, 1918; Ph.D., physiological chemistry, Yale University, 1920 

Professional Experience: assistant chemist, University of Colorado, Boulder, 
1916-1917, physiological chemist, school of medicine, 1917-1918; assistant 



Macy-Hoobler, Icie Gertrude | 649 

biochemist, Western Pennsylvania Hospital, 1920-1921; instructor, University of 
California, Berkeley, 1921-1923; director, Nutrition Research Laboratory (later 
Research Laboratory of the Children's Fund of Michigan), Merrill-Palmer School, 
Detroit, Michigan, 1923-1954; staff, Merrill-Palmer Institute of Human Develop- 
ment and Family Life, 1954-1959, consultant, 1959-1974 

Icie Macy-Hoobler was one of the most influential physiological chemists of the 
early twentieth century for her research on nutrition, mineral metabolism 
in human pregnancy, lactation, and growth, and the chemistry of red blood cells 
in health and disease. Her most important work was on the effect of nutrition on 
both mother and child. She studied the nutritional requirements of women and 
children and proved that malnutrition in women had a significant effect upon birth 
defects, and upon infant health and growth. As a graduate student at Yale, she 
began research on cottonseeds, which, during World War I, were being substituted 
for wheat flour. She found that animals that had been fed cottonseeds became ill 
due to gossypol, a poison present in the plant. She held a series of short-term 
positions at various schools while completing her advanced degrees and, after 
receiving her Ph.D., was offered the directorship of nutrition research at the 
Merrill-Palmer School in Detroit, which in 1931 became the Research Laboratory 
of the Children's Fund of Michigan. In this position, she mentored biochemistry 
and nutrition graduate students from the University of Chicago and other schools, 
and oversaw numerous important projects. Her research group was instrumental in 
showing the need for vitamin D and in encouraging the irradiation of milk. She 
studied amino acids in foods and the standardization and minimum daily require- 
ments of vitamins B and C. Her work led to public health campaigns to dissemi- 
nate new scientific information on nutrition to mothers and children. She 
contributed to hundreds of scientific papers and several books, including Nutrition 
and Chemical Growth in Childhood (3 vols., 1942-1951), Hidden Hunger (1945; 
co-authored with H. H. Williams), and Chemical Anthropology: A New Approach 
to Growth in Children (1957; co-authored with H. J. Kelly). 

Icie Macy attended Central College for Women in Lexington, Missouri, where 
she studied English and received certification as a music teacher in order to please 
her parents. She went on to earn another bachelor's degree, this time in chemistry, 
from the University of Chicago in 1916, where she studied with Nobel Prize- 
winning physicist Robert A. Millikan. She earned a master's degree in chemistry 
from the University of Colorado, Boulder, where she taught inorganic and physio- 
logical chemistry. A professor encouraged her to continue on for a doctorate, and 
she enrolled at Yale University, where in 1920 she was one of the earliest women 
to earn a Ph.D. in physiological chemistry. She married late in life, to pediatrician 
Raymond Hoobler, in 1938. 



650 | Makemson, Maud Worcester 

Macy-Hoobler was the first woman to chair a division of the American Chemical 
Society — the biochemistry division (1930-1931). She was active in establishing the 
Women's Award of the American Chemical Society, later known as the Garvan 
Medal, which she received in 1946. She also was awarded the Borden Award 
(1939), the Osborn and Mendel Award (1952), and the Modern Medicine Award 
(1955). She was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, American Chemical Society, American Society of Biological Chemists, 
Michigan Academy of Arts, Sciences and Letters, American Institute of Chemists, 
and American Institute of Nutrition (president, 1944). She received honorary 
degrees from Wayne State University (1945) and Grand Valley State College (1971), 
and was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame. Macy-Hoobler published 
an autobiography, Boundless Horizons: Portrait of a Woman Scientist (1982), in which 
she related some of the difficulties she encountered as a woman in her long career. 

Further Resources 

Williams, Harold H. 1984. "Icie Gertrude Macy Hoobler (1892 1984): A Biographical 
Sketch." The Journal of Nutrition. American Institute of Nutrition. 1351 1362. 
(30 April 1984). http://jn.nutrition.Org/cgi/reprint/114/8/1351.pdf. 



Makemson, Maud Worcester 

1891 1977 
Astronomer 

Education: Radcliffe College, 1908-1909; A.B., astronomy, University of California, 
Berkeley, 1925, A.M., 1927, Ph.D., astronomy, 1930 

Professional Experience: newspaper reporter, Review (Bisbee, Arizona) and 
Gazette (Phoenix, Arizona), 1917-1923; public school teacher, 1925-1926; research 
assistant, astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, 1926-1929, instructor, 
1930-1931; assistant professor, astronomy and math, Rollins College, 1931-1932; 
assistant professor, Vassar College, 1932-1957, director of observatory, 1936-1957; 
research astronomer, University of California, Los Angeles, 1959-1964, lecturer, 
astronomy, 1960-1964 

Concurrent Positions: Fulbright fellow, astronomy, Ochanomizu Women's Univer- 
sity, Tokyo, Japan, 1953-1954; consultant, Consolidated Lockheed-California, 
1961-1963, General Dynamics, Fort Worth, Texas, 1965 

Maud Makemson was recognized for her research on astrodynamics. Her research 
centered on celestial mechanics and astrodynamics, and on cultural topics such as 
Polynesian astronomy, navigation, and the Mayan calendar, subjects on which she 



Maling, Harriet Mylander | 651 

published in anthropological journals. She began her college career at Radcliffe, 
but after more than 10 years as a housewife and then newspaper reporter, 
she entered the University of California in 1923 as a divorced mother of three 
young children to complete her undergraduate degree. With the help of relatives 
to watch the children, she continued on to receive a Ph.D. in astronomy at 
Berkeley in 1930, with a focus on celestial mechanics. She taught briefly at Rollins 
College in Florida before accepting a faculty position at Vassar College in 1932. 
Makemson was the first professor of astronomy at Vassar who had not been a stu- 
dent of Maria Mitchell. Makemson remained at Vassar for 25 years, during which 
time she also became director of the observatory. She continued to work well into 
her seventies even after formal retirement. She held a position as a research 
astronomer and lecturer in astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles 
after retirement from Vassar, and also consulted for Consolidated Lockheed in 
California and General Dynamics in Texas, where she moved in 1964 to be near 
one of her children. At the time of her death, she was still busy at work on a trans- 
lation of a 1645 Latin astronomy text. 

Makemson was co-author of Introduction to Astrodynamics (1961, 1967). In 
addition to her scientific papers, she wrote two other books: The Morning Star 
Rises (1941), on Polynesian astronomy, and Book of the Jaguar Priest (1951), 
for which she had received a Guggenheim fellowship to work on the translation 
and study of an ancient Mayan calendar. Both of these projects brought her 
prestige and recognition within the field. In 1953, she received a Fulbright 
fellowship to teach astronomy at Ochanomizu Women's University in Japan. 
She was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science and was a member of the American Astronomical Society, the American 
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the American Association of 
Variable Star Observers. 

Further Resources 

Lankford, John and Ricky L. Slavings. 1997. American Astronomy: Community, Careers, 
and Power, 1859 1940. University of Chicago Press. 



Maling, Harriet Mylander 

1919 1987 
Pharmacologist 

Education: A.B., Goucher College, 1940; A.M., Radcliffe College, 1941, Ph.D., 
medical science and physiology, 1944 



652 | Maltby, Margaret Eliza 

Professional Experience: assistant pharmacologist, Harvard Medical School, 
1944-1945, instructor, 1945-1946; assistant professor, medical school, George 
Washington University, 1951-1952, assistant research professor, 1952-1954; 
pharmacologist, National Heart and Lung Institute, National Institutes of Health, 
1954-1962, head, physiology section, 1962-retirement 

Harriet Maling was a pharmacologist whose research focused on autonomic and 
cardiovascular drugs. She began her career plan as an undergraduate at Goucher 
College in Maryland, where she planned to combine her interests in medicine 
and biological research. She worked as an assistant pharmacologist and instruc- 
tor at Harvard Medical School after receiving her doctorate in medical science 
and physiology from Radcliffe. During her final year of doctoral study, Maling 
received a fellowship from the American Association of University Women. 
She then took a five-year break from seeking employment, during which time 
she married and gave birth to four children. She returned to teaching at the 
medical school of George Washington University as assistant professor and later as- 
sistant research professor. She joined the National Heart and Lung Institute as a 
chemical pharmacologist in 1954, and began her research on the effects of different 
drugs on heart function. She was named the head of the division of physiology in 
1962. She published dozens of scientific papers and was a member of the editorial 
board of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics from 
1962 to 1965. 

Maling was a member of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science, the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, the American 
Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and the New York 
Academy of Science. 



Maltby, Margaret Eliza 

I860 1944 
Physicist 

Education: A.B., Oberlin College, 1882, A.M., 1891; B.S., physics, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, 1891; Ph.D., University of Gottingen, 1895 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, 1884-1887; instructor, physics, 
Wellesley College, 1889-1893, department head, 1896; instructor, physics and 
mathematics, Lake Erie College for Women, Ohio, 1897-1898; research assistant, 
Physikalisch-Technische Reichsantalt, 1898-1899; instructor, chemistry, Barnard 



Maltby, Margaret Eliza | 653 

College, 1900-1903, adjunct professor, physics, 1903-1910, associate professor 
and department head, physics, 1910-1931 

Margaret Maltby was one of the earliest researchers in physical chemistry and the 
first American woman to receive a degree in physics from a German university. 
Her areas of research were measurement of high electrolytic resistances, measure- 
ment of periods of rapid electrical oscillations, conductivity of very dilute solutions 
of certain salts, and radioactivity. She was also interested in music and acoustics 
and is believed to have offered the first course in the physics of sound. During her 
lifetime, physics was almost exclusively a male profession, and Maltby worked at 
various institutions before securing a tenure-track faculty position at Barnard. After 
she graduated from Oberlin College, she attended the Art Students' League for a 
year before returning to Ohio to teach high school for four years. She entered the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1887 to study physics and received 
her undergraduate degree in 1891, the same year that Oberlin granted her a master's 
degree. Besides earning these degrees, she also studied theoretical physics for a year 
at Clark University. She taught physics at Wellesley College for four years while 
continuing her graduate studies at MIT. She then was awarded a traveling fellowship 
to the University of Gottingen, where she received her doctorate in 1895. She 
returned to Wellesley as department head before accepting a position at Lake Erie 
College as instructor in physics and mathematics. 

In 1900, Maltby came to Barnard to teach chemistry and physics, and spent the 
last 20 years of her career as head of the physics department. Although she had 
early success as a researcher, she never advanced to full professor at Barnard, per- 
haps because her teaching and administrative duties left little time for further 
research. She did, however, have a tremendous influence on a generation of female 
students of science, and committed a significant amount of time and energy to 
securing funding for equipment and for her students. She had an even greater role 
in developing career opportunities for women as chair of the fellowship committee 
of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) from 1913 to 1924, 
which gave funds to women for advanced study both in the United States and 
abroad. In 1926, the AAUW established a fellowship in her name. She contributed 
a chapter on "The Physicist" for a 1920 guide to Careers for Women (edited by 
Catherine Filene). 

Maltby was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society, and she also was 
a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Further Resources 

Byers, Nina and Gary A. Williams. 2006. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth- 
Century Women to Physics. New York: Cambridge University Press. 



654 | Marcus, Joyce 
Marcus, Joyce 



Archaeologist 

Education: B.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1969; M.A., Harvard Univer- 
sity, 1971, Ph.D., anthropology, 1974 

Professional Experience: visiting lecturer, anthropology, University of Michigan, 
Ann Arbor, 1973-1975, visiting assistant professor, 1975-1976, assistant professor, 
anthropology, 1976-1981, assistant curator, Latin American Archaeology, Uni- 
versity of Michigan Museum of Anthropology, 1978-1981, associate professor 
and associate curator, 1981-1984, professor, anthropology, and curator, Latin 
American Archaeology, 1985-, Elman R. Service Professor of Cultural Evolution, 
1998-2005, Robert L. Carneiro Distinguished University Professor of Social 
Evolution, 2005- 

Joyce Marcus is an archaeologist whose research interests include the social, 
political, and economic development of ancient societies in Latin America. Her 
primary research has focused on the Zapotec, Maya, and pre-Inca societies of 
ancient Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru. She has combined archaeological fieldwork 
with hieroglyphic and ethnohistoric sources to analyze how these civilizations 
evolved over time, and has documented the emergence of the earliest villages, 
hereditary inequality, social stratification, warfare, and state religion. She and her 
colleagues have excavated one of Mexico's earliest agricultural villages and the 
earliest appearance of hieroglyphic texts circa 700 to 650 BC. 

Born in California, Marcus completed her undergraduate education at the Uni- 
versity of California, Berkeley and went on to receive her doctorate in anthropol- 
ogy from Harvard University in 1974. She has spent her entire teaching career at 
the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she is also the Curator of Latin 
American Archaeology for the Museum of Anthropology. She has published 
numerous articles and books, including The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution 
of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilizations (1983, with Kent Flannery; new ed., 
2003), Mesoamerican Writing Systems: Propaganda, Myth, and History in Four 
Ancient Civilizations (1992, an Honorable Mention for Outstanding Book in the 
Social Sciences and Humanities by the Latin American Studies Association), 
Zapotec Civilization: How Urban Society Evolved in Mexico 's Oaxaca Valley 
(1996, with K. Flannery), Women's Ritual in Formative Oaxaca: Figurine-Making, 
Divination, Death and the Ancestors (1998), La Civilizacion Zapoteca: Como 
Evoluciono La Sociedad Urbana en el Valle de Oaxaca (2001, with K. Flannery, 
recipient of the Premio Caniem 2001 en el Arte Editorial award in Mexico), Agricul- 
tural Strategies (2006, with Charles Stanish), Monte Albdn (2008), Excavations at 



Margulis, Lynn (Alexander) | 655 

Cerro Azul, Peru: The Architecture and Pottery (2008, awarded the Cotsen Book 
Prize in archaeology), The Ancient City (2008, with Jeremy A. Sabloff), and Andean 
Civilization (2009, with Ryan Patrick Williams). 

Marcus has been an invited lecturer at institutions both in the United States and 
abroad, and has been a consultant to the American Museum of Natural History in 
New York; University Museum, University of Pennsylvania; Cotsen Institute of 
Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles; and Harvard University's 
Peabody Museum. She has received numerous grants for her research, including from 
the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American 
Association of University Women, and the National Science Foundation. 

Marcus was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1997 and was the 
first archaeologist to be elected to the Council of the National Academy of 
Sciences (2005-2008). She is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences, American Philosophical Society, and Institute of Andean Studies, 
and a member of the American Anthropological Association, Society for 
American Archaeology, American Society for Ethnohistory, Midwest Andeanist 
Society, and Midwest Mesoamericanist Society. The University of Michigan has 
acknowledged her research and teaching with the Henry Russel Award for 
Scholarly Research (1979), a Literature, Science, and Arts Excellence in Research 
Award (1995), and a Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award (2007). The 
Universidad Autonoma de Campeche awarded Marcus a "special recognition" 
Reconocimiento (2003), and she received a Mentor Recognition Award from the 
University of California, San Diego (2007). 

Further Resources 

University of Michigan. Faculty website, http://www.lsa.umich.edu/anthro/faculty staff/ 
marcus.html. 



Margulis, Lynn (Alexander) 



b. 1938 

Cell Biologist, Microbiologist 

Education: B.A., University of Chicago, 1957; M.S., University of Wisconsin, 
1960; Ph.D., genetics, University of California, Berkeley, 1965 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral researcher, Brandeis University, 
1963-1965; assistant professor, biology, Boston University, 1966-1971, associate 
professor, 1971-1977, professor, 1977-1988, Distinguished University Professor of 




656 | Margulis, Lynn (Alexander) 

Biology, 1986-1988; Distinguished 
University Professor of Geosciences, 
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 
1988- 

Concurrent Positions: chair, Space 
Science Board Committee on Plan- 
etary Biology and Chemical Evolu- 
tion, National Academy of Science, 
1977-1980 

Lynn Margulis has been called the 
most gifted theoretical biologist of her 
generation, and she has questioned 
accepted truths about evolution, hered- 
ity, and cell biology. Her research on 
evolutionary links between cells con- 
taining nuclei and cells without nuclei 
led her to formulate a symbiotic theory 
Cell biologist and microbiologist, Lynn of evolution in the 1970s that finally is 

Margulis. (Courtesy of the University of becoming more widely accepted in 

Massachusetts) ^ . ^.„ .„_ _. . ^ , 

the scientific community. Prior to her 

work, scientists held that evolution was based on natural selection. Her theory of 
symbiosis proposes that eukaryotes (cells with nuclei) evolved when different 
kinds of prokaryotes (cells without nuclei) formed symbiotic systems to enhance 
their chances for survival. The first such symbiotic fusion would have taken place 
between fermenting bacteria and oxygen-using bacteria. All cells with nuclei, she 
theorizes, are derived from bacteria that formed symbiotic relationships with other 
primordial bacteria some 2 billion years ago. She argues that the primary mecha- 
nism driving biological change is symbiosis and that competition plays a secondary 
role. The manuscript in which she first presented her symbiotic theory was rejected 
or lost by 15 journals before it was published in the Journal of Theoretical Biology 
in 1966. Her comprehensive exposition of the theory is presented in the book The 
Origin of Eukaryotic Cells (1970), and the revised version was published as Symbi- 
osis in Cell Evolution (1981). By the time the second book was published, the scien- 
tific establishment had finally accepted the idea that mitochondria and chloroplasts 
evolved symbiotically. 

Another of Margulis's current theories that has not yet been accepted is that the 
Earth as a whole is alive. This idea is popularly known as "the Gaia hypothesis," 
named for the Greek goddess of the Earth and first proposed by the chemist James 
Lovelock. Margulis provided evidence for this theory in her research on protozoa, 



Marlatt, Abby Lillian | 657 

algae, seaweeds, molds, and microbes that prompted Omni magazine to dub her "the 
wizard of ooze" in 1985. When Margulis was elected to membership in the National 
Academy of Sciences in 1983, she viewed the honor as an indication that her 
theories were being accepted by the scientific community. 

Margulis has published numerous books, including Symbiotic Planet: A New 
Look at Evolution (1998), and several books with her son, Dorion Sagan, such as 
What Is Life? (1995), What Is Sex? (1997), and Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of 
the Origins of Species (2002). In 2006, she and Dorion founded their own publish- 
ing company, Sciencewriters Books. Her 2007 book, Mind, Life, and Universe: 
Conversations with Great Scientists of Our Time (co-edited with Eduardo Punset), 
includes profiles of several other women scientists. 

In 1999, Margulis was awarded both the National Medal of Science and 
the Proctor Prize for scientific achievement. In 2009, she was awarded the 
Darwin-Wallace Medal of the Linnean Society of London for "major advances 
in evolutionary biology." She is a fellow of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science and a member of the International Society for the Study 
of the Origin of Life and International Society for Evolutionary Protistology 
("protistology" refers to the taxonomic kingdom of protists such as protozoans, 
eukaryotic algae, and slime molds). She was married to physicist and popular 
author Carl Sagan, and her early work was published under the name Lynn Sagan. 
She was married a second time, to crystallographer Thomas Margulis, but the 
couple later divorced. 

Further Resources 

University of Massachusetts. Faculty website, http://www.geo.umass.edu/faculty/margulis/. 



Marlatt, Abby Lillian 

1869 1943 

Home Economist and Educator 

Education: B.S., Kansas State Agricultural College, 1888, M.S., chemistry, 1890 

Professional Experience: head, domestic economy, Utah State Agricultural Col- 
lege, 1890-1894; high school teacher, home economics, 1894-1909; director, 
home economics department, University of Wisconsin, 1909-1935 

Abby Marlatt helped develop the profession of home economics by insisting upon 
broad training and high standards. Her department at the University of Wisconsin 
became the model for other home economics programs around the country. After 



658 | Marrack, Philippa Charlotte 

she received her master's degree from Kansas State Agricultural College, Marlatt 
was invited to establish a program in domestic economy at Utah State. In 1894, 
she accepted a position to establish a program at the Manual Training High School 
in Providence, Rhode Island. She took advantage of the location by enrolling in 
advanced studies at Clark University and Brown University. In 1909, the dean of 
agriculture at the University of Wisconsin invited her to revitalize the school's home 
economics program. Under her management, the department rapidly expanded in 
number of courses, students, and faculty. She also established high academic stan- 
dards for her students, requiring courses in English, foreign languages, and science, 
and offering technical courses including bacteriology, physiology, and journalism. 
Her program greatly broadened the training available to home economics majors 
beyond the domestic skills courses that many colleges offered. 

During World War I, Marlatt served in the food-conservation division of the 
U.S. Department of Agriculture and on several other federal committees. In 
1903, she was chair of the Lake Placid Conference on Home Economics and was 
instrumental in continuing the conference series. After the group was established 
as the American Home Economics Association, she was vice president from 
1912 to 1918. She also directed two fundraising campaigns for the association. 
She was a member of the American Chemical Society and the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science. She received honorary degrees from Kansas 
State in 1925 and from Utah State in 1938. 



Marrack, Philippa Charlotte 

b. 1945 
Immunologist 

Education: B.A., Cambridge University, 1967, Ph.D., biological sciences, 1970 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, molecular biology, Cambridge 
University, 1970-1971; postdoctoral fellow, biology, University of California, San 
Diego, 1971-1973; postdoctoral fellow, microbiology, University of Rochester, 
New York, 1973-1974, associate, 1974-1975, assistant professor, microbiology, 
1975-1976, assistant professor, oncology, microbiology and cancer center, 1976- 
1979, associate professor, 1979-1982; associate professor, biophysics, biochemistry, 
and genetics, University of Colorado Health Science Center, 1980-1985, professor, 
biochemistry and molecular genetics, 1985-, professor, microbiology and 
immunology, 1988-1994, professor, immunology, 1994- 



Marrack, Philippa Charlotte | 659 

Concurrent Positions: investigator, American Heart Association, 1976-1981; 
member, Department of Medicine, National Jewish Health Center, 1979-; head, 
Division of Basic Immunology, National Jewish Center of Immunology and 
Respiratory Medicine, 1988-1990 and 1998-1999; investigator, Howard Hughes 
Medical Institute, 1986-; advisory head, research in allergy/asthma, National 
Jewish Health Center, 2004-2006 

Philippa Marrack is renowned for her research on the body's immune system and 
the intricate web of defenses it raises against viruses, bacteria, and other trespass- 
ers. Her particular interest is how the body accepts or rejects its own tissues, which 
is the study of the "T cells" formed in the thymus gland that control the immune 
system, and her work has implications for the development of vaccines. Very little 
was known about the T cells in the immune system until the late 1960s, and 
Marrack and her husband, John Kappler, who have worked together for more than 
30 years, became the leading scientists conducting this research. 

Born in England, Marrack began her research while still a graduate student at 
Cambridge University. After receiving her doctorate, she moved to the University 
of California, San Diego as a fellow in immunology. She joined the cancer 
research laboratory of R. W. Dutton, who had recently learned to grow cultures 
of T lymphocytes, and there she met John Kappler, who also was working in the 
laboratory. They married in 1974 and moved to the University of Rochester, where 
she was a postdoctoral fellow in immunology. After she won an American Heart 
Association investigatorship to do basic research, she was recognized as an equal 
partner with Kappler and the two began to pursue joint projects and publish 
together. They established a system whereby the person who performed the princi- 
pal experiments is always the first listed author, and the one who primarily wrote 
the paper is named second. They moved to Denver, Colorado, in 1979, where they 
both hold joint appointments with the University of Colorado Health Sciences 
Center and National Jewish Health. They are also investigators for the Howard 
Hughes Medical Institute. 

Marrack and Kappler have received numerous awards and honors from 
international organizations and universities for their research; most recently, she 
is the recipient of the American Association of Immunologists Lifetime Achieve- 
ment Award (2002), the L'Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science Award (2004), and 
the National Jewish Health Presidential Award (2004). She is a member of the 
Royal Society, the American Association of Immunologists (vice president, 
1999-2000; president, 2000-2001), and the Science Council of the American 
Heart Association. She was elected to the National Academy of Science in 1989 
and to the Institute of Medicine in 2008. 



660 | Martin, Emily 



Further Resources 



Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "Philippa Marrack, Ph.D." http://www.hhmi.org/ 
research/investigators/marrack bio. html. 



Martin, Emily 

b. 1944 
Anthropologist 

Education: B.A., anthropology, University of Michigan, B.A., 1966; Ph.D., 
Cornell University, 1971 

Professional Experience: assistant professor, anthropology, Program in Compa- 
rative Culture, University of California, Irvine, 1971-1972; assistant professor, 
anthropology, Yale University, 1972-1974; associate professor, Johns Hopkins 
University, 1974-1976, professor, 1976-, Mary Elizabeth Garrett Professor of 
Arts and Sciences, 1981-1994; professor, anthropology, Princeton University, 
1994-2001; professor, anthropology, New York University, 2001- 

Emily Martin is a cultural anthropologist whose research interests include religion, 
ideology, politics, models and explanations in social anthropology, political 
economy of health, gender, anthropology of science, rationality, psychiatry, the 
unconscious, anthropology of science and medicine, gender, cultures of the mind, 
emotion and rationality, history of psychiatry and psychology, and both Chinese 
and U.S. culture and society. Martin began her anthropological research in China 
and published several books on Chinese religion, ritual, and rural society. She 
became interested in issues related to science and gender, and her 1987 book, 
The Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction, won the Eileen 
Basker Memorial Prize. She continued this work in a pathbreaking 1991 article, 
"The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on 
Stereotypical Male-Female Roles," which highlighted how the language of gender 
influences scientific research and findings; the article has become a classic in femi- 
nist science criticism. Her interest in the cultural anthropology of science and 
medicine led to the publication in 1994 of Flexible Bodies: Tracking Immunity in 
American Culture from the Days of Polio to the Age of AIDS, and her 2007 book, 
Bipolar Expeditions: Mania and Depression in American Culture. 

Martin taught at Yale, Johns Hopkins, and Princeton universities; since 2001, 
she has been a professor of anthropology at New York University (NYU) and is 
affiliated with the NYU Institute for the History of the Production of Knowledge. 
Always interested in the connections between science and culture, Martin has been 



Marvin, Ursula Bailey | 661 

involved in a variety of projects linking academic anthropology to broader issues 
of interest to the general public and to practitioners in other sciences. She is found- 
ing editor of the magazine Anthropology Now and is one of the organizers of an 
interdisciplinary program called the Psycences Project, which brings together 
scholars in the humanities and social sciences with clinicians in psychology and 
psychiatry to discuss research on the human mind across these fields. 

Martin has been a distinguished invited lecturer and visiting scholar at many 
institutions and is a member of the American Anthropological Association, 
American Ethnological Society, Royal Anthropological Institute, Society for 
Medical Anthropology, and Association for Feminist Anthropology. Some of her 
early works were published under the name Emily Martin Ahern. 

Further Resources 

New York University. Faculty website, http://anthropology.as.nyu.edu/object/emilymartin 
.html. 



Marvin, Ursula Bailey 

b. 1921 

Planetary Geologist 

Education: B.A., history, Tufts University, 1943; M.S., geology, Harvard Univer- 
sity-Radcliffe, 1946, Ph.D., 1969 

Professional Experience: assistant silicate chemist, University of Chicago, 1947- 
1950; mineralogist, Union Carbide Ore Company, 1953-1958; instructor, mineral- 
ogy, Tufts University, 1958-1961; geologist, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observa- 
tory (now the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), Harvard University, 
1961-1998, senior geologist emeritus 

Concurrent Positions: lecturer, Tufts University, 1968-1969; lecturer, geology, 
Harvard University, 1974-1977 

Ursula Marvin has been a prominent planetary geologist whose research interests 
include mineralogy and petrology of meteorites and lunar samples, history of 
geology, and geological mapping of Galilean satellites. She received a master's 
degree in 1946, and for many years, she and her husband, Thomas Crockett 
Marvin, were independent geologists and mineralogists who worked throughout 
the world. She did not return to Harvard to complete her Ph.D. until 23 years after 
completing the required course work at Harvard. One of her early projects 
involved traveling to Brazil to locate manganese oxide to be used in batteries 



662 | Marvin, Ursula Bailey 

manufactured by the Union Carbide Company. She also worked as a chemist at the 
University of Chicago and as an instructor in mineralogy at Tufts University. She 
has had concurrent positions with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (or 
SAO; now the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, or CfA), the Harvard 
College Observatory, and as a lecturer with Tufts and Harvard, where she was 
the first female faculty member in geology. She began studying meteorites at 
the Harvard-Smithsonian CfA in 1961, and remained there until her retirement 
in 1998. 

At the CfA, Marvin worked on a NASA study of the mineral makeup of lunar 
rocks brought back by the Apollo astronauts. Her space work also included the 
geological mapping of Jupiter's largest satellite or moon, Ganymede. During two 
polar expeditions as part of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Antarctic 
Search Meteorites Team in 1978-79 and 1981-82, she collected and studied mete- 
orites, sending samples to other scientists around the world. She returned to Ant- 
arctica in 1985 as part of an NSF team to research the boundary and impact of 
the meteor that may have led to the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years 
ago. Her work on these various projects was acknowledged with both an asteroid 
(1991) and an ice mountain, or "nunatak," (1992) named in her honor. 

Even after her formal retirement in 1998, Marvin has remained affiliated with 
the CfA as a consultant, senior geologist emeritus, and consulting expert. She 
has been particularly involved in advancing the careers of women in science. 
Between 1974 and 1977, she was the first coordinator of the Federal Women's 
Program (now the Women's Program Committee) at the SAO. She served on the 
American Geological Institute's Committee of Women in the Geosciences, for 
which she compiled and edited the annual Roster of Women in the Geosciences 
Professions. She has dedicated her time to a variety of academic and professional 
committees dedicated to science education, including as a trustee of Tufts 
University (1975-1985), a trustee of the Universities Space Research Association 
(USRA) (1979-1984), and secretary-general of the International Commission 
on the History of Geological Sciences (1989-1996; vice president for North 
America, 1996). 

Marvin was the honored recipient of the History of Geology Award in 1986 
from the Geological Society of America (GSA). In 1997, Marvin received Life- 
time Achievement Awards from Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) and 
the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. In 2005, she received the Sue 
Tyler Friedman Award of the GSA for work in recording the history of geology. 
She has been a member of the Mineralogical Society of America, the Meteoritical 
Society (president, 1975 and 1976), History of Earth Sciences Society (president, 
1991), American Association for the Advancement of Science, and American 
Geophysical Union. 



Mathias, Mildred Esther | 663 



Further Resources 



'Ursula Marvin Honored by 'Wise' Award for Lifetime Achievement in Science." CfA 
Almanac. (July 1997). http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/lib/online/almanac/797.htm. 



Mathias, Mildred Esther 

1906 1995 
Botanist 

Education: A.B., Washington University, St. Louis, 1926, M.S., 1927, Ph.D., 
botany, 1929 

Professional Experience: assistant, Missouri Botanical Garden, 1929-1930; 
research associate, New York Botanical Garden, 1932-1936; research associate, 
University of California, Berkeley, 1937-1942; herbarium botanist, University of 
California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 1947-1951, lecturer, botany, 1951-1955, assis- 
tant professor to professor, 1955-1974; director, Botanical Garden, UCLA, 
1956-1974 

Concurrent Positions: assistant specialist, experiment station, UCLA, 1951-1955, 
assistant plant systematist, 1955-1957, associate plant systematist, 1957-1962 

Mildred Mathias was a prominent, award-winning botanist whose research 
included classification of plants of the western United States, subtropical orna- 
mental plants, and tropical medicinal plants. She was an expert on Umbelliferae, 
or the carrot family, of which she discovered 100 new species or combinations; 
the genus Mathiasella is named in her honor. Mathias had originally planned to 
study mathematics, but few courses were available to women when she began 
her studies in the early 1920s. She went on to complete her bachelor's, master's, 
and doctorate in botany at Washington University in St. Louis. She worked at the 
Missouri Botanical Garden and the New York Botanical Garden before moving 
to California as a research associate at Berkeley in 1937. She began her work at 
UCLA in 1947 as a herbarium botanist, then serving on the faculty until her retire- 
ment in 1974. Mathias was married and the mother of four children, which was 
unusual for a career woman of her generation. 

Beyond her research and teaching, Mathias was committed to educating the 
public about horticulture and to conservation. She was director of the UCLA 
botanical garden for almost 20 years, and in 1979, it was renamed the Mildred E. 
Mathias Botanical Garden in her honor. In addition to her work at the botanical 
garden, she co-hosted a weekly gardening show on television and wrote articles 



664 | Matson, Pamela Anne 

on horticulture and gardening for popular magazines. She worked to protect lands 
from development at the local, national, and international level, helping to estab- 
lish the U.S. Natural Reserve System and founding the Organization for Tropical 
Studies to preserve lands in Costa Rica. She was the author of Color for the Land- 
scape: Flowering Plants for Subtropical Climates (1973). 

Mathias was named Woman of the Year by the Los Angeles Times in 1964, and 
her numerous other honors include the Nature Conservancy National Award, the 
California Conservation Council Merit Award, the UCLA Medical Auxiliary 
Woman of Science Award, a Merit Award from the Botanical Society of America 
(1973), the Liberty Hyde Bailey Medal from the American Horticultural Society 
(1980), a Medal of Honor from the Garden Club of America (1982), and the 
UCLA Emeritus of the Year Award (1990). She served as executive director of 
the American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboretums, and was a 
member and president of both the American Society of Plant Taxonomists 
(president, 1964) and the Botanical Society of America (president, 1984). She 
was also a member of the Society for the Study of Evolution, American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science, and the American Society of Naturalists. 
In 1996, the Botanical Garden at UCLA produced a video about her life and work 
entitled Mildred Mathias: A Lifetime of Memories. 

Further Resources 

University of California, Los Angeles. "Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden." http:// 
www.botgard.ucla.edu/bg-home.htm. 



Matson, Pamela Anne 

b. 1953 

Soil Scientist, Environmental Scientist 

Education: B.S., biology and English, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, 1975; 
M.S., environmental science, Indiana University, 1980; Ph.D., forest ecology, 
Oregon State University, 1983 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, entomology, North Carolina State 
University, 1983; research scientist, Ames Research Center, National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration (NASA), 1983-1993; professor, ecosystem ecology, 
University of California, Berkeley, 1993-1997; professor, geological and environ- 
mental studies, Stanford University, 1997- 

Pamela Matson is renowned for her pioneering research into the role of land-use 
changes on global warming. She has analyzed greenhouse gas emissions resulting 



Matson, Pamela Anne | 665 




from tropical deforestation and inves- 
tigated the negative effects of inten- 
sive agriculture on the atmosphere, 
especially the effects of tropical 
agriculture and cattle ranching. After 
receiving her doctorate in biology in 
1975, her early research focused on 
forest ecology and then broadened 
to include many other areas in the 
global environment. She worked as a 
research scientist for NASA for 
10 years before entering academia as 
a full professor at the University of 
California, Berkeley. In 1997, she 
moved to Stanford as professor of 
environmental studies, where she has 
served as Dean of Earth Sciences 
since 2002. 

Matson has served on numerous 
boards and committees dedicated to 
conservation, ecology, and the study 
of the environment and global climate 
change. She is the founding editor-in- 
chief of the Annual Review of Environment and Resources (2002-present) and has 
served on the editorial board of numerous other journals, including Ecosystems, 
Bio geochemistry, and Global Change Biology. She has published nearly 100 
papers and book chapters, and is co-editor of Biogenic Trace Gases: Measuring 
Emission from Soil and Water (1995) and Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem 
Ecology (2002). 

In 1994, she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and in 1995 she 
received the prestigious five-year MacArthur fellowship. Among her numerous 
other awards and honors are the NASA Exceptional Service Award (1993), the 
University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire Distinguished Alumni Award (1996), the 
Oregon State University Distinguished Alumni Award (1998), and a McMurtry 
Fellowship in Undergraduate Education at Stanford (2002). She has served on 
numerous professional boards and government committees on sustainability and 
environmental issues, and has been named a National Associate of the National 
Academy of Sciences (2002). She is a member of the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences, Ecological Society of America (president, 2001), American Associ- 
ation for the Advancement of Science, American Geophysical Union, American 



Environmental scientist Pamela Anne Matson. 
(Courtesy of Stanford University News Service 
Library) 



666 | Matthews, Alva T. 

Institute of Biological Sciences, and American Association of University Women. 
In 2000, she was named a Fellow of the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program at 
Stanford University. 

Further Resources 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 

Stanford University. Faculty website, http://pangea.stanford.edu/research/matsonlab/ 
members/Matson .htm. 



Matthews, Alva T. 

b. 1933 
Engineer 

Education: B.S., Columbia University, 1955, M.S., 1957, Ph.D., engineering 
science, 1965 

Professional Experience: design and research engineer, Weidlinger Associates, 
1957-1983; senior research engineer, Rochester Applied Science Associates, 
1957-1983; independent consultant, 1983- 

Concurrent Positions: instructor, civil engineering, Columbia University; adjunct 
associate professor, mechanical and aerospace sciences, University of Rochester; 
instructor, engineering, Swarthmore 

Alva Matthews is a research engineer recognized for her work in the field of structural 
analysis and wave propagation in solids. She designed helicopter blades and satellite- 
tracking antennae, and analyzed auto accidents in order to learn how to build safer 
cars. As a wave-propagation specialist, she has studied earthquakes to see how shock 
waves are transmitted through soil and rocks, and how buildings can be designed 
to withstand earth tremors. Her work had implications for studies of the effect of 
nuclear weapons on structures such as buildings. After receiving her master's degree, 
she was employed at Weidlinger Associates, a construction engineering firm in New 
York. She was concurrently a senior research engineer with Rochester Applied Science 
Associates in Rochester, New York. At the same time, she was an instructor of civil 
engineering at Columbia and lectured in the evenings at the University of Rochester. 
Matthews decided to become an engineer while still a teenager when she 
accompanied her father, an industrial builder, to construction sites. She began 
her college education at Middlebury College in Vermont, then transferred to 
Barnard before moving on to Columbia University. As a student worker in a 



Maury, Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira | 667 

contractor's field office, she was prohibited from entering the tunnels with the 
men, and an early advisor at Middlebury told her engineering was too difficult 
for a girl and she would never find a job. She ignored this advice, and went on to 
earn three engineering degrees from Columbia, including becoming the first 
woman to receive a doctorate in civil engineering from that institution. She dedi- 
cated herself to promoting engineering education and careers for women; in 
1973, she spoke before the Society of Women Engineers on "Engineering as an 
Ideal Woman's Career." After starting her own family in the late 1970s, Matthews 
retired from her full-time engineering position, but remained a private consultant 
and adjunct instructor of engineering sciences at various colleges. 

Matthews is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and 
has been honored with the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award 
(1971) and the Engineering Award of the Federation of Engineering and Scientific 
Societies of Drexel University (1976). In 2005, she was appointed to the Dean's 
Engineering Council at Columbia. She is identified in some sources by her married 
name, Alva Matthews Solomon. 

Further Resources 

Alva Matthews. The Society of Women Engineers. http://societyofwomenengineers 
.swe.org/index.php?option=com content&task=view&id=49&Itemid=55. 

Hatch, Sybil E. 2006. Changing Our World: True Stories of Women Engineers. Reston,VA: 
American Society of Civil Engineers. 



Maury, Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira 

1866 1952 
Astronomer 

Education: B.A., Vassar College, 1887 

Professional Experience: staff member, Harvard College Observatory, 1888-1896; 
teacher and lecturer, physical science and astronomy, various institutions, 1896— 
1918; staff member, Harvard College Observatory, 1918-1935; curator, Draper Park 
Observatory Museum, 1935-1938 

Antonia Maury was an astronomer whose research interests were spectra of bright 
Northern stars and spectroscopic binaries. She was one of the first women to 
receive a professional appointment at the Harvard College Observatory. She 
started working at Harvard in 1888 after she graduated with honors from 
Vassar. In her research, she developed a new, two-dimensional system of stellar 



668 | Maury, Carlotta Joaquina 

classification that included the width and sharpness of lines. It turned out that the 
differences in width and sharpness resulted from differences in the size and lumi- 
nosity of stars. During that time, she also confirmed the observatory director 
Edward C. Pickering's discovery of a double star and then discovered a second star 
system. She left the observatory in 1896 due to conflicts with Pickering, who 
wanted his staff to gather data quickly under another system, while Maury wanted 
to develop a classification that yielded a wider range of data. Maury lectured and 
taught at several schools in the interim, but returned to the observatory in 1918 
after Pickering retired. Her other significant work was on spectroscopic binaries, 
including some very complex systems, but she did not work steadily on this area 
of research. After retiring from Harvard in 1935, she spent three years as curator 
of the Draper Park Observatory Museum in New York. 

Although Maury's contributions were not fully appreciated at Harvard, they had 
a significant influence on scientists elsewhere. Her early studies are now widely 
recognized as an essential step in the development of theoretical astrophysics, 
and she received the Annie J. Cannon Prize of the American Astronomical Society 
in 1943. Although she worked chiefly as an astronomer, she also was an active 
ornithologist, a naturalist, and a conservationist who participated in the campaign 
to save the redwood forests. She was a member of the American Astronomical 
Society, the Royal Astronomical Society, and the National Audubon Society. Her 
younger sister was paleontologist Carlotta Maury. 



Maury, Carlotta Joaquina 

1874 1938 
Paleontologist 

Education: Radcliffe College, 1891-1894; Ph.B., Cornell University, 1896, Ph.D., 
Cornell University, 1902 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, 1900-1901; assistant, paleontology, 
Columbia University, 1904-1906; paleontologist, Louisiana Geological Survey, 
1907-1909; lecturer, geology, Barnard College, 1909-1912; professor, geology and 
zoology, University of the Cape of Good Hope, 1912-1915; paleontologist, Brazil 
Survey, 1918-1938 

Carlotta Maury was a paleontologist whose research interests were in the recent 
and Pleistocene eras of New York and the Gulf of Mexico, the Tertiary period of 
Florida and the West Indies, and stratigraphy of Venezuela. She received degrees 
from Radcliffe and Cornell, and studied at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris for one 
year before receiving her doctorate from Cornell University in 1902. 



McCammon, Helen Mary (Choman) | 669 

Maury participated in several research expeditions and published numerous 
reports of her work on Antillean, Venezuelan, and Brazilian stratigraphy and fossil 
faunas. Many of these reports were sent to the American Museum of Natural 
History. She was the author of A Comparison of the Oligocene of Western Europe 
and the Southern United States (1902). She was the paleontologist for a geological 
expedition to Venezuela in 1910 and 1911, organized and conducted the Maury 
expedition to the Dominican Republic in 1916, was consulting paleontologist and 
stratigrapher for the Venezuelan division of the Royal Dutch Shell Petroleum Com- 
pany from 1910 to 1938, and was official paleontologist to Brazil from 1918 to 1938. 

Maury was elected a fellow of both the Geological Society of America and the 
American Geographical Society. She also was a member of the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science and a corresponding member of the Brazilian 
Academy of Sciences. Her older sister was astronomer Antonia Maury. 



McCammon, Helen Mary (Choman) 

b. 1933 

Geologist, Marine Biologist 

Education: B.Sc, University of Manitoba, 1955; M.S., University of Michigan, 
1956; Ph.D., geology, Indiana University, 1959 

Professional Experience: research technician, stratigraphy, Manitoba Department 
of Mines and Natural Resources, 1952-1959; lecturer, geography, University of 
North Dakota, 1961; assistant professor, geology, Department of Earth Science, 
University of Pittsburgh, 1963-1968, associate professor, 1968; visiting associate 
professor, geology, Department of Geology, University of Illinois, Chicago, 
1968-1970; research associate, geology, Field Museum of Natural History, 
Chicago, 1969-1972; director of environmental science, Environmental Protection 
Agency, 1973-1976; senior oceanography and marine scientist, Environmental 
Research Division, U.S. Department of Energy, 1977-1979, director, 1979-1991, 
deputy director, Environmental Science Division, 1991-retired 

Helen McCammon is a geologist who is also known for her work in marine physi- 
ology and ecology. Like many environmental scientists, her research has required 
broad interdisciplinary knowledge and includes the impact of energy activities in 
coastal and terrestrial environments ranging from arctic tundra to temperate forest 
and desert regions, as well as marine physiology and ecology. As deputy director 
of the Environmental Science Division of the U.S. Department of Energy, her 
responsibilities included overseeing ecological research and overseeing the divi- 
sion's budget. Her background also includes considerable experience in research 



670 | McClintock, Barbara 

and teaching geology in several universities, plus a stint as a geologist at the Field 
Museum of Natural History in Chicago. However, her research included studies of 
living animals as well as terrestrial and marine physical environments, the usual 
subjects of geologists. 

After she completed her dissertation on paleontology for her doctorate in geology, 
McCammon decided to study how marine organisms live today and began to 
research living invertebrates, especially brachiopods. These lampshells were 
common 300 million years ago and can still be found in New Zealand, the Antarctic, 
and other cold-water regions. Her fieldwork took her to many of these places, but 
because geology is a male-dominated field, she had problems in obtaining funding 
and having her papers published. She also faced discrimination at the University of 
Illinois, Chicago when the department head decided to discontinue her salary in 
order to hire a man, and asked her to continue teaching as an unsalaried faculty 
member. Her husband was a faculty member at the university at the time, but her 
position had been only that of a visiting associate professor. She refused to accept 
the arrangement and accepted a position at the Field Museum instead. Her own hus- 
band was supportive of her research, sharing household duties, involving the chil- 
dren in their sample-collecting and research, and supporting their long-distance 
relationship when he still worked in Chicago and Helen took a position with the 
U.S. government in Boston and then Washington, D.C. In 1973, she joined the Envi- 
ronmental Protection Agency, beginning her long career with the federal government 
as chief scientist and administrator in various departments. 

McCammon is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence and a member of the American Geological Institute, American Society of Zool- 
ogists, Oceanic Society, and American Society of Limnology and Oceanography. 



McClintock, Barbara 

1902 1992 
Geneticist 

Education: B.S., botany, Cornell University, 1923, M.A., botany, 1925, Ph.D., 
botany, 1927 

Professional Experience: instructor, botany, Cornell University, 1927-1931, 
research associate, 1934-1936; fellow, National Research Council, 1931-1933; 
fellow, Guggenheim Foundation, 1933-1934; assistant professor, botany, Univer- 
sity of Missouri, 1936-1941; staff member, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1942-1967, distinguished member, 1967-1992; 
Andrew White Professor at Large, Cornell University, 1965-1992 



McClintock, Barbara | 671 

Barbara McClintock received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983 
for her pioneering work on the mechanism of genetic inheritance. She discovered 
early on that genes can move from one area on the chromosomes to another, a 
finding known as "jumping genes" that now helps molecular biologists identify, 
locate, and study genes. She observed the changes in color patterns in kernels of 
Indian corn and correlated these changes with changes in the chromosome 
structure. She received the Nobel Prize for this discovery more than 32 years after 
publishing her findings. In spite of early recognition for her work, she was rela- 
tively unknown in the scientific community for decades until she was awarded 
the Nobel Prize. Her work was largely outside the mainstream of science at that 
time, and few were able to comprehend the significance of her research until other 
scientists' work on DNA in the 1960s was used to verify her experiment and sup- 
port her theories. 

After she received her doctorate in botany in 1927, McClintock stayed on at 
Cornell as an instructor for five years, and then worked in research for another 
six years under fellowships from the National Research Council and the 
Guggenheim Foundation. Since Cornell was not appointing women to faculty 
positions, she had to find other sources for income. Research positions were very 
scarce for women during the Depression, but she accepted an appointment as 
assistant professor of botany at the University of Missouri for five years. That 
was the last teaching position she held, as she preferred to focus exclusively on 
research. Starting in 1942, she worked at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on 
Long Island, where she maintained a small apartment on the grounds of the labo- 
ratory. In 1981, she was awarded a lifetime tax-free annual fellowship of 
$60,000 from the MacArthur Foundation, and she continued to work her accus- 
tomed schedule of long hours seven days a week in the lab until just shortly before 
her death. 

McClintock was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 
1944 and was the first woman president of the Genetics Society of America in 
1945. She received the Kimber Genetics Award (1967), the National Medal of 
Science (1970), the Rosenstiel Award (1978), and the Lasker Award (1981). She 
was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the 
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, 
the American Society of Naturalists, and the Royal Society of England. In 2005, the 
U.S. Postal Service issued a postage stamp featuring McClintock as part of their 
American Scientists series. 

Further Resources 

Keller, Evelyn Fox. 1983. A Feeling for the Organism: The Life and Work of Barbara 
McClintock. San Francisco, CA: W.H. Freeman. 



672 | McCoy, Elizabeth Florence 

Fedoroff, Nina V. and David Botstein. 1992. The Dynamic Genome: Barbara McClintock's 
Ideas in the Century of Genetics. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor 
Laboratory Press. 

The Barbara McClintock Papers, Profiles in Science, National Library of Medicine, http:// 
profiles.nlm.nih.gov/LL/. 



McCoy, Elizabeth Florence 

1903 1978 

Soil Microbiologist 

Education: B.S., University of Wisconsin, 1925, M.S., 1926, Ph.D., bacteriology, 
1929 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, National Research Council, 
Rothamsted Experimental Station, England, and Botanical Institute, Karlova 
University, Prague, Czechoslovakia, 1929-1930; assistant to associate professor, 
agricultural bacteriology, University of Wisconsin, 1930-1943, professor, 
1943-1973 

Elizabeth McCoy was a microbiologist whose research included anaerobes, serology, 
freshwater bacteria, water quality and waste disposal, and industrial fermentations. 
She was notable for her work in soil microbiology and for detecting a high- 
yielding strain of penicillium as part of a World War II-era government project with 
the Office of Scientific Research and Development. She discovered another antibi- 
otic, oligomycin, which is still used to research and treat fungal diseases in plants 
and was also under development at that time by the pharmaceutical company 
Pfizer. McCoy was granted patents for her methods of isolating oligomycin and for 
processing butyl alcohol. She gained national attention as a female scientist when 
the New York Times reported in 1946, "Wisconsin University Girl Wins Patent 
on an Industrial Solvent"; at the time, McCoy was hardly a "girl," as she was a 
43-year-old professor of bacteriology. 

McCoy was born and raised on a Wisconsin farm, and she developed an early inter- 
est in agricultural science and diseases. She received her bachelor's, master's, and 
doctoral degrees in agricultural bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin, where 
she was then employed as a faculty member for more than 40 years, one of the few 
women of that time to advance to full professor. Over the years, she conducted 
research experiments in California, Puerto Rico, England, and Czechoslovakia, 
and was involved in notable studies related to botulinum food poisoning, vaccine 
development, and microbial ecology (pollution) of rivers and lakes. She oversaw 



McCracken, (Mary) Isabel | 673 

bacteriological and water-quality research projects at Trout Lake Station in northern 
Wisconsin, at nearby Lake Mendota, and at Lake Michigan. She published numerous 
scientific papers and articles, and authored or co-authored books on Root-nodule 
Bacteria and Leguminous Plants (1932) and Anaerobic Bacteria and Their Activities 
in Nature and Disease (1939). 

McCoy was elected a fellow of the American Public Health Association and 
was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the 
American Academy of Microbiologists, the Society for Experimental Biology 
and Medicine, and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, for 
which she served as president. She served as editor of Biological Abstracts and 
of the Journal of Bacteriology. She received a posthumous honorary doctorate 
from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. After her death, her patents, as well 
as her family farm, were donated to the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. 

Further Resources 

Fisher, Madeline. 2003. "Discovery Provides Reminder of Bacteriology Prof and WARF 
Inventor." Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. (November 5, 2003). http://www.warf 
.org/news/news.jsp?news id=138. 



McCracken, (Mary) Isabel 

1866 1955 
Entomologist 

Education: A.B., Stanford University, 1904, A.M., 1905, Ph.D., 1908; University 
of Paris, 1913-1914 

Professional Experience: teacher, public schools, 1890-1900; assistant in physi- 
ology and entomology, Stanford University, 1903-1904, instructor, entomology 
and bionomics, 1904-1909, assistant professor, entomology and zoology, 1909- 
1918, associate professor, 1918-1930, professor, 1930-1931; research associate, 
California Academy of Sciences, 1931-1945 

Isabel McCracken was an entomologist who conducted research on a variety of 
topics, including bees, beetles, birds, mosquitoes, and silkworms, and taught in the 
area of economic entomology. Her career followed the pattern of many women of 
her generation in that she first taught in the public schools of her native 
Oakland, California, for more than a decade before entering college. She attended 
Stanford University and was employed as a staff assistant while working toward her 
advanced degrees, with studies in physiology, natural history, and entomology. 



674 | McFadden, Lucy-Ann Adams 




Entomologist Isabel McCracken. (National 
Library of Medicine) 



She conducted field research and pub- 
lished scientific papers on the genetics 
of beetles and on birds of the Sierra 
Nevada mountains. She received her 
Ph.D. in 1908, at the advanced age of 
42. She became an assistant professor 
of entomology and zoology after 
receiving her doctorate, and spent the 
remainder of her career at Stanford, 
finally advancing to full professor in 
1930, just one year before she retired. 
After her retirement from teaching, 
McCracken worked as a research asso- 
ciate at the California Academy of Sci- 
ences. Her research there concentrated 
on her long-term interest in birds and 
their relationship to insects. 

In addition to her scientific papers, 
McCracken co-authored a textbook 
called The Animals and Man (1911). 
She was elected a fellow of the 
California Academy of Sciences, and 
she was a member of the Entomological 
Society of America. 



McFadden, Lucy-Ann Adams 



b. 1952 

Astronomer, Geophysicist 

Education: B.A., natural sciences, Hampshire College, Massachusetts, 1974; 
M.S., earth and planetary science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1977; 
Ph.D., geology and geophysics, University of Hawaii, 1983 

Professional Experience: research associate, geography, University of Maryland 
and Goddard Space Flight Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
(NASA), 1983-1984, research associate, astronomy, University of Maryland, 
1984-1986, assistant research scientist, astronomy, 1986-1987; assistant research 
physicist, California Space Institute, University of California, San Diego, 1987- 
1991, associate research physicist, 1991-1995; associate research scientist, graduate 
faculty, astronomy, University of Maryland, 1996-2007, research professor, 2007- 



McFadden, Lucy-Ann Adams | 675 

Concurrent Positions: National Science Foundation visiting professor, University of 
Maryland, 1992-1995; Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) Mission Science 
Team Multispectral Imager/Near-Infrared Spectrometer, 1994-2000; visiting scien- 
tist, Space Telescope Science Institute, 1995; faculty director, College Park Scholars, 
Science, Discovery & the Universe program, 1997-2001; Deep Impact Discovery 
Mission Co-Investigator, Education/Outreach Manager, NASA, 1999-2006; Dawn 
Discovery Mission, 2002-2015; Deep Impact Extended Mission, 2007-2011 

Lucy-Ann McFadden is a planetary scientist who has specialized in searching for 
Earth-approaching asteroids and dead comets. She has estimated that between 
1 ,500 and 2,000 asteroids and dead comets roam space near the Earth. Most aste- 
roids and comets pass Earth at high speed millions of miles away, but those that 
come closer provide astronomers with insight into the solar system's past. The 
small bodies in the inner solar system contain primarily rock and metal, while 
those in the outer solar system contain ices and dark, carbon-based compounds. 
The difference in composition among various types indicates how material was 
spread through the solar system while it was forming, and by bouncing radar 
beams off their surfaces, astronomers can determine the sizes, shapes, and compo- 
sitions of the objects. McFadden's research involves determining the surface com- 
position of asteroids to understand their nature, source, and evolution. She uses the 
Hubble Space Telescope to study the relationship between asteroids and comets 
based on the composition of solid components and the reflectance properties 
of meteorites. She has published numerous papers on the characteristics of the 
objects that she has studied and also participated in the observations of the 
Shoemaker-Levy comet (named for Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker, who first 
identified the comet that impacted Jupiter). 

In addition to her position as a faculty research scientist at the University of 
Maryland, McFadden has been a principal investigator and educational and out- 
reach director of several NASA missions that have included observations of Mars, 
the moon, and other planets. Through her work at NASA, in her local community, 
and through the Internet, she has been heavily involved in promoting educational 
programs that inspire students to pursue careers in the sciences. She is also the 
co-editor of the Encyclopedia of the Solar System (2006). 

McFadden has received numerous awards and honors from NASA and other 
institutions. She is a member of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science, American Astronomical Society, American Geophysical Union, and 
Meteoritical Society. 

Further Resources 

University of Maryland. Faculty website, http://www.astro.umd.edu/~mcfadden/. 



676 | McNutt, Marcia Kemper 
McNutt, Marcia Kemper 



b. 1952 

Marine Geophysicist 

Education: B.A., physics, Colorado College, 1973; Ph.D., earth science, Scripps 
Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, 1978 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral research associate, Scripps Institution of 
Oceanography, 1978; visiting assistant professor, University of Minnesota, 
1978-1979; geophysicist, tectonphysics, Office of Earthquake Studies, U.S. Geo- 
logical Survey (USGS), 1979-1982; assistant professor, geophysics, Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1982-1986, associate professor, 1986-1988, 
professor, 1989-1998; president and chief executive officer, Monterey Bay Aquar- 
ium Research Institute, 1997-2009; director, USGS, 2009- 

Concurrent Positions: secretary, John Muir Geophysical Society, 1979-1983; asso- 
ciate editor, Journal of Geophysical Research, 1980-1983; associate director, MIT 
SeaGrant College, 1993-1995; director, Joint Program in Oceanography and Applied 
Ocean Science and Engineering, MIT and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 
1995-1997; affiliated professor, geophysics, Stanford University, 1998-; affiliated 
professor, earth sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1998— 

Marcia McNutt is renowned for her research on plate tectonics using a variety of 
techniques, including the Geosat global-positioning satellite. She is particularly 
known for her work on mapping the ocean floor and measuring the depth of the 
ocean. Her research includes studies of long-term rheology of the Earth's crust 
and upper mantle using gravity and topography data, isotasy, paleomagnetism of 
seamounts, and thermal modeling of the lithosphere. Plate tectonics, a science that 
developed around 1965 to 1970, is the theory of global tectonics in which the 
lithosphere is divided into a number of crustal plates, each of which moves on 
the plastic asthenosphere more or less independently to collide with, slide under, 
or move past adjacent plates. The study of plate tectonics seeks to explain how 
the continents were formed and to predict how the plates will move into new pat- 
terns. Although geologists have mapped much of the land portion of the Earth, 
data on the oceans are still being revealed and much of it has remained classified 
by the U.S. government for strategic reasons. The data that have been released 
can indicate new locations for fishing or for oil drilling as well as predicting the 
future activity of underwater volcanoes. 

McNutt has worked particularly on mapping areas of the southern oceans, 
which had remained uncharted because they are far from shipping lanes and not 
of strategic importance from a military standpoint. The standard method has been 



McSherry, Diana Hartridge | 677 

to use echo sounders by deploying entire arrays of acoustic transceivers on the 
hulls of ships to measure the ocean depth in a swath several kilometers wide. 
McNutt has improved this research by using highly sensitive radar altimeters in 
Earth orbit to sense minute changes in sea level caused by the gravitational attrac- 
tion of topography on the seafloor; the radar altimeters measure the water density 
by hitting the water/rock interface on the ocean floor. The measurements obtained 
by the echo sounders and by the radar altimeters provide similar readings, but the 
orbiting altimeters provide a much higher resolution than the echo sounders. In 
addition to her faculty appointments, in 1997, McNutt became Director of the Mon- 
terey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in Moss Landing, California, a 
position she held for more than 10 years. In 2009, she was chosen by President 
Obama as the new head of USGS and science advisor to the U.S. Secretary of the 
Interior. 

McNutt was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2005. She has been 
a member of the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) Science 
Steering Group Geopotential Research Mission, the Committee on Geodesy of 
the National Research Council, and the Geodynamics Committee, and was chair of 
the President's Panel on Ocean Exploration under President Clinton. She is a fellow 
of the American Geophysical Union (president, 2000-2002), Geological Society of 
America, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Acad- 
emy of Arts and Sciences, and International Association of Geodesy. McNutt has 
received numerous awards and honors for her research, including the James B. 
MacElwane Medal of the American Geophysical Union (1988), Scientist of the Year 
award from the ARCS Foundation (2003), and Maurice Ewing Medal from the 
Society of Exploration Geophysicists (2007). 

Further Resources 

U.S. Geological Survey. "Marcia McNutt, Director, U.S. Geological Survey." http://www 
.usgs.gov/aboutusgs/organized/bios/mcnutt.asp. 



McSherry, Diana Hartridge 

b. 1945 

Medical Physicist, Computer Scientist 

Education: B.A., physics, Harvard University, 1965; M.A., Rice University, 1967, 
Ph.D., nuclear physics, 1969 

Professional Experience: fellow, nuclear physics, Rice University, 1969; research 
physicist in ultrasonics, Digicon, Inc., 1969-1974, executive vice president of 



678 | McWhinnie, Mary Alice 

medical ultrasound, 1974-1977; president, cardiology analysis systems, Digisonics, 
Inc., 1977-1982; vice president, Digicon, Inc., 1980-1987; chief operating officer, 
Cogniseis Development, Inc., 1987-1995, president, 1995-; president, Digisonics 

Concurrent Positions: chair, Information Products Systems, Houston, 1982-1986 

Diana McSherry is a research biophysicist known for her development of computer- 
based cardiology analysis systems and has worked in the specific areas of echo- 
cardiology, ventriculography, and hemodynamics. Echocardiology uses reflected 
ultrasonic waves to examine the structure and functioning of the heart; ventriculog- 
raphy involves examining the ventricles of the heart, which are the lower chambers 
on each side of the heart that receive blood from the atria and in turn force it into the 
arteries; and hemodynamics is the branch of physiology dealing with the forces 
involved in the circulation of the blood. The system she developed uses ultrasonic 
waves and computer processing to produce images of the heart and circulation 
system, and it was a major breakthrough in the 1970s, when scientists were just 
beginning to develop the software for medical applications. Her product permits 
physicians to view the inside of a patient's body without making an incision; the 
ultrasound is reflected from the heart, producing an image that is refined after being 
fed into a computer. 

After receiving her doctorate from Rice University, McSherry was a fellow in 
nuclear physics there for one year and then spent the rest of her career working 
in corporations. She started as a research physicist in ultrasonics at Digicon, Inc., 
and became executive vice president of medical ultrasound and then president of 
cardiology analytical systems when the company was acquired by Digisonics, 
Inc. She is currently president and manager of Digisonics, which creates ultra- 
sound equipment and systems for use in cardiology, radiation, and OB/GYN appli- 
cations. She also served on the board of directors as chair for Information Products 
Systems, Houston. 

McSherry is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 
American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, American Physical Society, and 
American Heart Association. 



McWhinnie, Mary Alice 

1922 1980 
Biologist 

Education: B.S., DePaul University, 1944, M.S., biology, 1946; Ph.D., biology, 
Northwestern University, 1952 



McWhinnie, Mary Alice | 679 

Professional Experience: assistant, biological sciences, DePaul University, 
1944-1950, instructor, 1950-1952, assistant to associate professor, biology, 
1952-1960, professor, 1960-1980 

Mary McWhinnie was one of the first two women scientists to winter in Antarctica to 
study krill. Her research involved crustacean metabolism, with special reference to 
carbohydrates during the molt cycle, and her findings highlighted the importance 
of krill to the ocean food chain. As a child growing up in Illinois, she developed an 
interest in nature and, especially, fishing, and went on to study biology at DePaul 
University. She worked as an assistant in biological sciences at the university while 
also completing her master's degree, and went on to receive her Ph.D. from 
Northwestern University. 

She spent her entire teaching career at DePaul University, advancing through the 
ranks from instructor to professor. It was while studying crayfish in Chicago that 
she became interested in comparing them to their cold-water cousins, krill. She pre- 
pared a proposal for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and, in 1962, embarked 
on a two-month research cruise as the first American woman scientist assigned to the 
U.S. Antarctic Research program. She returned again in 1972, this time as the ship's 
chief scientist, and in 1974, she and her female research assistant were the first 
women to spend the winter at the McMurdo research station on Antarctica. 

Over the course of her career, McWhinnie made 1 1 trips to Antarctica to study 
krill and became the worldwide expert on krill as an ocean food source. In the late 
1970s, she became an ecological spokesperson advocating for the protection of 
krill against overfishing. McWhinnie fell ill while preparing for another trip to 
Antarctica in the winter of 1979-1980 and died at the age of 57 of undiagnosed 
cancer of the lungs and brain. 

McWhinnie received numerous NSF grants to carry on her polar biology 
research, as well as other funding, such as an assistantship at Woods Hole Marine 
Biological Laboratory in 1952, summers as a faculty fellow of the American 
Physiological Society in 1957, and fellow of the Lalor Foundation in 1958. She 
was a member of the Panel on Biological and Medical Sciences of the National 
Academy of Science, and the National Science Foundation Committee on Polar 
Research. She was elected a fellow of the American Physiological Society and 
was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and 
the Biophysical Society. 

Further Resources 

Land, Barbara. 1981. The New Explorers: Women in Antarctica. New York: Dodd, Mead. 

Chipman, Elizabeth. 1986. Women on the Ice: A History of Women in the Far South. 
Carlton, Vic: Melbourne University Press. 



680 | Mead, Margaret 



Mead, Margaret 



1901 1978 
Anthropologist 

Education: B.A., Barnard College, 1923; M.A., psychology, Columbia Univer- 
sity, 1924, Ph.D., anthropology, 1929 

Professional Experience: assistant to associate curator, ethnology, American 
Museum of Natural History, 1926-1964, curator, 1964-1969; instructor and 
adjunct professor, anthropology, Columbia University, 1947-1978 

Concurrent Positions: instructor, Vassar College, New York University, Fordham 

University, and others; director, 
Columbia University Research in 
Contemporary Cultures, 1948-1950 




Anthropologist Margaret Mead in Samoa, in a 
photo sent to colleague Ruth Benedict, 1926. 
(Library of Congress) 



Margaret Mead was perhaps the fore- 
most anthropologist of the twentieth 
century. Through such bestselling 
books as Coming of Age in Samoa 
(1928), Sex and Temperament in 
Three Primitive Societies (1935), 
and Male and Female (1949), she 
changed anthropology from an eso- 
teric discipline to a subject that was 
fascinating to the public at large. Her 
expeditions to Samoa, New Guinea, 
and Bali, and her work with Native 
American tribes, provided material 
for more than 1,500 books, articles, 
films, and occasional pieces. She was 
the first anthropologist to compare 
childrearing practices and roles of 
women in various cultures, topics that 
had not been of interest to male 
anthropologists. She was a founder 
of a new school of anthropology that 
examines the ways a culture shapes 
an individual's personality. Along 
with her third husband, Gregory 
Bateson, she pioneered the use of 



Medicine, Beatrice A. | 681 

photography and eventually film and video to document vanishing cultures, and 
thus her work was spread to the general public in new ways. 

Mead's father was a faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, her 
mother a sociologist, and her paternal grandmother a pioneer child psychologist. 
Mead received her master's degree in psychology from Columbia in 1924 and then 
spent six months studying adolescents in Samoa. She came to the controversial con- 
clusion, explained in Coming of Age in Samoa, that people were a product of their 
environment more than heredity. In later years, she conceded that she was too inex- 
perienced as a field investigator at the time she made the study, but she never revised 
the book or returned to Samoa. She went on to conduct fieldwork on the Manus tribe 
of the Admiralty Islands and, with her second husband, Reo Fortune, visited three 
native American tribes — the Arapesh, the Mundugumor, and the Tcambuli — to 
study the social conditioning of the two sexes. Later, with Bateson, she engaged in 
fieldwork in Bali and New Guinea. Her book And Keep Your Powder Dry (1942) 
studied American character against the background of seven other cultures. 

In addition to her faculty appointments, Mead was affiliated with American 
Museum of Natural History for much of her career and established a Hall of Peoples 
of the Pacific there. She was the first female president of the Society for Applied 
Anthropology in 1949, and also served as president of the American Anthropological 
Association in 1960 and the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
in 1975. She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1975 
and the American Philosophical Society in 1977. She also was a member of the 
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her autobiography is Blackberry Winter: 
My Earlier Years (1972), and there are numerous biographies, including a family 
history by her daughter, cultural anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson. 

Further Resources 

Banner, Lois W. 2003. Intertwined Lives: Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Their 
Circle. New York: Random House. 

Bateson, Mary Catherine. 1984. With a Daughter's Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and 
Gregory Bateson. New York: W. Morrow. 



Medicine, Beatrice A. 

1924 2005 
Anthropologist 

Education: B.S., education, art, and history, South Dakota State University, 
Brookings, 1945; M.A., sociology and anthropology, Michigan State University, 
1953; Ph.D., cultural anthropology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1983 



682 | Medicine, Beatrice A. 

Professional Experience: lecturer, sociology and anthropology, University of 
Montana, Missoula, 1967-1968; director, American Indian Research, Oral History 
Project, and assistant professor, anthropology, University of South Dakota, 
Vermillion, 1968-1969; assistant professor, anthropology, San Francisco State 
University, 1969-1970, associate professor, 1970-1971; predoctoral lecturer, 
anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, 1971-1973; visiting professor, 
anthropology, Native American Studies, Dartmouth College, 1973-1974; visiting 
professor, anthropology, Colorado College, 1974-1975; visiting associate professor, 
anthropology, Stanford University, 1975-1976; associate professor, anthropology, 
and coordinator, Interdisciplinary Program in Native American Studies, California 
State University, Northridge, 1982-1985; professor, anthropology, and director, 
Native Centre, University of Calgary, Canada, 1985-1988 

Concurrent Positions: assistant professor, Teacher Corps, University of 
Nebraska, Omaha, summer 1969; fellow, Center for the History of American Indi- 
ans, Newberry Library, Chicago, 1972-1973; visiting professor, educational 
anthropology, University of New Brunswick, Canada, summer 1976; visiting pro- 
fessor, Education Policy Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, summer 
1979; visiting professor, Graduate School of Public Affairs, University of Wash- 
ington, Seattle, spring 1981; lecturer, Standing Rock College, North Dakota, 
1989; visiting professor, anthropology, Humboldt State University, California, 
1991; visiting professor, Colorado College, 1991; visiting professor, Saskatch- 
ewan Indian Fed. College, Canada, 1991; visiting distinguished professor, 
women's studies, University of Toronto, 1992; research coordinator, Women's 
Perspectives, Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 
1993-1994; visiting professor, rural sociology, South Dakota State University, 
Brookings, 1993; visiting scholar, Museum of Anthropology, University of British 
Columbia, Vancouver, 1995; adjunct professor, Department of Educational Foun- 
dations, University of Alberta, Edmonton, 1995-2005; Buckman Professor, 
Department of Human Ecology, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 1996; Stanley 
Knowles Distinguished Professor, Brandon University, Manitoba, Canada, 1998, 
visiting professor, 1999-2005 

Beatrice Medicine was a recognized expert on the study of tribal traditions among 
the Dakota Indians. She was one of the few Native American women to earn an 
advanced degree in anthropology, and she worked to dispel anthropological myths 
that have tended to oversimplify and homogenize Native American cultures. In her 
writing and teaching, she established a more realistic picture of the plurality and 
diversity of Native American life from the real and complex Native American per- 
spectives. Her research centered on the changing Native American family and on 
women's roles, real and perceived, past and present. Much erroneous information 



Meinel, Marjorie Pettit | 683 

exists because the first narratives and histories were written by white men who 
were the product of a patriarchal society, and they largely ignored or incorrectly 
reported the role of women in Native American society. She had an already long 
career as a visiting professor and fellow at numerous colleges and universities 
before attending the University of Wisconsin at Madison as an Advanced Opportu- 
nity Fellow to complete her doctorate in anthropology in 1983. She went on to 
direct Native American studies programs at several universities, including at 
California State University, Northridge, and the University of Calgary, Alberta, 
Canada. Even after her formal retirement in 1988, she continued to be a visiting 
or adjunct professor at several institutions in both the United States and Canada. 

Although she spent a career in academia, Medicine maintained strong ties to her 
reservation home. She was born and raised on the Standing Rock Sioux Reserva- 
tion in northern South Dakota, and her family stressed maintaining tribal tradi- 
tional cultural identity. In addition to her research on her own people, Medicine 
was involved in work with the aboriginal peoples of New Zealand, Australia, and 
Canada. She was extensively involved in the field of mental health, focusing on 
issues such as alcohol and drug abuse among Native Americans. The title of her 
doctoral thesis was "An Ethnography of Drinking and Sobriety among the Lakota 
Sioux." She was an advocate for Indian leadership and helped establish a network 
of Indian social service centers in urban areas. In her role as head of the Women's 
Branch of Canada's Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, she helped draft 
legislation protecting the legal rights of native families. 

Medicine published more than 60 articles and chapters in books, including 
Native American Women: A Perspective (1978) and The Hidden Half: Studies of 
Plains Indians Women (1983). A collection of her writings, entitled Learning to 
Be an Anthropologist and Remaining "Native," was published in 2001. She was 
a member of the American Anthropological Association and Society for Applied 
Anthropology. 

Further Resources 

Medicine, Beatrice and Sue-Ellen Jacobs, eds. 2001. Learning to Be an Anthropologist 
and Remaining "Native": Selected Writings. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 



Meinel, Marjorie Pettit 

1922 2008 
Astronomer 

Education: B.A., Pomona College, 1943; M.A., astronomy, Claremont College, 
1944 



684 | Meinel, Marjorie Pettit 

Professional Experience: researcher and associate editor, rocket programs, 
California Institute of Technology, 1944-1945; research associate, solar energy, 
University of Arizona, 1974-1984; visiting scientist, optics, Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 1984-2000 

Concurrent Positions: consultant, Office of Technological Assessment, U.S. 
Congress, 1974-1980; consultant, Arizona Solar Energy Research Commission, 
1975-1981 

Marjorie Meinel was recognized for her work on solar energy applications, upper 
atmospheric phenomena, volcanic eruptions, solar and variable stars, and astro- 
nomical optics. As a graduate teaching assistant during World War II, she taught 
navigation to Army airmen. After receiving her master's degree from Claremont 
College, she obtained employment on secret military rocket programs at the 
California Institute of Technology. Throughout her career, she conducted collabo- 
rative research with her husband, astronomer Aden Meinel, on solar optics, solar 
energy, volcanic eruptions, and cosmic radiation. They co-authored several papers 
and books and, in their later post-retirement years, the couple continued to expand 
their diverse interests into topics such as paleoanthropology and global warming, 
pursuing their research and giving public lectures. 

Both of Meinel's parents were pioneering astronomers; her father, Edison Pettit, 
was one of the founding astronomers at Mt. Wilson Observatory in Los Angeles, 
and her mother, Hanna Steele Pettit, was one of the first women to receive a doc- 
torate in astronomy from the University of Chicago. Marjorie met Aden Meinel 
when they both enrolled in a program for gifted high school students at Pasadena 
Junior College. Aden Meinel became the first Director of the Kitt Peak National 
Observatory (1958-1960) and was the founder and first Director of the Optical 
Sciences Center at the University of Arizona. Marjorie took time off from her 
career to raise seven children, but she remained professionally active in collabora- 
tion with and support of Aden's research. Once her children were grown, she spent 
10 years as a research associate in solar energy at the University of Arizona and 
was active in the 1970s as a member of state and national solar energy committees. 
In 1984, the couple returned to California as Distinguished Visiting Scientists at 
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where they researched solar optics and helped 
launch the Hubble Space Telescope. 

Among Meinel's numerous awards and acknowledgements, she was named one 
of five outstanding "Women in Physics" by the American Physical Society (1980) 
and received the Goddard Award (1984), the George van Biesbroeck Award for 
Services in Astronomy (1990), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
(NASA) Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (1993), and the Kingslake 
Medal of the Optical Society of America (1994 and 2001). The Meinels also 



Mendenhall, Dorothy Reed | 685 

received many awards for their joint work, including a Gold Medal Award of the 
Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) (1997). She was a 
member of SPIE and of the New York Academy of Sciences and the Society of 
Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. 

Further Resources 

LaFee, Scott. "Astronomers Link Human Evolution, Cosmic Radiation." http://www 
.signonsandiego.com/news/science/20060607-9999-lzlc07meinel.html. 



Mendenhall, Dorothy Reed 

1874 1964 
Research Physician 

Education: B.L., Smith College, 1895; student, chemistry and physics, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology; M.D., Johns Hopkins University, 1900 

Professional Experience: fellow, Johns Hopkins University, 1901-1902; resident 
physician, Babies Hospital, New York, 1903-1906; lecturer, home economics, 
University of Wisconsin, 1914-1936 

Concurrent Positions: medical officer, United States Children's Bureau, 
1917-1936 

Dorothy Reed Mendenhall was recognized first for her early work on Hodgkin's 
disease and later for her pioneering efforts in obstetrics. In 1900, she was one of 
the first women to receive a medical degree at Johns Hopkins after the school lifted 
its ban on admitting women students. More than 50 years later, she would establish 
a scholarship fund at Johns Hopkins for female medical students. While working as 
an intern and fellow in pathology and bacteriology at Johns Hopkins, she earned an 
international reputation for her recognition of the Reed (or Reed-Sternberg) cell, 
named in her honor, as the distinctive characteristic of Hodgkin's disease. Prior to 
her work, Hodgkin's disease was believed to be a form of tuberculosis. Since there 
were few opportunities for women to advance at Johns Hopkins, she moved to 
New York, where in 1903 she was appointed the first resident physician at Babies 
Hospital. After losing her own first child at birth, she changed her research interests 
to improving obstetrics and infant mortality in the United States. 

In 1906, she moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where her husband was a faculty 
member in physics. After an interval of several years to care for her growing fam- 
ily, she became a lecturer in home economics at the University of Wisconsin and 



686 | Menken, Jane Ava (Golubitsky) 

began researching infant mortality, nutrition, and public health. After conducting a 
campaign of lectures and pamphlets, she organized Wisconsin's first infant wel- 
fare clinic in 1915. In 1917, she served as a medical officer for the U.S. Children's 
Bureau while her husband was on war duty in Washington, D.C. She continued her 
affiliation with the Children's Bureau until 1936 while maintaining her position at 
the University of Wisconsin. She studied European countries with low infant mor- 
tality rates and used the information to produce numerous bulletins on nutrition 
and childcare for the university, the Wisconsin State Board of Health, and the 
U.S. Department of Agriculture. She advocated the use of midwives for healthy 
pregnancies and specialized training in obstetrics for physicians. Her work also 
led to the creation of height and weight standards to improve infant and child 
nutrition and health. She focused not only on the role of doctors, however, also 
reaching out to women and prospective mothers with correspondence courses on 
nutrition and hygiene. 

Further Resources 

National Institutes of Health. "Dr. Dorothy Reed Mendenhall." Changing the Face of 
Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians. National Library of Medicine, 
National Institutes of Health, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/ 
physicians/biography 221.html. 



Menken, Jane Ava (Golubitsky) 

b. 1939 

Demographer, Sociologist 

Education: A.B., mathematics, University of Pennsylvania, 1960; M.S., biostatistics, 
School of Public Health, Harvard University, 1962; Ph.D., sociology and demography, 
Princeton University, 1975 

Professional Experience: assistant, biostatistics, School of Public Health, 
Harvard University, 1962-1964; mathematical statistician, National Institute of 
Mental Health, 1964-1966; research associate, biostatistics, School of Public 
Health and Administrative Medicine, Columbia University, 1966-1969; research 
staff, Office of Population Research, Princeton University, 1969-1971, research 
demographer, 1975-1980, assistant to associate director, 1978-1987; associate 
professor, sociology, Princeton University, 1977-1980, professor, sociology and 
public affairs, 1980-1987, visiting professor, public and international affairs, 
1987-1988; professor, social sciences, and research associate, Population Studies 



Menken, Jane Ava (Golubitsky) | 687 

Center, University of Pennsylvania, 1987-2001, director, 1989-1995; professor, 
sociology, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1997-, and director, Institute of 
Behavioral Science, 2001- 

Concurrent Positions: fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sci- 
ences, Stanford University, 1995-1996; honorary professor, School of Public 
Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2006- 

Jane Menken is recognized as one of the top demographers in the United States. 
Demography is the science of vital and social statistics, such as birth, death, dis- 
eases, and marriage. It differs from statistics, which is the science that deals with 
numerical facts or data, in that demography is centered on the populations — the 
people — and the interpretation and forecasting of trends. Menken's work has often 
involved controversial social issues, such as the effects of government policy on 
fertility, breastfeeding rates, and birth control and abortion access. In particular, 
her work has focused on women's and children's health and on the study of aging. 
In addition to her numerous scholarly articles and papers, she is the co-author of 
the book Mathematical Models of Conception and Birth (1973), and co-editor of 
Natural Fertility (1979), Teenage Sexuality, Pregnancy, and Childbearing 
(1981), World Population and U.S. Policy: The Choices Ahead (1986), and, most 
recently, Aging in Sub-Saharan Africa (2006). She is a founding member of the 
editorial board of two journals, Demographic Research and Southern African 
Journal of Demography. 

Menken worked for the federal government for a short time as a statistician for 
the National Institute of Mental Health, but has primarily been employed by major 
universities with distinguished reputations in demography. She has been a visiting 
scholar, invited lecturer, and conference participant at institutions around the 
world, and has served on numerous panels and commissions including, but not 
limited to, as a member of the population advisory committee for the Rockefeller 
Foundation (1981-1993), member of the committee on AIDS research of the 
National Academy of Sciences (1987-1994), chair of Family Health Internation- 
al's project on The Impact of Family Planning Programs on Women's Lives 
(1994-1998), and member of the World Health Organization Study on Global 
Aging and World Health (2004-2006). She has also served in numerous advisory 
roles for National Research Council and National Institutes of Health (NIH) stud- 
ies on population and fertility. 

Menken is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences (1989) and 
the Institute of Medicine (1995). She is a former Guggenheim fellow (1992- 
1993), a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Population 
Association of America (president, 1985), American Public Health Association, 



688 | Michel, Helen (Vaughn) 

Sociological Research Association (president, 1995-1996), American Sociological 
Association, American Statistical Association, Society for the Study of Social 
Biology, and International Union for the Scientific Study of Population. 

Further Resources 

University of Colorado. Faculty website. http://www.colorado.edu/ibs/PP/menken/. 



Michel, Helen (Vaughn) 

b. 1932 
Nuclear Chemist 

Education: B.S., chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, 1955; student, 
Indiana University, 1955-1956 

Professional Experience: chemist, University of California, Berkeley, Radiation 
Laboratory (later Lawrence Radiation Laboratory), 1956-1990 

Helen Michel is a nuclear chemist who achieved great success and worldwide rec- 
ognition for her expertise in operating the complex electronic instruments in the 
Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Her analyses led to many 
important scientific discoveries in the fields of nuclear science, geochemistry, 
plant biology, and archaeometry, the dating of archaeological specimens through 
specific techniques such as radiocarbon dating. One study of the mid-1970s that 
attracted a vast amount of publicity involved her group's role in determining the 
authenticity of an artifact called the Plate of Brass. Historical evidence indicated 
it had been left by English explorer Sir Walter Drake in the sixteenth century when 
he landed on the coast of what is now California. The plate had been discovered in 
1936 in San Francisco, and was kept at Berkeley. After examining samples of the 
metal as well as the plate itself by x-ray fluorescence, atomic absorption, and 
emission spectroscopy, Michel determined that the Plate of Brass was not authen- 
tic and that it had probably been made in the last half of the nineteenth century or 
the early part of the twentieth. Similar studies conducted at Oxford University 
verified her conclusions. She was also involved in another news story of the 
1980s when her expertise in chemical soil analysis was crucial in a long-term 
project that substantiated the theory that an asteroid impact resulted in the extinc- 
tion of the dinosaurs some 65 billion years ago. Michel's contributions to the work 
that proved the asteroid theory are described in Luis Alvarez's book, Adventures of 
a Physicist (1987), and Walter Alvarez's T-Rex and the Crater of Doom (1997), 
among other reports. 



Micheli-Tzanakou, Evangelia | 689 

Michel decided on a career in chemistry while still in elementary school, but by the 
time she completed her college education in the 1950s, it was difficult for a woman to 
obtain any job, much less in the sciences. She secured a part-time job at the Radiation 
Laboratory in Berkeley in the Division of Nuclear Chemistry while she was still an 
undergraduate. She spent a year in graduate work at Indiana University before 
returning to Berkeley for a full-time position as a chemist. Even without an advanced 
degree, she earned the respect of her colleagues and was always included as a 
co-author on all of the papers describing research in which she participated. 

In the 1960s, she and her husband expanded their scientific interests to the 
hobby of breeding orchids. They established a business as part of the Orchid 
Ranch in Livermore, California, and after retiring from Lawrence Laboratory in 
1990, Helen took over much of the daily supervision of the business. 

Further Resources 

Rogers, Phila W. 1979. "Investigating a Mass Extinction Occurring 65 Million Years 
Ago." http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/fingerprinting-past.html. 



Micheli-Tzanakou, Evangelia 

b. 1942 

Neurophysicist, Biomedical Engineer, Biophysicist 

Education: B.S., University of Athens, 1968; M.S., Syracuse University, 1974, 
Ph.D., physics, 1977 

Professional Experience: fellow, biophysics, Syracuse University, 1977-1980, con- 
sultant, 1980-1981; assistant to associate professor, biomedical engineering, Rutgers 
University, 1981-1990, professor and department chair, 1990-2000, professor and 
director, Computational Intelligence Laboratories, Department of Biomedical 
Engineering, 2000- 

Concurrent Positions: consultant, Eye Defect and Engineering Research 
Foundation, 1978-1980; adjunct instructor, University of Medicine and Dentistry of 
New Jersey 

Evangelia Micheli-Tzanakou is a physicist who does extensive research on brain 
function, including pattern recognition; digital signal processing of biological sig- 
nals; neural networks, data compression, and image reconstruction; hearing aids; 
and neural network modeling of the brain. She is renowned for her research 
in using optimization techniques to understand to problems of brain functions 
and dysfunctions, and she has pursued a multiphase quest in order to gain this 



690 | Mielczarek, Eugenie Vorburger 

understanding. Some of the methods she developed are used in cardiology to pre- 
dict the prognosis of heart-attack patients, and she has compared people who age 
normally with patients who have Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. She has 
developed a set of algorithms for modeling the visual system and applied this tech- 
nique to other functions of the nervous system and to research other brain func- 
tions, such as pattern recognition. In 1994, her research indicated that people 
with advanced educational and occupational attainment are able to cope longer 
before the onset of Alzheimer's, a finding that has proved controversial. 

Biomedical engineering, or bioengineering, is a relatively new discipline that 
developed in the 1960s and involves the application of engineering principles 
and techniques to problems of medicine and biology. In many institutions, it is 
an interdisciplinary effort on the part of physicians, biophysicists, electrical engi- 
neers, and computer scientists. Some researchers have expertise in several or all 
of these disciplines. In Micheli-Tzanakou's work, information processing by the 
visual system is examined by computer-controlled techniques, and recordings are 
done both in animals and in humans. In 1996, she and her co-author described 
designing a neuromime circuit to be used for modeling nerve networks from living 
organisms by using very large-scale integration (VLSI) technology. 

Micheli-Tzanakou is a founding fellow of the American Institute for Medical 
and Biological Engineering. She is also a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and 
Electronics Engineers (IEEE ) and has served on numerous boards and committees 
for that group. She is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, Association for 
Research in Ophthalmology, and Biophysical Society. 

Further Resources 

Rutgers University. Faculty website. http://cil.rutgers.edu/tzanakou/BriefCV.htm. 



Mielczarek, Eugenie Vorburger 

b. 1931 

Solid-state Physicist, Biophysicist 

Education: B.S., Queens College, 1953; M.S., Catholic University, 1957, Ph.D., 
physics, 1963 

Professional Experience: physicist, U.S. National Bureau of Standards, 1953- 
1957; research assistant, Catholic University, 1957-1959, research associate, 
1959-1962, assistant research professor, 1962-1965; professor, physics, George 
Mason University, 1965-, emerita 

Concurrent Positions: visiting scientist, National Institutes of Health, 1965- 



Miller, Elizabeth Cavert | 691 

Eugenie Mielczarek is known for her work in biophysics, which is the conjunction 
between biology and physics. Her research includes solid-state low-temperature 
physics, semiconductors, Mossbauer spectroscopy of metal and biological 
compounds, biophysics, and Fermi surfaces of metals. Working with Mossbauer 
spectroscopy, she is applying the techniques of nuclear physics to biological materi- 
als in order to probe the molecular environment around iron atoms. She explains that 
our bodies contain iron. Persons who have sickle-cell anemia or Cooley's anemia 
suffer from damaged kidneys and spleens. The red blood cells break down more rap- 
idly in these persons than in healthy individuals, and this breakdown dumps iron into 
those major organs. Iron chelators, or iron-grabbing compounds, are needed to clean 
up the excess iron, and we need to understand the atomic environment of iron in 
iron-chelating compounds in order to prevent the damage caused by the iron buildup. 

Her early research was in solid-state metals physics, but she has moved into 
studies of metal in biological environments. Solid-state physicists increasingly are 
studying more complex biological systems, looking at hemoglobin, cell membranes, 
and brain waves, work that has application to living systems. For example, she has 
also studied the dangerously high noise levels from music played in aerobic exercise 
classes, making recommendations for how to protect the hearing of both instructors 
and participants in such situations. 

She initially found it difficult to find employment as a female physicist, but finally 
obtained a position at the U.S. National Bureau of Standards, where she worked while 
completing her graduate degrees. Later, she was the founding chair of the physics 
department at George Mason University, a department that still maintains a higher- 
than-average number of female professors. Mielczarek is a member of the American 
Physical Society, Biophysical Society, American Association of Physics Teachers, 
and Association of Women in Science. She was co-editor (with Robert S. Knox) of 
Biological Physics and co-author (with Sharon Bertsch McGrayne) of Iron, Life's 
Universal Element: Why People Need Iron and Animals Make Magnets (2000). 



Miller, Elizabeth Cavert 

1920 1987 
Biochemist 

Education: B.S., biochemistry, University of Minnesota, 1941; M.S., biochemistry, 
University of Wisconsin, 1943, Ph.D., biochemistry, 1945 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, McArdle Laboratory for Cancer 
Research, University of Wisconsin, 1945-1947, instructor, department of oncology, 
1947-1949, assistant to associate professor, 1949-1969, professor, 1969-1987 



692 | Mintz, Beatrice 

Concurrent Positions: associate director, McArdle Laboratory for Cancer 
Research, University of Wisconsin, 1973-1987; senior research professor and emeri- 
tus professor, oncology, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, 1980-1987 

Elizabeth C. Miller was a biochemist recognized for her research on cancer and 
chemical carcinogens. She spent her entire career at the University of Wisconsin, 
where she collaborated with her husband, James A. Miller. The Millers were the 
first researchers to discover that an outside chemical could cause cancer in rats. 
They went on to research how carcinogens bind to DNA and, in the 1960s, worked 
on growing tumors in live tissue to understand how cancers spread. Their path- 
breaking research provided insight into later studies and public awareness about 
potential cancer-causing toxins in the environment such as pollution, industrial 
chemicals, food additives, and drugs. Together, the Millers published more than 
300 papers on chemical carcinogens. 

Elizabeth Miller began her graduate research with a scholarship for joint work 
in biochemistry and home economics. After she received her doctorate at Wisconsin, 
she held a postdoctoral fellowship and then joined the faculty in 1947 as an 
instructor in oncology. She advanced through the tenure ranks, becoming a full 
professor in 1969. At the University of Wisconsin, she also served as associate 
director of the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research from 1973 until her 
retirement in 1987. She was the editor of Cancer Research (1954-1964) and 
president of the American Association for Cancer Research (1976 and 1978). 
Between 1978 and 1980, she served on President Carter's Panel of the National 
Cancer Institute. 

Both Elizabeth Miller and James Miller were elected to the National Academy 
of Sciences in 1978. They received numerous awards and honors for their work, 
including the National Award in Basic Science of the American Cancer Society 
(1977), the first Founder's Award from the Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicol- 
ogy (1978), and a Mott Award from General Motors Cancer Research Foundation 
(1980). Elizabeth Miller was a member of the American Society of Biological 
Chemists, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences. She died of kidney cancer in 1987. 



Mintz, Beatrice 

b. 1921 
Biologist 

Education: A.B., Hunter College, 1941; student, New York University, 1941- 
1942; M.S., University of Iowa, 1944, Ph.D., zoology, 1946 



Mintz, Beatrice | 693 




Biologist Beatrice Mintz. (Courtesy of the Fox 
Chase Cancer Center) 



Professional Experience: assistant, 
Guggenheim Dental Clinic, 1941— 
1942; assistant, zoology, University 
of Iowa, 1942-1946, instructor, 1946; 
instructor, biological science, Univer- 
sity of Chicago, 1946-1949, assistant 
to associate professor, 1949-1960; 
associate member, Institute for Cancer 
Research (now Fox Chase Cancer 
Center), Philadelphia, 1960-1965, 
senior member, 1965- 



Beatrice Mintz has been recognized 
for her research on cellular biology 
and developmental genetics, and she 
particularly investigated inherited 
susceptibility to certain tumors. Her 
research has focused on gene control 
of differentiation and disease in mam- 
mals, including, most recently, the 
hereditary basis of melanoma or skin 

cancer. Melanoma is a highly dangerous form of skin cancer, but is difficult to 
detect early and treat. She is renowned for her techniques in manipulating the 
genetic makeup of mouse embryos and for new methods for freezing cells. After 
receiving her undergraduate degree, she accepted a position at the University of 
Iowa as assistant and instructor while she completed her doctorate. She was hired 
at the University of Chicago as an instructor in 1946 and advanced to associate 
professor in 1955. During this time, she was awarded a Fulbright research fellow- 
ship to study in France. She left Chicago in 1960 to become an associate member 
of the Institute for Cancer Research, now the Fox Chase Cancer Center, where she 
is still a senior member and researcher, and holds an endowed chair. 

Mintz was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1973 and was named 
an Outstanding Woman in Science by the New York Academy of Sciences in 
1993. She has received numerous awards, including the Papanicolaou Award for 
Scientific Achievement (1979), the first medal of the Genetics Society of America 
(1981), Germany's first Ernst Jung Gold Medal for Medicine (1990), the first 
March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology (1996), and a National Medal 
of Honor for Basic Research from the American Cancer Society (1997). She is a fel- 
low of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. She is also 



694 | Mitchell, Helen Swift 

a member of the Genetics Society of America, the Society for Developmental 
Biology, the International Society of Developmental Biology, the American Institute 
of Biological Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. 

Further Resources 

Fox Chase Cancer Center. "Beatrice Mintz, PhD." http://www.fccc.edu/research/pid/ 
mintz/. 



Mitchell, Helen Swift 

1895 1984 
Nutritionist 

Education: B.A., Mount Holyoke College, 1917; Ph.D., physiological chemistry, 
Yale University, 1921 

Professional Experience: high school instructor, 1917-1918; director, nutrition 
research, Battle Creek Sanitarium, 1921-1932; professor, nutrition, Battle Creek 
College, 1924-1935; research professor, nutrition and home economics, Massachu- 
setts State College, 1935-1941; principal nutritionist, Office of Defense, Health, 
and Welfare Services, Washington, D.C., 1941-1943; chief nutritionist, Office 
of Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation Operations, U.S. Department of State, 
1943-1944; professor, nutrition, Carnegie Institute of Technology, 1946; dean, 
home economics, University of Massachusetts, 1946-1960 

Concurrent Positions: exchange professor, Hokaido University, Japan, 1960-1962; 
research consultant, Harvard School of Public Health 

Helen Mitchell was an authority on nutrition and vitamins who helped develop the 
idea of Recommended Dietary Allowances (or RDA), now required on all food 
labeling. After receiving her doctorate at Yale University, she became research 
director of nutrition at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in 1921 and then, beginning 
in 1924, served simultaneously as professor of physiology and nutrition at Battle 
Creek College. She was appointed a research professor at Massachusetts State 
College in 1935. During World War II, she took a leave from teaching to be chief 
nutritionist for the U.S. Office of Defense, Health, and Welfare, and then for the 
Department of State. It was during her tenure working for the government that 
Mitchell and other researchers prepared a report on nutrition and vitamin needs 
of enlisted men; their work led to the RDA recommendations for different groups, 
which eventually were applied to the population at large. 



Mitchell, Joan L. | 695 

After the war, Mitchell returned to academia, first at the Carnegie Institute of 
Technology for a year, and then in an appointment as dean of home economics 
at the University of Massachusetts in 1946. She traveled widely to conduct 
research and attend international congresses, visiting Newfoundland, Russia, 
Scandinavia, Scotland, and the Middle East. She received an honorary degree from 
the University of Massachusetts at the time of her retirement in 1960. Even after 
her retirement, she was active as a consultant to the Harvard School of Public 
Health and as an exchange professor in Japan for two years. She was also a co- 
author of Nutrition in Nursing and of the fifteenth edition of Nutrition in Health 
and Disease, a standard textbook that has been regularly updated and reprinted 
for more than 70 years. 

Mitchell was elected a fellow of the American Public Health Association, and 
was also a member of the American Dietetic Association, the American Home 
Economics Association, the American Institute of Nutrition, and the Institute of 
Food Technologists. 



Mitchell, Joan L. 

b. 1947 
Physicist 

Education: B.S., physics, Stanford University, 1969; M.S., University of Illinois, 
Urbana-Champaign, 1971, Ph.D., physics, 1974 

Professional Experience: research staff member, International Business 
Machines (IBM) J. Watson Research Center, 1974-1994, research staff member, 
Image Applications, 1996-2007; fellow, Ricoh/IBM InfoPrint Solutions 
Company, 2007- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting professor, University of Illinois 

Joan L. Mitchell is a physicist whose work has had applications in computer 
science over the course of her long career in photographic image processing and 
technologies with IBM. She was a member and editor of the Joint Photographic 
Experts Group (JPEG) that developed and standardized the algorithm for color 
image compression, and she co-authored books in the mid-1990s on the JPEG 
and MPEG formats, both now standard international data compression formats. 
Mitchell received her doctorate in physics from the University of Illinois in 1974 
and worked in various departments of the IBM T. J. Watson Research center for 
more than 30 years before joining the new Ricoh-IBM collaboration, InfoPrint 



696 | Mitchell, Mildred Bessie 

Solutions, as a fellow in 2007. She holds or shares more than 100 patents related to 
processes for photographic facsimile (fax) and image data compression. 

Mitchell was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2004. She has 
received several IBM Outstanding Innovation Awards, including for Two- 
Dimensional Data Compression (1978), Teleconferencing (1982), Image View 
Facility (1985), Resistive Ribbon Thermal Transfer Printing Technology (1985), 
Speed-Optimized Software Implementations of Image Compression Algorithms 
(1991), and Q-Coder (1991), and an Outstanding Technical Achievement Award 
for Algorithms for Improved Printer Performance (2001). She was elected to the 
IBM Academy of Technology in 1997 and was named an IBM Fellow in 2001. 
Mitchell is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). 
She also wrote a career-advice book, Dr. Joan's Mentoring Book: Straight Talk 
about Taking Charge of Your Career (2007). 

Further Resources 

"10 Minutes with Dr. Joan Mitchell, InfoPrint Fellow and Master Inventor." InfoPrint Insights. 
8. (June 2009). Ricoh-IBM InfoPrint Solutions. http://www.infoprintsolutionscompany 
.com/internet/wwsites.nsf/vwWebPublished/ii 060109 us?OpenDocument# 18. 

"Joan Mitchell." IBM Women in Technology. IBM Women Fellows. http://www-03 
.ibm.com/ibm/history/witexhibit/wit fellows mitchell.html. 



Mitchell, Mildred Bessie 

1903 1983 

Clinical Psychologist 

Education: B.A., Rockford College, 1924; M.A., Radcliffe College, 1927; Ph.D., 
psychology, Yale University, 1931 

Professional Experience: professor, education and mathematics, Lees College, 
1927-1928; psychologist, George School, 1931-1933; chief psychologist, New 
Hampshire State Hospital, 1933-1936; vocational director, U.S. Employment 
Service in New Hampshire, 1936; psychologist, Bellevue Hospital, New York 
City, 1937; chief psychologist, Psychopathic Hospital, Iowa State University, 
1938-1939; psychologist, Mt. Pleasant and Independence Street Hospitals, 
1939-1941; clinical psychologist, State Bureau of Psychological Services, Minne- 
sota, 1941-1942; member of Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Services 
(WAVES), 1942-1945; vocational appraiser, Veterans Guidance Center, City 
College New York, 1945-1946; psychologist, Domestic Relations Court, 



Mitchell, Mildred Bessie | 697 

New York City, 1946-1947; chief psychologist, Veterans Administration Center, 
Dayton, Ohio, 1951-1958; clinical psychologist, Aerospace Medical Laboratory, 
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 1958-1960, research psychologist, Bionics Sec- 
tion, Aeronautical Systems Division, 1960-1963; associate professor, psychology, 
University of Tampa, 1965-1967; lecturer, behavioral science, University of South 
Florida, 1967-1970 

Mildred Mitchell had a distinguished career as a clinical psychologist, but she is 
best known for her early contributions to the development of the science of bion- 
ics. Bionics involves utilizing electronic devices and mechanical parts to assist 
humans in performing difficult, dangerous, or intricate tasks by supplementing or 
duplicating parts of the body. Tasks can range from the design of glove boxes to 
handling radioactive material in clean rooms to the design of artificial limbs to 
replace those lost to accident or disease. Bionics was a new science in the 1960s, 
and psychologists, biologists, physicians, chemists, physicists, mathematicians, 
and engineers teamed up to duplicate electronically the functions of people, 
animals, and plants. 

Mitchell became involved in bionics in the late 1950s when she was asked by 
the U.S. Air Force to assist in the psychological evaluation of men competing for 
the astronaut training program. Initially, she was asked only to test the applicants' 
reaction to isolation, but later she was appointed to the selection team. The selec- 
tion committee chose experienced pilots, and devised tests that simulated the pres- 
sures of high altitude and the resultant stresses on the body. The scientists knew 
that even experienced pilots had difficulty performing some actions such as 
manipulating the controls during takeoffs and landings because of high gravity 
(G) forces. When Mitchell was head of bionics at the Aerospace Medical Labora- 
tory, she designed an artificial muscle that could take over such operations and 
could also assist if an astronaut who had experienced long periods of weightless- 
ness found his muscles had become weak or impaired. She also designed a "nail 
bender" that can bend an iron nail with a puff of air. Her group designed a man- 
made "biological clock," which duplicates through machinery the natural mecha- 
nism that tells animals whether it is day or night, even if their environment has 
been artificially altered. There have been significant advances in materials, in 
computer simulation of muscle action, and in the need for specific bionic equip- 
ment since the beginnings of the space program. However, Mitchell and her teams 
early and made significant contributions to this new science. 

After working with the Air Force, Mitchell accepted positions teaching at sev- 
eral academic institutions and, throughout her career, she was involved in improv- 
ing the status of women psychologists. In 1951, she published a landmark report in 
the journal American Psychologist on the status of women psychologists who were 



698 | Moore, Emmeline 

members of the American Psychological Association. The data indicated that 
women had not been elected as fellows or officers, nor had they been appointed 
to committees in proportion to their numbers and qualifications. She also noted 
that women (such as herself) changed jobs frequently due to lack of opportunities 
for advancement. Her report garnered some criticism, but also resulted in reforms 
within the profession. 

Mitchell was honored with distinguished technical achievement awards of the 
U.S. Air Force (1962 and 1964). She was a fellow of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, and 
the International Council of Women Psychologists. 



Moore, Emmeline 

1872 1963 
Aquatic Biologist 

Education: A.B., Cornell University, 1905; A.M., Wellesley College, 1906; Ph.D., 
Cornell University, 1914 

Professional Experience: teacher, public schools, 1895-1903; instructor, biology, 
normal school, 1906-1910; substitute professor, botany, Huguenot College, South 
Africa, 1911; instructor and assistant professor, Vassar College, 1914-1919; 
research biologist and director of biological survey, New York Conservation Com- 
mission, 1919-1944 

Emmeline Moore was an aquatic biologist and one of the few women to be 
appointed the director of a state fisheries department. Her research focused on 
the effect of fishing, disease, and pollution on fish in freshwater lakes, ponds, 
and rivers. Her career followed the pattern of many women in that she taught pub- 
lic school for several years before receiving her undergraduate degree. She was 
appointed an instructor in biology at a normal school after receiving her master's 
degree from Wellesley and substituted as a botany professor in South Africa for 
a year before returning to Cornell to complete her doctorate in 1914. She was 
appointed instructor and then assistant professor at Vassar, but joined the New 
York State Conversation Department in 1919 as its first female research biologist. 
She became chief aquatic biologist and was eventually appointed director of the 
survey. While her main focus was on the waterways and lakes of New York, she 
also conducted research projects throughout the United States and Canada, as well 
as in Europe and Africa. In 1926, she published a study on Problems in Fresh 
Water Fisheries. Even after her formal retirement in 1944, Moore served as an 



Morawetz, Cathleen (Synge) | 699 

honorary fellow at the University of Wisconsin and as a research assistant at the 
Yale University oceanography lab. 

Moore received the Walker Prize of the Boston Society of Natural History in 
both 1909 and 1915. She was the first woman president of the American Fisheries 
Society in 1928 and was a member of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science and the Ecological Society of America. In 1958, a state marine 
research ship, the Emmeline M. , was named after her. 

Further Resources 

Hennigan, Robert D. 2004. "Emmeline Moore: Pioneer Biologist and Fisheries Scientist." 
Clearwaters. 34(3). (Fall 2004). New York Water Environment Association, Inc. http:// 
www.nywea.org/clearwaters/04-3-fall/EmmelineMoore.cfm. 

Brown, Patricia Stocking. 1994. "Early Women Ichthyologists." Environmental Biology of 
Fishes 41: 9 30. (1994). http://swfsc.noaa.gov/uploadedFiles/Education/Women%20in 
%20Ichthyology.pdf. 



Morawetz, Cathleen (Synge) 

b. 1923 

Applied Mathematician 

Education: B.S., University of Toronto, 1944; M.S., Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology, 1946; Ph.D., mathematics, New York University, 1951 

Professional Experience: research associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technol- 
ogy (MIT), 1951-1952; research associate, Courant Institute of Mathematical 
Science, New York University, 1952-1957, assistant to associate professor, math- 
ematics, 1957-1966, professor, 1966-1993, associate director, Courant Institute, 
1978-1984, director, 1984-1988, emerita 

Cathleen Morawetz is renowned for her research in applied mathematics. She is 
the first woman in the United States to head a mathematical institution, the Cou- 
rant Institute of Mathematical Science at NYU. Her early work involved the 
mathematical analysis of transonic flow, which has practical applications in the 
design of aircraft as it involves the study of flow past an airfoil, such as the wing 
of an airplane. At very fast speeds, shock waves will develop and will increase 
the drag on an aircraft, which has important implications for the design of super- 
sonic aircraft. In the 1960s, her research indicated that the equations of transonic 
flow show that a shock wave must occur if a plane goes fast enough, no matter 
how the wings are designed; engineers now settle for designing airfoils with small 



700 | Morawetz, Cathleen (Synge) 




Mathematician Cathleen Morawetz is former director of the Courant Institute at NYU. (New 
York University Archives) 



shocks. Later, she concentrated on the mathematics associated with the scattering 
of waves — electromagnetic, sound, or elastic — upon hitting a barrier. The problem 
was how to observe and analyze the interaction of the wave with the barrier, 
whether it was reflected, absorbed, or transmitted. Some applications of scattering 
theory are in x-ray diffraction, and mathematical analyses of high-frequency 
waves are the basis of techniques used in medicine to visualize internal organs as 
well as techniques used in geology to search for oil fields. 

Morawetz's father was the mathematician John Synge, renowned for his work 
in tensor analysis. He did not push his daughter toward a career in mathematics, 
and she originally wanted to study engineering at the California Institute of Tech- 
nology, but the school did not accept women at that time. She therefore concen- 
trated on applied mathematics because she found it esthetically appealing to use 
mathematics to describe natural phenomena. She later obtained a temporary job 
at New York University in the Mathematics Department to edit mathematician 
Richard Courant's book Supersonic Flow and Shock Waves (1948). She never 
formally applied to the graduate school but began taking classes and eventually 
wrote a thesis on imploding shock waves. She gave birth to four children 
during her graduate and early career years and spent several years working as a 



Morgan, Agnes Fay | 701 

part-time researcher supported by government contracts before joining the faculty 
at the Courant Institute. She eventually became assistant director and then, in 
1984, director of the school. 

Morawetz has received eight honorary degrees, including an honorary doctorate 
from her own institution, New York University, in 2007. She was elected to mem- 
bership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1990, the first woman member of 
the Applied Mathematics Section. She was named Outstanding Woman of Science 
by the Association for Women in Science (1993), and is a recipient of a National 
Medal of Science (1998), the Leroy P. Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement by 
the American Mathematical Society (2004), and the Birkhoff Prize in Applied 
Mathematics (2006), awarded jointly by the AMS and the Society for Industrial 
and Applied Mathematics. She is a fellow of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and 
a member of the American Mathematical Society (president, 1995-1997), 
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and Mathematical Association of 
America. 

Further Resources 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 

Murray, Margaret Anne Marie. 2000. Women Becoming Mathematicians: Creating an 
Identity in Post World War II America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 



Morgan, Agnes Fay 

1884 1968 

Biochemist and Nutritionist 

Education: B.S., University of Chicago, 1904, M.S., 1905, Ph.D., chemistry, 
1914 

Professional Experience: instructor, chemistry, Hardin College, 1905-1907; 
instructor, chemistry, University of Washington, 1910-1913; assistant to associate 
professor, nutrition, University of California, Berkeley, 1915-1923, professor, 
nutrition, 1923-1928, professor, home economics and biochemistry, 1938-1954 

Concurrent Positions: biochemist, experiment station, University of California, 
Berkeley, 1938-1954 



702 | Morgan, Ann Haven 

Agnes Fay Morgan was recognized as one of the pioneers in the development of 
home economics as a scientific discipline, and as one of the pioneers in nutrition 
research. The home economics department at Berkeley under Morgan had one 
of the outstanding programs in the country due to her emphasis on research 
and her insistence on chemistry as an integral part of the home economics cur- 
riculum. Between 1951 and 1954, she served as chair of departments at both 
Berkeley and Davis. She founded Iota Sigma Pi, a national society for women 
in chemistry. Although she had a fine record of research and teaching, she was 
proudest of her administrative skills in establishing a department of Household 
Science and Arts at Berkeley and in playing a major role in the growth of the 
science of home economics. Her research included the effect of heat on the bio- 
logical value of proteins and the mechanism of action of vitamins. She was rec- 
ognized for her pioneering work on the biochemistry of vitamins, which has had 
a lasting influence on research today. She was the first to produce graying of 
hair through vitamin deficiency and the first to note certain supplementary 
effects of vitamin D. 

Morgan received the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society in 1949 
for her work on vitamins, and she received the Borden Award in 1954. In 1961, the 
Berkeley campus named the home economics building in her honor. She received 
an honorary degree from the University of California in 1959. She published 
Experimental Food Study (1927 ', 1940). She was elected a fellow of the American 
Institute of Nutrition and was a member of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science and the American Society of Biological Chemists. 

Further Resources 

King, Janet C. 2003. "Contributions of Women to Human Nutrition." Journal of Nutrition. 
133: 3693 3697. (November 2003). http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/133/ll/ 
3693. 



Morgan, Ann Haven 

1882 1966 

Zoologist and Ecologist 

Education: A.B., Cornell University, 1906, Ph.D., 1912 

Professional Experience: assistant and instructor, zoology, Mount Holyoke 
College, 1906-1909; assistant and instructor, Cornell University, 1909-1911; 
associate professor, Mount Holyoke College, 1912-1913, professor, 1914-1947 



Moss, Cynthia Jane | 703 

Ann Morgan was a biologist and zoologist recognized for her pioneering research on 
ecology and conservation and wrote several popular books, including Field Book of 
Ponds and Streams: An Introduction to the Life of Fresh Water (1930), the source for 
information on collecting and preserving specimens for many amateur naturalists, 
and Field Book of Animals in Winter (1939). Her research included freshwater 
biology, respiration and ecology of aquatic insects, biology of mayflies, habits and 
conditions of hibernating animals, and conservation, and her students nicknamed 
her "Mayfly Morgan." Morgan studied at Wellesley before transferring to Cornell 
University, where she received her bachelor's degree in 1906 and her doctorate in 
1912. She was a visiting scholar at numerous colleges and institutions, including 
the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Harvard University, Yale Univer- 
sity, and the Tropical Laboratory at Kartabo, British Guiana. In the 1940s and 1950s, 
Morgan concentrated on reforming the science curriculum to include the topics of 
ecology and conservation in both schools and colleges. She gave lectures and work- 
shops for teachers of geography, zoology, and sociology. Her last book, Kinships of 
Animals and Man: A Textbook of Animal Biology (1955), written for an introductory 
course in zoology, synthesized her work on this topic. 

Morgan was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, American Society of Naturalists, National Commission on Policies in 
Conservation Education, New York Herpetological Society, American Society of 
Zoologists, and Entomological Society of America. 

Further Resources 

Bonta, Marcia. 1991. Women in the Field: America's Pioneering Women Naturalists. 
College Station: Texas A&M University Press. 



Moss, Cynthia Jane 

b. 1940 
Wildlife Biologist 

Education: B.A., philosophy, Smith College, 1962 

Professional Experience: reporter and researcher, Newsweek, 1964-1968; veteri- 
narian research assistant, Nairobi, 1969; research assistant, Athi Plains and Tvavo 
National Park, 1970; freelance journalist, 1970-1971; editor, Wildlife News, 1971— 
1985; co-director, Amboseli Elephant Research Project, Kenya, 1972- 

Concurrent Positions: senior associate, African Wildlife Foundation, 1985- 



704 | Moss, Cynthia Jane 

Cynthia Moss is one of the foremost experts on the African elephant in the world, 
and, for many years, she and her associate Joyce Poole led the fight to stop the 
world trade in ivory. The illegal killing of elephants for their ivory tusks has neg- 
ative effects for the entire elephant community, since it is the older lead elephants 
or the strongest males that are the targets of poachers. During the 1980s, Moss and 
Poole temporarily set aside their research projects to work with Richard Leakey to 
protect the elephants in Kenya and to stop the worldwide ivory trade. The three 
worked together to have the African elephant designated an endangered species 
by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in 1989. Moss 
and Poole created a worldwide movement to ban the ivory trade by inviting pho- 
tographers and newspaper reporters to visit Amboseli to photograph the elephants 
and tell their stories. 

Moss's unique research on animals has been compared to the work of English 
primatologist Jane Goodall. Moss developed a method of identifying elephants 
by their ears, and she and her researchers have identified more than 1,400 individ- 
ual elephants. Like Goodall, Moss began naming the elephants according to their 
families. She also studied the elephants' family structure and social patterns and 
became an authority on the subject. She is famous for her research that shows 
the male African elephants experience musth, a condition of increased aggression 
and increased sexual activity that had previously been attributed only to male 
Indian elephants. Along with Poole, she has also conducted pioneer studies of 
elephant vocalizations and identified different calls and behaviors that signal what 
the elephants will do — either charge or move away. Another insight Moss discov- 
ered is that, in times of drought, the elephants do not breed and therefore reduce 
the number of babies that will require food. 

Moss fell in love with Africa on a brief visit to the country in 1967, and after 
working as a journalist for a number of years, she moved to Africa permanently to 
work with several established researchers. In 1972, she helped found the Amboseli 
Elephant Research Project in Kenya. Her books, Portraits in the Wild: Behaviour 
Studies of East African Mammals (1975) and Elephant Memories: Thirteen 
Years in the Life of an Elephant Family (1988; rev. ed., 2000), describe her work in 
Amboseli National Park. She has also contributed to children's books and wildlife 
documentaries on the elephants. In 2000, Moss was named one of Time magazine's 
"Heroes for the Planet." 

Further Resources 

Amboseli Elephant Research Project. "Cynthia Moss." http://www.elephanttrust.org/node/41 
Poole, Joyce. 1996. Coming of Age with Elephants: A Memoir. New York: Hyperion. 



Murray, Sandra Ann | 705 

Murray, Sandra Ann 

b. 1947 

Molecular Biologist, Cell Biologist 

Education: B.S., biology, University of Illinois, Chicago, 1970; M.S., biology, 
Texas Southern University, 1973; Ph.D., anatomy, University of Iowa, 1980 

Professional Experience: instructor, biology, Texas Southern University, 1972- 
1973; National Institutes of Health (NIH) postdoctoral research fellow, University 
of California, Riverside, 1980-1982; assistant professor, anatomy, University of 
Pittsburgh Medical School, 1982-1989, associate professor, cell biology and 
physiology, 1989- 

Concurrent Positions: researcher, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole 
Oceanographic Institution, 1986-1990; visiting scientist, Scripps Research 
Institute of Molecular Biology, 1991-1992; associate professor, Health Officers 
Institute, Office of Defense, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 1996— 

Sandra Murray is known for her research in molecular and cell biology. She uses 
molecular biological, biochemical, and morphological methods to study how cells 
function, what brings about normal functions in a cell population, what controls 
the rate of cell population growth if a normal population has been injured, and 
how that compares with the daily process of aging and replenishing that popula- 
tion. She looks at what is different in cancer cell populations and examines the 
capacity of cells to send signals from one cell to an adjacent cell via structures 
called "connexins" that are associated with controlling the function of cells and 
the rate of cell population growth. She studies cells in culture and sometimes from 
human tissue taken from donors. 

Murray became interested in science at a very early age. She did not feel any 
limitations on her career goals until she got to high school, when a counselor told 
her that "colored girls don't become scientists." While still in high school, how- 
ever, she worked as a laboratory aide at the University of Illinois Medical School 
and was participating in Saturday science classes at the University of Illinois. 
After earning her B.S., she went on to graduate study at Texas Southern University 
and the University of Iowa, where a professor made racist comments about her 
ability to keep up in class. When she made good grades, he told her that her lighter 
skin probably indicated she had non- African blood that allowed her to do well. She 
transferred to a different department and received her doctorate in anatomy in 
1980. Soon after, she became an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh 
Medical School, where she became the first African American to receive tenure. 



706 | Murray, Sandra Ann 

Murray remains committed to encouraging women and minority students in the 
sciences. Recalling her own early interest in science, she also regularly serves as a 
mentor and judge for the National Technology Association of Science and the 
International Science and Engineers Fairs. She is a member of the American 
Society of Cell Biology (and served on the Minorities Affairs Committee), the 
American Society of Biological Chemists, American Association of Anatomists, 
Tissue Culture Association, and Endocrine Society. 

Further Resources 

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Faculty website, http://www.cbp.pitt.edu/ 
fac ulty/m urray.html . 

Ambrose, Susan A. 1997. Journeys of Women in Science and Engineering: No Universal 
Constants. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. 



N 



Napadensky, Hyla Sarane (Siegel) 



b. 1929 

Combustion Engineer 

Education: B.S. and M.S., mathematics, University of Chicago, ca. 1950 

Professional Experience: design analysis engineer, International Harvester 
Company, 1952-1957; director of research, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) 
Research Institute, Chicago, 1957-1988; vice president, Napadensky Energetics, 
Inc., 1988-1994, engineering consultant, 1994-1998 

Concurrent Positions: instructor, Mechanics Department, IIT, 1964-1966 

Hyla Napadensky is a combustion engineer who spent her career as an expert in 
explosives and propellant safety. Her research included the study of accidental 
fires and explosions during the manufacture, transport, and storage of explosives, 
propellants, and pyrotechnics. She also studied explosive and initiation mecha- 
nisms, facility siting, and systems safety and risk analysis. After working for five 
years for the International Harvester Company, she began a career as director of 
research at the IIT Research Institute in Chicago, involved with research on a con- 
tract basis, some of it with federal agencies. Many of the studies she conducted for 
the government on materials used in explosive charges are probably classified as 
secret and therefore are not included in the standard databases. Napadensky pre- 
pared a 220-page book for the U.S. Army, Development of Hazards Classification 
Data on Propellants and Explosives (1978), and a similar book for the same agency, 
Recommended Hazard Classification Procedures for In-Process Propellant and 
Explosive Material (1980). As an internal publication, she prepared data on the 
TNT equivalency of black powder. She has also written about the risks of handling 
explosives on ships and in harbors. 

Napadensky spent 30 years at the IIT Research Institute. She then established 
a consulting company, Napadensky Energetics, Inc., and formally retired in 
1998. She was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering 
in 1984, and has been a National Associate of the National Academies since 
2001. 



707 



708 | Navrotsky, Alexandra A. S. 
Navrotsky, Alexandra A. S. 



b. 1943 

Geochemist, Geophysicist 

Education: B.S., University of Chicago, 1963, M.S., 1964, Ph.D., chemistry, 1967 

Professional Experience: research associate, theoretical metallurgy, Technische 
Hochschule, Clausthal, Germany, 1967-1968; research associate, geochemistry, 
Pennsylvania State University, 1968-1969; assistant professor, chemistry, Arizona 
State University, 1969-1974, associate professor, 1974-1978, professor, chemistry 
and geology, 1978-1985, director, Center for Solid State Science, Arizona State 
University, 1984-1985; professor, geological and geophysical science (affiliate 
in chemistry), Princeton University, 1985-1997; Interdisciplinary Professor, 
Ceramic, Earth, and Environmental Materials Chemistry, University of California, 
Davis, 1997-; director, Nanomaterials in the Environment, Agriculture, and Tech- 
nology, Organized Research Unit (NEAT ORU), 2002- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting research associate, James Franck Institute, University 
of Chicago, 1970-1971; visiting scientist, Technische Universitat, Clausthal, 
Germany, 1972; visiting scientist, Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1974; visiting lecturer, 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1975; visiting associate professor, University of 
California, Berkeley, 1976; Program Director for Chemical Thermodynamics, 
National Science Foundation, 1976-1977; visiting professor, State University of 
New York, 1981; visiting summer faculty, IBM, T J. Watson Research Center, 1988 

Alexandra Navrotsky is recognized as one of the leaders in combining mineralogi- 
cal and materials research. As new technological materials become increasingly 
complex in structure and bonding, they are beginning to resemble the materials 
that make up our planet; materials science is the study of the characteristics and 
uses of various materials such as glass, plastics, and metals. One of the areas she 
has investigated is the composition of the Earth, and she points out that although 
humans have explored the moon, a journey to the center of the Earth remains fic- 
tional and technologically unattainable. However, mineral physics can provide 
some information via laboratory and computational simulations of matter under 
high pressure and temperature. The Earth is composed of, in descending order, 
the crust, the upper mantle, the transition zone, the lower mantle, the outer core, 
and the inner core. Navrotsky has published on the topic of thermochemistry. 
In 2002, she became the director of a new research institute at the University of 
California, Davis called NEAT: Nanomaterials in the Environment, Agriculture, 
and Technology. NEAT is "a multidisciplinary research and education program 
which links the fundamental physics, chemistry, and engineering of small particles 



Nelkin, Dorothy (Wolfers) | 709 

and nanomaterials to several challenging areas of investigation," making applica- 
tions in agricultural and environmental technology and health sciences. 

Navrotsky was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1993. Her expertise has been recognized by invitations to lecture at universities 
around the world. She has served on visiting committees for several institutions 
and scientific organizations. She was a member of the Committee on Mineral 
Physics of the American Geophysical Union (1983-1993) and the Committee on 
High Temperature Chemistry of the National Academy of Sciences (1981-1985), a 
fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America (President, 1992-1993), and a fellow 
of the American Ceramic Society (2001). In 2002, she was awarded the prestigious 
Benjamin Franklin Medal in Earth Science and, in 2006, the Harry H. Hess Medal 
of the American Geophysical Union. She is the author of Physics and Chemistry of 
Earth Materials (1994), a textbook designed for advanced undergraduates and 
first-year graduate students. She holds a U.S. Patent (2005) for "Methods for Remov- 
ing Organic Compounds from Nano-Compositic Materials." 

Further Resources 

University of California, Davis. Faculty website, http://navrotsky.engr.ucdavis.edu/. 



Nelkin, Dorothy (Wolfers) 

1933 2003 
Sociologist 

Education: B.A., sociology, Cornell University, 1954 

Professional Experience: research associate, sociology, Cornell University, 
1963-1969, senior research associate, 1970-1972, associate professor, 1972- 
1976, professor, Science, Technology and Society Policy Program, 1976-1990, 
professor, sociology, 1977-1989; professor, sociology and affiliate professor, 
law, New York University, 1989-2003 

Dorothy Nelkin was a sociologist who wrote or co-authored more than 20 books as 
well as numerous papers on topics as diverse as migrant labor, nuclear power, 
housing innovation, university and military research, methadone maintenance, sci- 
ence, technological decisions, the atom, the creation controversy, animal rights, 
unsafe work conditions, genetics, and medical diagnosis. In her book Workers at 
Risk: Voices from the Workplace (1984), she reviewed the unsafe conditions that 
workers of all types encounter. Her research team interviewed workers in muse- 
ums, beauty shops, research laboratories, and computer-assembly plants as well 



710 I Neufeld, Elizabeth (Fondal) 

as steel mills, auto-assembly plants, and other obvious places for dangerous work- 
ing conditions. The surveyors found there was no direct link between the actual 
hazards and people's perceptions of risk. For example, artists and research scien- 
tists often feel that the rewards of their job outweigh the risks of handling 
extremely toxic chemicals. However, many workers complained they lacked infor- 
mation about the chemicals with which they worked. Nelkin's hope was that work- 
place safety would improve as a result of the survey. 

Nelkin was concerned about how scientific information and tests were used to con- 
trol people's lives. Her earlier book on the workplace was revised and republished 
under the title of Dangerous Diagnostics: The Social Power of Biological Informa- 
tion (1989), with new research from Nelkin and her researchers on the myriad tests 
that pronounce people healthy or ill, or likely or unlikely to suffer any of hundreds 
of ailments. The authors focused on the social implications of the information that 
these tests provide and the power that accrued to employers who administer the tests. 
In her book The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon (1995; co-authored with 
M. Susan Lindee), she weighed in on the increasing public and political interest in 
human genetics in relation to social questions of intelligence, homosexuality, or 
criminality. The authors concluded that a reliance on DNA testing obscures efforts 
to solve social problems through policy or sociological support. In 2001, she and 
co-author Lori B. Andrews continued the discussion about who controls genetic 
information in their book, Body Bazaar: The Market for Human Tissue in the Biotech- 
nology Age. Always interested in the relationship between science and culture, at the 
time of her death in 2003 she was working on new projects on science and religion 
and, with Suzanne Anker, on the influence of genetic science on the arts. Their book, 
The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age, was published after Nelkin's death. 

Nelkin was a consultant to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and 
Development (OECD, 1975-1976) and the Institute of Environment, Berlin 
(1978-1979), and a member of the National Advisory Council to the Human 
Genome Project of the National Institutes of Health (1991-1995). She was a fel- 
low of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member 
of the Society for Social Studies of Science (president, 1978-1979). In 1993, she 
was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science. 



Neufeld, Elizabeth (Fondal) 

b. 1928 

Geneticist, Biochemist 

Education: B.S., Queens College, 1948; student, University of Rochester, 1949- 
1950; Ph.D., comparative biochemistry, University of California, Berkeley, 1956 



Neufeld, Elizabeth (Fondal) | 711 



Professional Experience: postdoc- 
toral researcher, biochemistry, Univer- 
sity of California, Berkeley, 1956 
-1963; research biochemist, National 
Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism and 
Digestive Diseases, National Institutes 
of Health, 1963-1973, chief, Section 
on Human Biochemical Genetics, 
1973-1979, chief, Genetics and Bio- 
chemistry Branch, National Institute 
of Arthritis, Diabetes, and Digestive 
and Kidney Diseases, 1979-1984, 
deputy director, Division of Extramu- 
ral Research, 1981-1983; professor 
and chair, biological chemistry, 
School of Medicine, University of 
California, Los Angeles, 1984-2005, 
emeritus 

Concurrent Positions: U.S. Public 
Health Service fellow, University of 
California, Berkeley, 1956-1957, 
assistant research biochemist, 1957- 
1963 




Biochemist Elizabeth Neufield has researched 
the genetic basis of metabolic diseases. 
(National Library of Medicine) 



Elizabeth Neufeld is a leading international authority on human genetic diseases. 
Her research includes human biochemical genetics, mucopolysaccharidoses; 
Tay-Sachs disease; synthesis and transport of lysosomal enzymes; and inherited 
disorders of lysosomal functions. She provided new insights on the absence of cer- 
tain enzymes that prevent the body from properly storing certain substances and 
has led to prenatal diagnosis of such life-threatening fetal disorders as Hurler syn- 
drome. Her research on inherited disorders of the connective tissues focused on 
diseases in which cells lack certain enzymes needed to process complex sugars. 
The accumulation of sugars causes the cells to grow and put internal pressure on 
nerve tissues, which can die from too much pressure. Patients suffer from severe 
mental and motor deterioration, have vision and hearing problems, and die prema- 
turely, usually before puberty. The diseases are known as the Hurler and Sanfilippo 
syndromes and are also related to Tay-Sachs and other diseases. After years of 
research, her team found that the problem was a defective gene that was causing 
the sugars to break down at an abnormally slow rate, and further study indicated 
that a series of enzymes were lacking in the patients. Her work has led to 



712 | New, Maria (landolo) 

successful prenatal diagnosis and has contributed to the availability of genetic 
counseling for parents. Future treatments being considered are gene replacement 
therapy and bone marrow transplant. 

Neufeld's parents were Russian refugees living in Paris after the Russian revolu- 
tion when she was born; the family moved to New York City before the Germans 
occupied France in 1940. Her parents stressed the importance of education because 
education cannot be taken away, and she became interested in science while in high 
school through the influence of her biology instructor. She started her scientific stud- 
ies at a time when few women were choosing science as a career and there were few 
positions open for women — partly because of the historical bias against women in 
science and partly because of the influx of men returning from World War II. Few 
women could be found on the science faculties of colleges and universities, but she 
persevered in her career because she enjoyed what she was doing. 

Neufeld has received numerous honorary degrees and awards. She was elected to 
membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1977. She received the Lasker 
Award in 1982, the highest honor in the United States for medical research and 
which often leads to the Nobel Prize. She also won the Wolf Prize in Medicine 
(1988) and was awarded the National Medal of Science (1994). She is a fellow of 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the 
American Society of Human Genetics, American Chemical Society, American Soci- 
ety of Biological Chemists, American Society of Cell Biology, American Society of 
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (president, 1992), and American Academy of 
Arts and Sciences. In 1990, she was named California Scientist of the Year. 

Further Resources 

University of California, Los Angeles. Faculty research page. http://dgsom.healthsciences 
.ucla.edu/research/institution/personnel?personnel id=45290. 



New, Maria (landolo) 

b. 1928 
Pediatrician 

Education: B.A., Cornell University, 1950; M.D., University of Pennsylvania, 
1954 

Professional Experience: medical intern, Bellevue Hospital, New York, 1954- 
1955; resident, pediatrics, New York Hospital, 1955-1957, National Institutes of 
Health fellow, pediatrics, New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center, 1957-1958, 



New, Maria (landolo) | 713 

research pediatrician, Diabetic Study Group, Comprehensive Care Teaching Pro- 
gram, 1958-1961, instructor, pediatrics, 1958-1963, assistant to associate attend- 
ing professor, pediatrics, 1963-1971, chief, pediatric endocrinology, Cornell 
University Medical College (now Joan and Sanford Weill Medical College of 
Cornell), 1964-2002, professor and attending pediatrician, 1971-2004, chair, 
pediatrics, 1980-2002, program director, Children's Clinical Research Center, 
1996-2002; professor, pediatrics and human genetics, and attending pediatrician, 
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, 2004-, and director, Adrenal Steroid 
Disorders Program, 2004- 

Concurrent Positions: assistant pediatrician to outpatients, New York Hospital, 
1957-1959, pediatrician, 1960-1963, director, Pediatric Metabolism Clinic, 
1964-2003; attending pediatrician, New York-Presbyterian Hospital (formerly 
New York Hospital), 1971—, pediatrician-in-chief, 1980-2002; visiting physician, 
Rockefeller University Hospital, New York, 1973-; consultant, Albert Einstein 
College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, 1974-1976; consultant, pediatrics and 
endocrinology, New York United Hospital Medical Center, Port Chester, New 
York, 1977-; adjunct attending pediatrician, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer 
Center, 1979-1993; consultant, pediatrics, North Shore University Hospital, 
Manhasset, New York, 1982-; consultant, pediatrics, Catholic Medical Center of 
Brooklyn and Queens, 1986-; honorary member, pediatrics, Blythedale Children's 
Hospital, Valhalla, New York, 1992-; consultant, Memorial Hospital for Cancer 
and Allied Diseases, 1993-; consultant, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 
1993-2006; director, pediatric endocrinology, New York-Presbyterian: University 
Hospital of Columbia and Cornell, 1998-2002 

Maria New is an endocrinologist who specializes in pediatric endocrinology and 
renal diseases, juvenile hypertension, pediatric pharmacology, and growth and 
development from the biochemical viewpoint. She established the Maria I. New 
Children's Hormone Foundation in New York as a nonprofit organization to sup- 
port medical research on pediatric endocrinology and provide services and support 
to patients and their families. Dr. New has been affiliated with several major hos- 
pitals in the New York area as a consulting physician and has trained hundreds 
of new pediatricians in her specialty. She had a long career at Cornell University 
Medical Center before becoming professor of pediatrics and director of the 
Adrenal Steroid Disorders Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 2004. 
New has edited or co-edited numerous medical textbooks as well as more than 600 
research papers. She helped edit a book for the general public, the two-volume 
Disney Encyclopedia of Baby and Child Care (1995), compiled by four pediatri- 
cians. In addition to her numerous publications, she served as editor-in-chief of the 
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism from 1994 to 1999. 



714 | Nice, Margaret Morse 

New was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1996. 
She has received multiple honors and awards, including the Robert H. Williams 
Distinguished Leadership Award (1988), medal of the New York Academy of 
Medicine (1991), Maurice R. Greenberg Distinguished Service Award (1994), 
Humanitarian Award of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation (1994), Dale Medal of 
the British Endocrine Society (1995), MERIT Award of the National Institute of 
Child Health and Human Development (1998), Hall of Honor of the National 
Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2003), and Fred Conrad Koch 
Award, the highest honor of the Endocrine Society (2003). 

She is a member of numerous associations, such as the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, New York Academy of Sciences, American Soci- 
ety of Human Genetics, American Academy of Pediatrics, Society for Pediatric 
Research, Endocrine Society (president, 1991-1992), American Fertility Society, 
and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is an honorary member of the 
Italian Endocrine Society. 

Further Resources 

Maria New Children's Hormone Foundation, http://www.newchf.org/. 

Endocrine Society. "Maria New." http://www.endo-society.org/about/Maria-New.cfm. 



Nice, Margaret Morse 

1883 1974 
Ornithologist 

Education: B.A., Mount Holyoke College, 1906; A.M., psychology, Clark 
University, 1915 

Professional Experience: independent researcher, 1915-1974 

Concurrent Positions: associate editor, Bird-Banding, 1935-1942 and 1946-1971 

Margaret Nice was an internationally known ornithologist who adapted the tech- 
niques of scientific investigation from psychology to a new area of research, that 
of bird behavior. Her research interests included birds of Oklahoma; life history 
studies of birds, particularly mourning doves, warblers, and song sparrows; and 
speech development of children. After receiving a master's degree in psychology, 
she pursued an independent interest in ornithology. Her work was supported by 
occasional small grants, but she never held a faculty or museum appointment. 
Initially, she was interested in languages as a student at Mount Holyoke College, 
where she received her undergraduate degree in 1906. At that time, ornithology 



Nichols, Roberta J. | 715 

was taught in the zoology department and consisted of identifying dead species. 
Her interest shifted to psychology at Clark University, where she received her 
master's degree in 1915. She published 18 articles on child psychology from 
observations of her own children between 1915 and 1933. She began conducting 
field observations on birds and started corresponding with fellow ornithologists. 

Nice was at the center of a network of women ornithologists whose scientific 
correspondence also served as a professional support system. She published 
approximately 250 papers and, due to her language skills, also contributed to the 
discipline by reviewing a large number of the leading European publications. 
She co-authored (with her husband, L. Blaine Nice) The Birds of Oklahoma 
(1924) and was the sole author of the two-part Studies in the Life History of the 
Song Sparrow (1937, 1943). These works established her reputation as one of the 
world's foremost ornithologists and bird behaviorists. 

Nice was active in ornithological and conservation organizations and served as 
associate editor of the journal Bird-Banding. She published one bird book for the 
general public, The Watcher at the Nest (1939), which was reprinted in paperback. 
In later life, she increasingly turned her attention to educating the public about 
conservation and nature with lectures and talks on the radio. She often enlisted 
her entire family in her work; for example, her children would climb trees to observe 
nests for her. When the family lived in Columbus, Ohio, the local ornithology club 
was an all-male group and, even though by that time her work was known interna- 
tionally, they invited her husband to join, but ignored her. 

Nice was awarded the Brewster Medal of the American Ornithologists' Union 
in 1942. She was the first woman president of the Wilson Ornithological Society 
(1938-1939), and she was elected a fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union. 
She received an honorary degree from Mount Holyoke in 1955 and one from 
Elmira College in 1962. She published an autobiography, Research Is a Passion 
with Me (1979). She was listed in some sources as "Mrs. L. B. Nice." 

Further Resources 

Bonta, Marcia. 1991. Women in the Field: America's Pioneering Women Naturalists. 
College Station: Texas A&M University Press. 



Nichols, Roberta J. 

1931 2005 
Environmental Engineer 

Education: B.S., physics, University of California, Los Angeles, 1968; M.S., environ- 
mental engineering, University of Southern California, 1975, Ph.D., engineering, 1979 



716 I Nichols, Roberta J. 

Professional Experience: mathematician, missile department, Douglas Aircraft 
Company, 1957; mathematician, propulsion department, TRW Space Technology 
Laboratory, 1958-1960; research associate, Aerospace Corporation, Aerodynam- 
ics and Propulsion Laboratory, 1960-1967, Chemical Kinetics Department, 
1969-1978; consultant, Synthetic Fuels Office, State of California, 1978-1979; 
developer of synthetic fuels, Ford Motor Company, 1979-1989, manager, alternate 
fuels program, 1989-1995 

Roberta Nichols was a research engineer who led the U.S. automobile manufac- 
turers in developing alternate fuels and cars to use those fuels. She worked for 
many years for Ford Motor Company and acquired three patents related to the 
Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV). Nichols was one of the few people who had the fore- 
sight that future clean-air laws would alter the use of fuels used to power cars and 
trucks. She gave lectures worldwide and served as a consultant in industry and 
government on issues related to low-emission and alternative energies based on 
alcohol, methanol-gasoline blends, hydrogen power, and battery power. She joined 
the Ford Motor Company in 1979 and almost singlehandedly dragged the 
American automobile manufacturers into the alternative fuels age. She developed 
ethanol-fueled engines for Ford of Brazil; designed and developed 630 methanol- 
fueled Escorts, which were used primarily as government vehicles; designed and 
developed the power train for an alternate fuel vehicle exhibited in 1982; and over- 
saw the development of natural-gas trucks. 

Nichols became interested in alternative fuels after her father, an aerospace 
engineer, introduced her to racing boats. She not only held the women's world 
water speed record for several years in the late 1960s, but she began learning about 
engines and fuel performance. She earned a degree in physics from the University 
of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and worked for several aerospace and aircraft 
companies, including establishing the Air Pollution Laboratory at Aerospace Cor- 
poration. After she became a widow with two small children to rear, she returned 
to school to obtain graduate degrees in engineering and then got a job at Ford. 
She was also a longtime board member for the Center for Environmental Research 
and Technology at the University of California, Riverside. 

Nichols was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1997 and was 
the first woman to be elected a fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers. 
She received the Outstanding Engineer Merit Award of the Institute for the 
Advancement of Engineering, the Aerospace Corporation's Woman of the Year 
Award, the Society of Women Engineers National Achievement Award (1988), a 
Clean Air Award for Advancing Air Pollution Technology (1989), and the Gene 
Ecklund Award from the U.S. Department of Energy (1996). 



Nielsen, Jerri Lin | 717 

Nickerson, Dorothy 

1900 1985 
Physicist 

Education: unknown 

Professional Experience: assistant and assistant manager, Munsell Research Lab- 
oratory, 1921-1926; color technologist, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 
1927-1964; consultant, 1965-1974 

Dorothy Nickerson was a physicist and color specialist who applied color-graded 
standards to agricultural and horticultural products and soil. She developed the 
Nickerson color fan of more than 300 color samples graded by light value, hue, and 
chroma. The color fan or chart is important in science and industry for grading the 
color of products such as new strains of vegetables or cotton for textiles. At the 
Munsell Color Research Laboratory, Nickerson specialized in color technology and 
rose to the level of assistant manager. She joined the USDA in 1927 as a color tech- 
nologist in the bureau of agricultural economics. She authored more than 150 papers 
and articles on the Munsell color system. She left the USDA in 1964 and served as a 
U.S. expert on color rendering for the International Commission on Illumination from 
1956 to 1967. After retiring from the USDA, she formed a private consulting firm. 

Nickerson received several awards, such as the Superior Service Award from 
the USDA (1951), the Distinguished Achievement Award of the Instrument Soci- 
ety of America (1964), the Gold certificate of the American Horticultural Council 
(1957), the Godlove Award of the Inter-Society Color Council (ISCC) (1961), and 
the Gold Medal of the Illumination Society of England (1970). She was a founding 
member of the ISCC and served as secretary (1935-1952) and president (1954- 
1955). In 1980, the ISCC established a Nickerson Award in her honor. She was a 
member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Optical 
Society of America, and the Illuminating Engineering Society. 



Nielsen, Jerri Lin 

1952 2009 
Physician 

Education: B.A., zoology, Ohio University; M.D., Medical College of Ohio, 1977 

Professional Experience: physician, 1977-1998; physician, Amundsen-Scott 
station, Antarctica, 1998 



718 | Nielsen, Jerri Lin 




Jerri Nielsen was the only physician working at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in 
Antarctica in 1998 when she diagnosed herself with breast cancer. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Jerri Lin (Cahill) Nielsen was hired to spend a year as the only physician working 
at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica in 1998. She attracted 
media attention when, during the isolated winter, she discovered a lump in her 
breast and had to perform her own biopsy and administer her own chemotherapy 
before she could leave Antarctica. A longtime private physician and emergency 
room doctor, Nielsen, a divorced mother of three, joined the one-year expedition 
as the research station's sole physician, in charge of administering basic medical 
care to the scientists and staff. The station is completely isolated for nine long, 
dark months of the year, as it is too dangerous for supply planes to land or take 
off on the ice. After noticing the lump in her breast, Nielsen communicated via 
e-mail and videoconferencing with doctors back in the United States. She used a 
needle to extract samples of the tumor's cells, sending the images to other doctors 
via computer. After confirmation that the cells were cancerous, medical supplies 
and drugs for her treatment were airdropped into the station. As the only physician 
at the station, she had to rely upon assistance from the other nonmedical personnel 
to administer her chemotherapy. As soon as the weather permitted, she was 



Nightingale, Dorothy Virginia | 719 

airlifted back to the United States, where she underwent further treatment, including 
a mastectomy. 

Because of the unique and dramatic nature of her ordeal, Nielsen became a 
popular media figure and an international motivational speaker. She wrote a book 
about her experience, Icebound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the 
South Pole (2001; with Maryanne Vollers), which was adapted as a television 
movie starring Susan Sarandon. She lived with the cancer for more than 10 years, 
but it eventually spread to her brain and she died in June 2009 in Massachusetts. 



Nightingale, Dorothy Virginia 

b. 1902 
Organic Chemist 

Education: A.B., University of Missouri, 1922, A.M., organic chemistry, 1923; 
Ph.D., organic chemistry, University of Chicago, 1928 

Professional Experience: instructor, chemistry, University of Missouri, Columbia, 
1923-1939, assistant to associate professor, 1939-1958, professor, 1958-1972 

Concurrent Positions: consultant, Office of Scientific Research and Development, 
1942-1945; research associate, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 
1946-1947 

Dorothy Nightingale was a physical chemist who has been recognized for her 
work in organic synthetic reactions. Her research had important industry applica- 
tions for the production of gasoline, synthetic rubber, cleaning products, and plas- 
tics. Nightingale was originally interested in studying history and languages, but 
was encouraged early on by a professor and changed her major to chemistry. She 
joined the faculty at the University of Missouri as one of only two women chem- 
istry instructors after receiving her master's degree in 1923. She received her doc- 
torate in organic chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1928, while still 
teaching at Missouri. She was not promoted to assistant professor until 1939 and 
full professor in 1958; during her tenure there, she directed the research of more 
than 50 graduate chemistry students. She drew upon this experience in writing A 
History of the Department of Chemistry: University of Missouri-Columbia, 
1843-1975, published in 1975. 

During World War II, Nightingale took a leave from the university to work as a 
civilian with the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD). She 
worked with the Committee on Medical Research of the OSRD, contributing to 



720 | Northrup, Christiane 

compound studies important in the development of antimalarial drugs for the mili- 
tary. She spent a year conducting research at UCLA before returning to Missouri. 
She retired from the University of Missouri in 1972 after nearly 50 years at that 
institution. Nightingale was a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) 
and received the Garvan Medal of the ACS in 1959. 



Northrup, Christiane 

b. 1949 
Physician 

Education: M.D., Dartmouth Medical School, New Hampshire, 1975; diplomate, 
American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1981; diplomate, American Board 
of Holistic Medicine, 2005 

Professional Experience: director, Resident's Outpatient Obstetrics and Gynecol- 
ogy Clinic, St. Margaret's Hospital Boston, 1979-1980; associate clinical profes- 
sor, obstetrics and gynecology, Tufts University School of Medicine, 1979-1980; 
clinical instructor, obstetrics and gynecology, University of Vermont College of 
Medicine, 1979-1982, assistant clinical professor, 1982-2001; co-founder, 
Women to Women, Yarmouth, Maine, 1985-1997; physician, private practice, 
obstetrics and gynecology, Portland and Yarmouth, Maine, 1979-2005 

Christiane Northrup is a physician and women's health advocate who has built an 
international following as a proponent of holistic healthcare and wellness through 
combining Western medicine, vitamins and herbal supplements, and mind-body 
healing. Northrup specializes in obstetrics, gynecology, and women's general 
health, and has written on childbirth, menopause, and breast cancer, among other 
topics. Her first book, Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, was published in 1994 
(rev. 2006), and sold more than 1 million copies worldwide and was translated into 
15 different languages. The book launched her career as a popular media figure 
and women's health expert, and she began to make guest appearances on shows 
such as the Oprah Winfrey Show, Today, The View, Good Morning America, 
20/20, and numerous other news programs. Her second bestselling book, The 
Wisdom of Menopause: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing 
during the Change (2001; rev. 2006) was radical in taking an empowering and 
positive view of the changes women undergo as a new phase of life rather than 
focusing on only the negatives and losses. She followed with the publication of 
The Secret Pleasures of Menopause (2008). In 2005, Northrup published 
Mother-Daughter Wisdom: Understanding the Crucial Link between Mothers, 



Novello, Antonia (Coello) | 721 

Daughters, and Health, which explores the physical and mental connection 
between mothers and daughters, and the effect on our health over the course of a 
lifetime. Her books also inspired her own public-television specials in the late 
1990s and early 2000s. She has fans and followers around the world and publishes 
a monthly newsletter on "Women's Health Wisdom," and has organized a "Wom- 
en's Wisdom Community" through her popular website. 

Dr. Northrup sits on a number of medical advisory boards related to women's 
issues and holistic health strategies, including for Natural Health Magazine, Alter- 
native Therapies in Health and Medicine, American Holistic Health Association, 
Pilates Health, Heal Breast Cancer Foundation, and A Woman's Nation, a research 
and policy center founded by California First Lady Maria Shriver. Northrup is a 
member of the American Holistic Medical Association (AHMA) (president, 
1986-1988) and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. In addition 
to the awards and acknowledgements for her books, she has been named a Pioneer 
of Holistic Medicine by the AHMA (2003), and has received a Maine Media 
Women's President's Award (2003), Campaign for Better Health Celebrating 
Excellence Award (2003), American Heart Association's Learn & Live Gold Heart 
Award (2004), Lamaze International Irwin Chabon Award (2006), and Excellence 
in Integrative Medicine Award from the Heal Breast Cancer Foundation (2007), 
among other awards. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of 
Maine, Farmington (2002). 

Further Resources 

"Christiane Northrup, M.D." http://www.drnorthrup.com. 



Novello, Antonia (Coello) 

b. 1944 
Pediatrician 

Education: B.S., University of Puerto Rico, 1965; M.D., University of Puerto 
Rico, San Juan, 1970; M.S., public health, Johns Hopkins University School of 
Hygiene, 1982; diplomate, American Board of Pediatrics 

Professional Experience: intern, pediatrics, University of Michigan Medical 
Center, 1970-1971, resident, pediatrics, 1971-1973, pediatric nephrology fellow, 
1973-1974; pediatric nephrology fellow, Georgetown University Hospital, 1974- 
1975; physician, private practice, 1976-1978; project officer, National Institute of 
Arthritis, Metabolism and Digestive Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIH), 



722 | Novello, Antonia (Coello) 




1978-1979, staff physician, 1979- 
1980, executive secretary, General 
Medicine Study Section, Division of 
Research Grants, 1981-1986, deputy 
director, National Institute of Child 
Health and Human Development, 
1986-1990; Surgeon General, U.S. 
Department of Health and Human 
Services, 1990-1993; Special Rep- 
resentative for Health and Nutrition, 
UNICEF, 1993-1996; visiting profes- 
sor, Health Policy and Management, 
Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene 
and Public Health, 1996-1999; Health 
Commissioner, State of New York, 
1999-2006; vice president, Women's 
and Children's Health and Policy 
Affairs, Disney Children's Hospital, 
Orlando, 2008- 

Concurrent Positions: clinical pro- 
fessor, pediatrics, Georgetown Uni- 
versity Hospital, 1986, 1989; adjunct 
professor, pediatrics and communicable diseases, University of Michigan Medical 
School, 1993; adjunct professor, international health, Johns Hopkins University 
School of Hygiene and Public Health 

Antonia Novello was the first woman to be selected Surgeon General of the United 
States, and also the first Hispanic person to hold that post. The Surgeon General is 
the nation's chief advisor on matters of public health, is a spokesperson for the 
president in such areas, and oversees a corps of public-health research and policy 
teams. Novello used the position to attract national media attention to issues such 
as the healthcare of minorities, women, and children; injury prevention; and the 
problems of domestic violence, alcohol abuse among the nation's youth, and 
smoking among women and young people. Although she opposed abortion, she 
seldom discussed the issue while Surgeon General, feeling that women should 
not view abortion as the only issue to tackle. Novello made headlines in 1992 
when she and the executive vice president of the American Medical Association 
held a news conference to urge R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to withdraw its 
ads featuring the cartoon character Joe Camel because of its appeal to young peo- 
ple. She also attacked the practice of using sports heroes in alcohol advertising, 



Pediatrician and former U.S. Surgeon General, 
Antonia Novello. (Getty Images) 



Novello, Antonia (Cocllo) | 723 

targeting young people and thus encouraging underage drinking. She was also 
concerned about the number of children who are not vaccinated against common 
infectious diseases and the widespread lack of proper prenatal care. 

After receiving her M.D. in Puerto Rico, Novello and her husband moved to the 
University of Michigan to continue their education. She then had additional train- 
ing at Georgetown University before she joined the NIH. While with the NIH, she 
received a master's degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University and 
rose rapidly through the ranks of government service and policymaking. She 
helped draft the Organ Transplantation Procurement Act of 1984 and served on 
the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources before being appointed 
Surgeon General by President George H.W. Bush. After she left the Surgeon 
General's office, she accepted a position with UNICEF and then returned to Johns 
Hopkins as a visiting professor. She served as Commissioner of Health for the 
State of New York for seven years and in 2008 was appointed Vice President for 
Women's and Children's Health and Policy Affairs at Disney Children's Hospital 
at Florida Hospital in Orlando. 

Novello has received numerous honorary degrees and awards, including the Pub- 
lic Health Service Outstanding Medal (1988), Surgeon General Medallion Award 
(1990), Alumni Award of the University of Michigan Medical School (1991), and 
Distinguished Public Service Award (1993). Novello was also presented with the 
Legion of Merit Medal by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. She was inducted 
into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1994. She is a member of the American 
Medical Association, International Society of Nephrology, and American Society of 
Nephrology. 

Further Resources 

"Antonia Novello, M.D." Academy of Achievement, http://www.achievement.org/ 
autodoc/page/no vObio- 1 . 



o 



Ocampo, Adriana C. 



b. 1955 

Planetary Geologist 

Education: student, aerospace engineering, Pasadena City College, ca. 1972-1975; 
B.S., geology, California State University, 1983 

Professional Experience: planetary geologist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA, 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 1983-1998; program 
executive, Office of Space Science and Office of External Relations, 1998-2002; 
senior research scientist, European Space Agency, Noordwijk, Netherlands, 
2002-2004 

Adriana Ocampo is a planetary geologist with expertise in remote sensing. She is 
primarily involved in applying traditional geological principles to other celestial 
bodies, such as stars, moons, comets, and asteroids, and to objects on Earth that 
are of extraterrestrial origin, such as meteorite remnants. At the Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory in Pasadena, California, she was involved in the Viking space mission 
to explore Mars and the outer planets and in the Hermes mission to explore 
Mercury. In 1984, she produced the only available photo atlas of Phobos, one of 
the moons of Mars. For the Mars Observer mission, she was responsible for the 
thermal emission spectrometer, an instrument that was supposed to measure the 
heat produced by the planet, thus enabling cartographers to create accurate maps. 
Unfortunately, the mission failed in 1993, and the instrument remained untested. 
As a science coordinator for the Galileo mission to Jupiter, she was responsible 
for operation of one of the spacecraft's four remote sensing instruments, the 
Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS), which measured reflected sunlight 
and heat from Jupiter's atmosphere to help scientists determine the planet's 
composition, cloud structure, and temperature. 

In the early 1990s, Ocampo and her husband, Kevin O. Pope, were part of a team 
sent to the Yucatan to locate the crater made by an asteroid when it impacted the 
Earth at the time of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) boundary (65 billion years ago). 
The theory was that the sulfurous cloud that rose from that impact circled the Earth, 
blocked the sun, and killed the vegetation on which the dinosaurs and large 
mammals fed, causing the extinction of both. Ocampo and Pope helped verify this 



725 



726 | Ochoa, Ellen 

theory, and their work was cited in Walter Alvarez's book, T-Rex and the Crater of 
Doom (1997). 

Ocampo was born in Colombia and lived in Argentina until her family moved to 
California when she was a teenager. While still in high school, she obtained a 
summer job at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and continued to work there during 
her last two years of high school and while she was in college. When she joined 
the lab as a full-time employee in 1983, she had already worked there 10 years. 
It was through her work there that she decided on a career in planetary geology. 
In recent years, she has held a number of high-profile research positions with 
NASA and other international space exploration agencies. In particular, she has 
worked in the recent Mars Program Science Division and has been active in educa- 
tional outreach on programs related to science education for children and promot- 
ing women's careers in the sciences. In 2002, she was featured in a National 
Science Foundation program on "Women in Science." She is the recipient of the 
Woman of the Year Award in Science from the Comision Feminil (1992), Advi- 
sory Council for Women Award from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (1996), and 
Science and Technology Award from the Chicano Federation (1997). In 2002, 
Discover magazine named her one of the "Top 50 Women in Science." In some 
sources, she appears under the name Adriana Ocampo Uria. 

Further Resources 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Women of NASA: Adriana C. 
Ocampo." http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/people/bios/women/ao.html. 



Ochoa, Ellen 

b. 1958 

Electrical Engineer, Astronaut 

Education: B.S., San Diego State University, 1980; M.S., Stanford University, 
1981, Ph.D., electrical engineering, 1985 

Professional Experience: researcher, Imaging Technology Division, Sandia 
National Laboratory, 1985-1988; Group Leader to Chief, Intelligent Systems 
Branch, Ames Research Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
(NASA), 1988-1990; astronaut, missions STS-56 (1993), STS-66 (1994), STS- 
96 (1999), and STS-1 10 (2002); deputy director, Flight Crew Operations, Johnson 
Space Center, 2002-2006; director, Flight Crew Operations, 2006-2007; deputy 
director, Johnson Space Center, 2007- 



Ochoa, Ellen | 727 




Ellen Ochoa is an electrical engineer 
and astronaut specializing in optics 
and optical recognition in robotics. 
While working at Sandia National 
Laboratory, she developed a process 
that implements optics for image 
processing that is normally done by 
computer. For example, one method 
she devised removes noise from an 
image through an optical system 
rather than using a standard digital 
computer to do the work. She was 
chosen for the astronaut program in 
1990. Her first flight was in 1993 
on the orbiter Discovery mission 
STS-56, which carried the Atmos- 
pheric Laboratory for Applications 
and Science, known as Atlas-2. She 
deployed instruments in space to 
enable scientists to look at the sun's 
corona, and she operated the robotic 
arm to deploy and retrieve the 
Spartan 201 satellite. Her second mis- 
sion in 1994 continued the Spacelab 

flight series to study the sun's energy during an 1 1 -year solar cycle in order to 
learn how changes in the irradiance of the sun affect the Earth's environment and 
climate. For the 1999 Discovery mission, she was part of the team who made the 
first docking to the International Space Station. Her fourth flight was Atlantis in 
2002, which again visited the International Space Station, and Ochoa was in 
charge of operating the robotic arm to move supplies and crewmembers. 

While still a graduate student, Ochoa developed and patented a real-time optical 
inspection technique for defect detection, and she considers it her most important 
scientific achievement to date. She joined the technical staff in the Imaging Tech- 
nology Division of Sandia after receiving her doctorate, and there her research 
centered on developing optical filters for noise removal and optical methods for 
distortion-invariant object recognition. She was co-author of two additional pat- 
ents, one for an optical system for the nonlinear median filtering of images and 
another for a distortion invariant optical pattern recognition system. Since her 
flights as an astronaut, Ochoa has been a director of flight crew operations at 
NASA and, in 2007, was named Deputy Director of Johnson Space Center. 



Astronaut Ellen Ochoa during test activities at 
the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, 2002. 
(NASA) 



728 | Ogilvie, Ida Helen 

As the first female Hispanic astronaut, Ochoa quickly became a role model for 
young girls and Hispanics, and frequently speaks before school groups. She has 
received several awards, including the NASA Group Achievement Award for 
Photonics Technology (1991), NASA Space Flight Medal (1993), Women in Sci- 
ence and Engineering (WISE) Engineering Achievement Award (1994), National 
Hispanic Quincentennial Commission Pride Award (1990), Hispanic magazine's 
Hispanic Achievement Science Award (1991), and Congressional Hispanic 
Caucus Medallion of Excellence Role Model Award (1993). She is a member of 
the Optical Society of America and the American Institute of Aeronautics and 
Astronautics. 

Further Resources 

Kevles, Bettyann H. 2003. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. New York: 
Basic Books. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Ellen Ochoa (Ph.D.)." http://www.jsc 
.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/ochoa.html. 



Ogilvie, Ida Helen 

1874 1963 
Geologist 

Education: A.B., Bryn Mawr College, 1900; student, University of Chicago, 
1900-1901; Ph.D., geology, Columbia University, 1903 

Professional Experience: lecturer, geology, Barnard College, 1903-1905, tutor 
and instructor, 1905-1912, assistant to associate professor, 1912-1938, professor, 
1938-1941; farm owner and operator 

Concurrent Positions: director, Women's Agricultural Camp, 1917-1920 

Ida Ogilvie helped expand science education for women as the founder and first 
chair of Barnard College's department of geology in 1903, one of the first such 
programs in a women's college. Her own research focused on glacial geology 
and petrology (rock origins), and she conducted research and mapping expeditions 
in Maine, New Mexico, California, New York, and Mexico. 

Ogilvie attended schools in Europe before enrolling at Bryn Mawr, where she 
worked with Florence Bascom in the new geology department. After she received 
her doctorate from Columbia University, she was appointed the first lecturer in 
geology at Barnard (Columbia's women's college) in 1903, and then advanced 



Osborn, Mary Jane (Merten) | 729 

through the faculty ranks over the next 35 years from tutor to associate professor. 
Throughout her entire tenure at Barnard, she was chair of the geology department, 
but did not become a full professor until just a few years before her retirement. She 
had an interest in farming and established a Women's Agricultural Camp in 
Bedford, New York, recruiting female students to work there during World War 
I. She later purchased a 660-acre farm in Germantown, New York, where she bred 
cattle and horses. 

Ogilvie was only the second woman elected a fellow of the Geological Society 
of America. She also was a member of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, the Ecological Society of America, and the New York Academy 
of Sciences. 



Osborn, Mary Jane (Merten) 

b. 1927 

Molecular Biologist, Biochemist 

Education: B.A., physiology, University of California, Berkeley, 1948; Ph.D., 
biochemistry, University of Washington, 1958 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, microbiology, New York University 
School of Medicine, 1959-1961, instructor, 1961-1962, assistant professor, 1962- 
1963; assistant to associate professor, molecular biology, Albert Einstein College 
of Medicine, 1963-1968; professor, microbiology, University of Connecticut Health 
Center, 1968- 

Mary Osborn was the first person to demonstrate the mode of action of a major 
cancer chemotherapeutic agent called methotrexate, an agent that also opposes 
the physiological effects of folic acid. She is best known for her research 
into the biosynthesis of a complex polysaccharide known as lipopoly saccharide, 
which is a molecule that is essential to bacterial cells and is responsible 
for major immunological reactions and for the bacteria's characteristic 
toxicity. She thus helped to identify a potential target for the development 
of new antibiotics and chemotherapeutic agents, especially for leukemia. 
She entered college as a pre-med student, but by her senior year she realized 
she was more interested in research than in treating patients. Her thesis research 
examined the functions of the vitamins and enzymes whose action depended on 
folic acid. As a postdoctoral student, she moved into the biosynthesis of 
lipopolysaccharide. 



730 | Osborn, Mary Jane (Merten) 




Molecular biologist Mary Osborn is one of the pioneers of immunofluorescence microscopy, 
a method for the observation of cell structure. (Micheline Pelletier/Sygma/Corbis) 



Osborn was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1978. 
She has served on numerous commissions of the National Institutes of Health, the 
American Heart Association, and the National Academy of Sciences, and from 
1980 to 1986, she was a member of the prestigious National Science Board, the 
board that advises the National Science Foundation. She is a fellow of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, American Society of Biological Chemists (president, 
1981), American Chemical Society, American Society for Biochemistry and 
Molecular Biology (president 1981), Federation of American Societies for Experi- 
mental Biology (president, 1982), and American Society for Microbiology. 



Ostrom, Elinor | 73 I 



Further Resources 

University of Connecticut Health Center. Faculty website, http://grad.uchc.edu/faculty/ 
bios/osborn.html. 



Ostrom, Elinor 



b. 1933 
Economist 

Education: B.A., political science, University of California, Los Angeles, 1954, 
M.A., 1962, Ph.D., political science, 1965 

Professional Experience: visiting assistant professor, government, Indiana Uni- 
versity, Bloomington, 1965-1966, assistant professor and graduate advisor, politi- 
cal science, 1966-1969, associate professor, 1969-1974, professor, 1974-1991, 
Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science, 1991— 

Concurrent Positions: co-director of 
the Center for the Study of Institu- 
tions, Population, and Environmental 
Change (CIPEC), Indiana University, 
1996-2006; co-director, Workshop in 
Political Theory and Policy Analysis, 
Indiana University, Bloomington, 
1973-2009, senior research director, 
2009-; professor (part-time), School 
of Public and Environmental Affairs, 
Indiana University; founding director 
and research professor, Center for 
the Study of Institutional Diversity, 
Arizona State University, Tempe 

Elinor (Lin) Ostrom is a social scien- 
tist who won the Nobel Prize in Eco- 
nomics in 2009 for her research on 
the development, self-governance, 
and collective action of small com- 
munities. Ostrom, the first woman 
to win in Economic Sciences since 
the prize was added in 1968, shared 




Elinor Ostrom was awarded the 2009 Nobel 
Prize in Economic Sciences, the first woman to 
win the prize in this category. (The Nobel 
Foundation. Photo: Ulla Montan) 



732 | Ostrom, Elinor 

the award with Oliver Williamson of the University of California, Berkeley. 
Trained as a political scientist, Ostrom's research has focused on integrating 
political and economic concerns to understand how communities come together 
to manage resources (both natural and political) and to understand the relation- 
ship between these practices and political, economic, and ecological sustainabil- 
ity. Her goal is to understand what kinds of policy initiatives and institutions 
best support local needs. She has authored, co-authored, or edited numerous 
books, including, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for 
Collective Action (1990); Institutional Incentives and Sustainable Development: 
Infrastructure Policies in Perspective (1993); The Samaritans' Dilemma: The 
Political Economy of Development Aid (2005); and Seeing the Forest and the 
Trees: Human- Environment Interactions in Forest Ecosystems (2005). 

Ostrom earned a bachelor's degree in political science from UCLA in 1954, but 
then moved to Boston to work in a law firm for three years. She returned to Los 
Angeles to continue her education, earning a master's degree and then doctorate 
in political science in 1965 with a thesis on water management. At UCLA, she also 
met her future husband, political scientist Vincent Ostrom. The couple spent time 
in Washington, D.C., before Vincent joined the faculty at Indiana University, where 
Elinor taught introductory courses in American government before also being 
offered a tenure-track position. The Ostroms researched police forces for what was 
eventually a comparative study of 80 major U.S. urban centers. Their analysis 
focused on the importance of information and coordination at the local and even 
neighborhood levels, as opposed to management from above of a larger decentral- 
ized force. Frustrated with the difficulty of conducting research across several disci- 
plines (political science, economics, sociology), the Ostroms founded the Workshop 
in Political Theory and Policy Analysis in 1973, which now brings together 
researchers and projects across the social and natural sciences. Elinor Ostrom went 
on to study other types of community initiatives and aid efforts, such as in farming, 
forestry, and fishing. 

Elinor Ostrom was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2001, and is 
a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical 
Society, and American Academy of Political and Social Science. She has been 
a member of the American Political Science Association (vice president, 
1975-1976; president, 1996-1997), Public Choice Society (president, 1982- 
1984), Midwest Political Science Association (president, 1984-1985), Association 
for Politics and Life Sciences, and International Association for the Study of 
Common Property. Before being awarded the Nobel Prize in 2009, she received 
numerous other awards, honors, and recognitions, including the Thomas R. Dye 
Service Award of the Policy Studies Organization (1997), Frank E. Seidman 
Distinguished Award in Political Economy (1997), Lifetime Achievement Award 



Owens, Joan Murrell | 733 

of Atlas Economic Research Foundation (2003), John J. Carty Award for the 
Advancement of Science from the National Academy of Sciences (2004), James 
Madison Award of the American Political Science Association (2005), Sustain- 
ability Science Award of the Ecological Society of America (2005), Cozzarelli 
Prize of the National Academy of Sciences (2006), William Riker Award 
for Understanding Institutional Diversity from the American Political Science 
Association (2006), Galbraith Award of the American Agricultural Economics 
Association (2008), and Fellowship from the Beijer Institute of Ecological Eco- 
nomics, Stockholm, Sweden (2007). She has received honorary doctorates from 
universities in Sweden, Norway, Germany, Canada, and the United States. 

Further Resources 

Indiana University. Faculty website, http://www.cogs.indiana.edu/people/homepages/ 
ostrom.html. 

Indiana University. "Elinor Ostrom: 2009 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences." http:// 
www.iu.edu/nobel/. 



Owens, Joan Murrell 

b. 1933 

Marine Geologist, Paleontologist 

Education: B.A., art, Fisk University, 1954; M.S., counseling, University of 
Michigan, 1956; B.S., geology, George Washington University, 1972, M.A., 1976, 
Ph.D., geology, 1984 

Professional Experience: reading therapist, Children's Psychiatric Hospital, 
University of Michigan, 1955-1957; reading specialist, English department, Howard 
University, 1957-1964; curriculum specialist, Education Services, Inc., 1964-1971; 
museum technician, Smithsonian Institute, 1972-1973; instructor to associate pro- 
fessor, geology and geography, Howard University, 1976-1995, associate professor, 
biology, 1991-1995 

Joan Owens is a marine scientist who spent 20 years as an educator before 
returning to college to pursue a different career. She is considered the first African 
American woman to earn a doctorate in geology. Owens was fascinated with water 
animals as a child. Growing up in Florida, she had opportunities to see unusual 
species, such as manatees, alligators, and otters, and in high school, she dreamed 
of a career in marine science. However, when she entered Fisk University, she 
found that neither women nor African Americans were welcome in that field. 



734 | Owens, Joan Murrell 

She majored instead in art, with a double minor in psychology and mathematics, 
and took education courses as well. She combined her interests in art and science 
by working as an illustrator for medical school students and then a hospital. 

She was admitted to the graduate commercial art program in the School of 
Architecture at the University of Michigan, but she did not enjoy the program. 
A fellow graduate student suggested she transfer to the Bureau of Psychological 
Services, which is part of the School of Education, and she enjoyed her work there 
because she turned out to have a special talent for working with brain-damaged 
and emotionally disturbed children. She received a master's degree in counseling 
and joined the English Department at Howard University, where she taught 
remedial reading. When her husband's job took them to Massachusetts, she 
obtained a position with Education Services, Inc., where she developed new proce- 
dures and programs for teaching English to educationally disadvantaged high 
school students and designing college remedial programs, later transferring to 
the company's Washington, D.C., offices. 

At the age of 37, Owens decided to change careers and returned to college to 
study her original passion, marine sciences. She earned another bachelor's at 
George Washington University and went on to receive her master's and Ph.D. in 
geology and zoology. For her thesis, she studied the Smithsonian Institution's col- 
lection of button deep-sea corals, and also worked at the Smithsonian as a museum 
technician. After completing her doctorate, she accepted a position at Howard 
University, where she taught geology, paleontology, and oceanography, and 
continued her research on the classification of corals with support from major oil 
companies. 

Further Resources 

Warren, Wini. 1999. Black Women Scientists in the United States. Bloomington: Indiana 
University Press. 



p 



Palmer, Katherine Hilton Van Winkle 



1895 1982 
Paleontologist 

Education: B.S., University of Washington, Seattle, 1918; Ph.D., paleontology, 
Cornell University, 1925 

Professional Experience: assistant geologist, University of Oregon, 1918-1922; fel- 
low, geology, Cornell University, 1918-1920, assistant, paleontology and historical 
geology, 1921-1925, postdoctoral fellow, 1925-1927; curator, paleontology, Oberlin 
College, 1928; special lecturer, paleontology, Cornell, 1942-1945; technical expert, 
zoology, New York State Museum, 1945-1946; special technical expert, Redpath 
Museum, McGill University, 1950-1951; director, Paleontological Research Insti- 
tute, Ithaca, New York, 1951-1978 

Concurrent Positions: assistant professor, history of geology and paleontology, 
University of Washington, Seattle, 1922; special technical assistant, Provincial 
Museum, Quebec, 1951 

Katherine Palmer was a notable paleontologist whose research interests were pale- 
ontology, stratigraphy, and conchology, in particular the study of mollusk fossils. 
For more than two decades, she was director of the Paleontological Research 
Institute in Ithaca, New York. After receiving her undergraduate degree from the 
University of Washington, she was appointed an assistant in geology at the Univer- 
sity of Oregon in 1918. The same year, she became affiliated with the geology 
department of Cornell University, where her husband was a professor. She 
received her Ph.D. from Cornell in 1925 and continued to teach there until 1946. 
During these years, she held interim appointments at other colleges and museums, 
including the University of Washington, Oberlin College, McGill University, and 
the Provincial Museum of Quebec. In 1951, she became director of the Paleonto- 
logical Research Institute, a position she retained until her retirement at the age 
of 83. Even after formally retiring, she continued her research into mollusk fossils 
until the time of her death in 1982. 

Palmer received grants from several sources, including the National Science 
Foundation, and received numerous honors and awards. She received an honorary 



735 



736 | Pardue, Mary Lou 

degree from Tulane University and was a fellow of the Paleontology Society, 
the Geological Society of America, and the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science. She was elected president of the American Malacological 
Union (1960), and for many years served as secretary-treasurer, then vice 
president (1958), then president (1960) of the Cushman Foundation, a foramini- 
feral research group. She was also a member of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science and the American Association of Petroleum 
Geologists, and an honorary member of the Society of Economic Paleontologists 
and Mineralogists. 



Pardue, Mary Lou 

b. 1933 

Cell Biologist, Geneticist 

Education: B.S., College of William and Mary, 1955; M.S., radiation biology, 
University of Tennessee, 1959; Ph.D., biology, Yale University, 1970 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, Institute of Animal Genetics, 
University of Edinburgh, 1970-1972; associate professor, biology, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, 1972-1980, professor, 1980-, Boris Magasnik Professor 
of Biology, 1995- 

Concurrent Positions: instructor, molecular cytogenetics, Cold Spring Harbor 
Laboratory, 1971— 

Mary Lou Pardue is a cell biologist who is known for her work in insect genetics. 
Her area of specialization is the structure and function of chromosomes in eukary- 
otic organisms (organisms whose DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, which provides 
the information for reproduction, is contained in their cells' nuclei, or centers). 
Her work excludes lower organisms such as bacteria and viruses, which are pro- 
karyotic organisms (these have their genetic material located in the cell area sur- 
rounding the nucleus, the cytoplasm). Her studies have primarily centered on the 
breed of fruit fly known as Drosophila melanogaster. Because fruit flies have very 
short lifetimes, the rapid succession of fruit fly generations facilitates a time- 
saving study of genetic developments. An added benefit is that the flies' gene 
activity is similar, and therefore applicable, to that of higher organisms. 

In the late 1960s, while a graduate student at Yale, she and her major professor 
developed a technique called "in situ hybridization" for localizing, with intact 
chromosomes, specific nucleotic sequences, which determine traits imparted 



Parsons, Elsie Worthington Clews | 737 

during reproduction. These experiments were carried out using the chromosomes 
for the Drosophila's salivary glands. The technique, which was designed to locate 
genes on the chromosomes, is used to identify the chromosomal regions of DNA 
that are complementary to specific nucleic acid molecules, or RNAs. Pardue later 
concentrated on heat-shock response, which refers to the effects of temperature on 
genetic activity. Studies of the fruit fly indicated that increases in its environmental 
temperature exceeding 10 degrees result in the suspension of some genetic activ- 
ity. Her studies attempted to determine what genes are affected by the heat 
increase. In related research on stress response in insect muscle cells, she found 
that stress also resulted in suspending some genetic activity and the associated 
synthesis of proteins. This research is significant for its potential application in 
cancer treatment, for an understanding of how to turn genetic activity on and off 
carries potential benefits in establishing new forms of cancer therapy as well as 
other scientific/medical treatments. 

Pardue was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1983. She has received numerous awards, including the Esther Langer Award for 
Cancer Research (1977) and the Lucius Wilbur Cross Medal of Yale Graduate 
School (1989). She was a member of the Science Advisory Council of Abbott 
Laboratories, the American Cancer Society Advisory Committee on Nucleic Acids 
and Protein Synthesis, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Science Review Board, 
and the National Research Council Board of Biology. She is a fellow of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Society 
for Cell Biology (president, 1985-1986), Genetics Society of America (president, 
1982-1983), and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Further Resources 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. Tlie Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Faculty website, http://mit.edu/biology/www/ 
facultyareas/facresearch/pardue.html. 



Parsons, Elsie Worthington Clews 

1875 1941 

Anthropologist and Sociologist 

Education: A.B., Barnard College, 1896, A.M., 1897, Ph.D., sociology, Columbia 
University, 1899 



738 | Parsons, Elsie Worthington Clews 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, 1897; fellow, Barnard College, 
1899-1902, lecturer, sociology, 1902-1905; independent researcher and author, 
1900-1941 

Elsie Clews Parsons was recognized as one of the leading women anthropologists 
of the twentieth century, but began her career in sociology. Based on her early 
lectures at Barnard, she published her first book, The Family (1906), in which 
she used sociological arguments to make the case for equal opportunities for 
women. Her next work was a study of sexual practices associated with various 
religions, Religious Chastity (1913), which she wrote under a pseudonym. Her 
other major books of this period were The Old Fashioned Woman (1913), Fear 
and Conventionality (1914), Social Freedom (1915), and Social Rule (1916). 
Although she had thus published widely on sociological topics, the direction of 
Parsons's research changed around 1915 when, on a trip to the Southwest with 
her husband, she first encountered Native Americans. She then shifted from soci- 
ology to anthropology and began making annual extended field trips to the pueblos 
to interview and collect stores from native peoples. 

It was considered scandalous at that time for a woman, especially a mother, to 
spend time in the field and live among the native peoples, as Parsons did. Her studies 
resulted in numerous papers and books, including her major work, the encyclopedic 
Pueblo Indian Religion (1939). She then extended her study of folklore to other 
groups, such as the Gullahs of the Carolina coastal islands. Parsons was interested 
in both original stories and cross-cultural influences. One of her last research proj- 
ects was investigating the degree of Spanish influence on twentieth-century Native 
American cultures. Parsons's later ethnographic publications included The Social 
Organization of the Tewa of New Mexico (1929) and Pueblo Indian Religion (1939). 

Parsons was born into a wealthy family and used her resources to pursue a life 
of independence and commitment to education and scholarship. She supported 
the founding of the Free School of Political Science (later the New School for 
Social Research) in New York City and was politically active as a feminist 
and as a pacifist during World War I. She was elected president of the American 
Folklore Society (1918-1920) and the American Ethnological Association 
(1923-1925), and was the first female president of the American Anthropological 
Association (1940-1941). 

Further Resources 

Deacon, Desley. 1997. Elsie Clews Parsons: Inventing Modern Life. Chicago: University 
of Chicago Press. 

Jacobs, Margaret D. 1999. Engendered Encounters: Feminism and Pueblo Cultures, 1879 
1934. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 



Partee, Barbara (Hall) | 739 

Lavender, Catherine J. 2006. Scientists and Storytellers: Feminist Anthropologists and the 
Construction of the American Southwest. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico 
Press. 



Partee, Barbara (Hall) 

b. 1940 
Anthropologist, Linguist 

Education: B.A., mathematics, Swarthmore College, 1961; Ph.D., linguistics, 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1965 

Professional Experience: assistant to associate professor, linguistics, University 
of California, Los Angeles, 1965-1971, associate professor, linguistics and phi- 
losophy, 1971-1972; associate professor, linguistics and philosophy, University 
of Massachusetts, 1972-1973, professor, 1973-1990, Distinguished University 
Professor, 1990-2003, emerita 

Concurrent Positions: visiting pro- 
fessor, El Colegio de Mexico, Charles 
University, Prague, Moscow State 
University, Russian State Humanities 
University, University of Leipzig, Uni- 
versity of Canterbury; fellow, Center 
for Advanced Study in Behavior 
Sciences, 1976-1977; member, Board 
of Managers, Swarthmore College, 
1990-2002; honorary permanent guest 
professor, Charles University, Prague, 
1995- 

Barbara Partee is known for her philo- 
sophical approach to linguistics, the 
science of language that includes pho- 
netics, phonology, syntax, semantics, 
pragmatics, and historical linguistics. 
Her research combines mathematical 
and psychological or cognitive ap- 
proaches to understanding the devel- Anthropologist and linguist, Barbara Partee. 
opment of language and speech. She (Courtesy of the University of Massachusetts) 




740 | Patch, Edith Marion 

published Fundamentals of Mathematics for Linguistics (1978) and is the co-author 
of Mathematical Methods in Linguistics (1990). The updated volume included many 
of the new theories in linguistics, such as phonology and syntax, that had emerged 
since her first book, and included information on formal languages, grammars, and 
linguistic trees. Partee also co-edited Properties, Types and Meaning (1989), a two- 
volume set of essays on foundational and semantic issues in linguistics. A later book, 
Quantification in Natural Languages (1995), which she co-edited with her husband, 
Emmon Bach, and others, consists of 20 papers on the subject of semantics, which is 
the study of meaning, or the study of linguistics developed by classifying and exam- 
ining change in meaning and form. 

Partee's most recent book is Compositionality in Formal Semantics: Selected 
Papers of Barbara Partee (2004). She has been an invited guest lecturer at several 
international universities, and spends a significant amount of time conducting research 
in Russia, where she continues (post-retirement) to teach theoretical and applied 
linguistics at Russian State Humanities University and Moscow State University. 

Partee was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1989. 
She has received numerous grants for work, both individual and collaborative, includ- 
ing National Science Foundation grants, a National Endowment for the Humanities 
(NEH) fellowship, and the Max Planck Research Award. She has received honorary 
doctorates from colleges in the United States, Europe, and Russia. She has been a 
member or fellow of the Linguistics Society of America (president, 1986), American 
Philosophical Association, Association for Computational Linguistics, American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, and Massachusetts Academy of Sciences, and in 2002 was elected a Foreign 
Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Further Resources 

University of Massachusetts. Faculty website, http://people.umass.edu/partee/. 



Patch, Edith Marion 

1876 1954 
Entomologist 

Education: B.S., University of Minnesota, 1901; M.S., University of Maine, 
1910; Ph.D., Cornell University, 1911 

Professional Experience: high school instructor, 1901-1903; instructor, entomol- 
ogy and English, University of Maine, 1903-1904, head, Department of Entomology, 
Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, 1904-1937 



Pate-Cornell, (Marie) Elisabeth Lucienne | 741 

Edith Patch was an entomologist known as an international authority on the life 
histories and ecology of migratory aphids. She was one of the earliest critics of 
chemical pesticides. Patch grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts, and then on a 
10-acre farm in Minnesota, where she spent her early years exploring nature and 
studying local wildlife and insects. As a high school student, she wrote a prize- 
winning report on the monarch butterfly. She went on to college at the University 
of Minnesota, where she became interested in aphids and their effect on agricul- 
ture. Like many college-educated women of her generation, the primary job avail- 
able to her after graduation was as a school teacher, and she taught high school for 
two years while pursuing work as an entomologist. She secured a position at the 
University of Maine, where she remained affiliated for the remainder of her career, 
teaching English and entomology before founding and becoming head of the new 
Department of Entomology at the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station in 
Orono (which was affiliated with the University). She was named the director of 
the station in 1924. During this same time, she began her graduate education, earn- 
ing a master's degree in 1910 and a doctorate from Cornell in 1911. Her scientific 
publications included 15 books and nearly 100 papers, and two new genera and 
several species of insects were named in her honor. Her most important publica- 
tion was her 1938 Food-Plant Catalogue of the Aphids of the World, still an impor- 
tant reference book. 

After Patch's formal retirement, she wrote a number of nature books for chil- 
dren. She was also committed to the science education of women and wrote papers 
on entomology as a career for women. She received an honorary doctorate from 
the University of Maine (1937), and was a member of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science and the American Society of Naturalists, and 
served as president of both the Entomological Society of America (1936) and the 
American Nature Study Society (1937). 

Further Resources 

Bonta, Marcia. 1991. Women in the Field: America's Pioneering Women Naturalists. 
College Station: Texas A & M University Press. 



Pate-Cornell, (Marie) Elisabeth Lucienne 

b. 1948 

Industrial Engineer 

Education: B.S., mathematics and physics, University of Marseilles, 1968; M.S. 
and engineer degree, computer science and applied mathematics, Polytechnic 



742 | Pate-Cornell, (Marie) Elisabeth Lucienne 

Institute of Grenoble, 1970 and 1971; M.S., operations research, Stanford Univer- 
sity, 1972, Ph.D., engineering-economic systems, 1978 

Professional Experience: engineer-economist, Regie Autonome des Transports de 
Paris, France (Transportation Planning), 1972-1973; assistant professor, civil engi- 
neering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1978-1981; assistant profes- 
sor, industrial engineering and engineering management, Stanford University, 1981— 
1984, associate professor, 1984-1991, professor, management science and engineer- 
ing, 1991-1999, Burt and Deedee McMurtry Professor of Engineering, 1999-, pro- 
fessor and chair, management science and engineering, Stanford University, 2000- 

Concurrent Positions: senior fellow, Institute of International Studies, Stanford 
University, 2000- 

Elisabeth Pate-Cornell is known for her research in engineering systems analysis that 
is combined with economic analysis to assess risk and find realistic solutions to real- 
world problems. In pulling together what had been thought to be separate disciplines 
to offer a unique approach to problems, she has drawn on her studies in mathematics 
and physics, computer engineering with an electrical engineering component, eco- 
nomics, and operations research. Operations research (OR), which was developed 
around 1940 to 1945, during World War II, for military operations, is the analysis, 




Industrial engineer, Elisabeth Pate-Cornell. (Courtesy of the Stanford University News 
Service Library) 



Patrick, Jennie R. | 743 

usually involving mathematical treatment, of a process, problem, or operation to 
determine its purpose and effectiveness and to gain maximum efficiency. For her doc- 
toral dissertation, she studied seismic risk from a public-policy viewpoint, looking at 
the costs and benefits of reducing earthquake risks. Her more recent research has had 
applications in industrial, medical, and government programs, including assessing 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shuttle missions and 
government intelligence regarding terrorist attacks. In 1998, she was a member of 
the Marine Board of the National Research Council (NRC), a committee on risk 
assessment and management of marine systems, such as offshore platforms. 

Born in Senegal, she attended high schools in both Senegal and France, where 
she was influenced toward studying science by her engineer father. She earned 
degrees in mathematics, physics, and computer science before coming to Stanford 
University in California in 1971 to study in the interdisciplinary program of engi- 
neering and economic systems. She became a U.S. citizen in 1986, by which time 
she was an assistant professor at MIT, before returning again to Stanford as a fac- 
ulty member in 1981. She has led the department of Management Science and 
Engineering at Stanford since 2000. 

Pate-Cornell was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1995. She 
has served on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (2001-2004) 
and has been a member of the Advisory Council of NASA's Jet Propulsion Labo- 
ratory and the Board of Trustees of the Aerospace Corporation since Decem- 
ber 2004. She has also served as a member of the Army Science Board, the 
NASA Advisory Council, and the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, and is a 
member of the Society for Risk Analysis (president, 1995) and the Institute for 
Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS). She is the recipient 
of a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Society for Risk Analysis 
(2002) and was elected to the French Academie des Technologies in 2003. 

Further Resources 

Stanford University. Faculty website. http://www.stanford.edu/dept/MSandE/people/ 
faculty /mep/index. html. 



Patrick, Jennie R. 

b. 1949 

Chemical Engineer 

Education: student, Tuskegee Institute, 1969-1970; B.S., chemical engineering, 
University of California, Berkeley, 1973; Ph.D., chemical engineering, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, 1979 



744 | Patrick, Jennie R. 

Professional Experience: research engineer, General Electric Research 
and Development Center, 1979-1983; project manager, Phillip Morris Company, 
1983-1985; department manager, fundamental chemical engineering research, 
Rohm and Haas Company, 1985-1990; assistant to executive vice president, 
Southern Company Services, 1990-1993; 3M Eminent Scholar and Professor of 
Chemical Engineering, Tuskegee Institute, 1993-1997; senior consultant, Raytheon 
Engineers and Constructors (Washington Group International), Alabama, 1997- 

Concurrent Positions: assistant engineer, Dow Chemical Company, 1972; Stauffer 
Chemical Company, 1973; Chevron Research, 1974; Arthur D. Little, 1975; adjunct 
professor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1982-1985, and Georgia Institute of 
Technology, 1983-1987 

Jennie Patrick is a chemical engineer, manager, and educator who has worked in a 
variety of research, industry, and academic settings. She was the first African 
American woman to earn a doctorate in chemical engineering, which she received 
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1979. Her working-class 
parents emphasized to their five children that knowledge was an escape from 
poverty. Jennie attended segregated elementary and middle schools, but in high 
school, she was one of the first participants in an integrated school in her home- 
town in Georgia. She wanted to attend the integrated school because it had all 
the scientific equipment she needed for her studies, while the school for blacks 
had none. She entered Tuskegee Institute as a chemistry major but transferred to 
the University of California, Berkeley to complete her undergraduate degree. She 
began working for chemical companies to support herself while still in school. 
She then went to MIT to obtain her doctorate in chemical engineering with 
research on superheating, in which a liquid is raised above its boiling temperature 
but does not become a vapor. She investigated the temperature to which pure 
liquids and mixtures of two liquids could be superheated. 

After receiving her Ph.D., Patrick joined the General Electric Research and 
Development Center, where her work involved research on energy-efficient pro- 
cesses for chemical separation and purification, particularly the use of supercriti- 
cal extraction. She worked for several other corporations, as well as taking 
positions as an adjunct professor, before returning to academia full-time as an 
endowed chair and professor chemical engineering back at the Tuskegee Institute. 
At Tuskegee, she was committed to helping minority students find success, par- 
ticularly in the fields of science and engineering. In 1997, she returned to industry 
as an engineering consultant at Raytheon. 

Patrick received the Outstanding Women in Science and Engineering Award 
(1980) and the Black Achievers in Chemical Engineering Award of the American 



Patrick, Ruth | 745 

Institute of Chemical Engineers (2008). She is identified in some sources as Jennie 
Patrick- Yeboah. 

Further Resources 

Williams, Clarence G. 2003. Technology and the Dream: Reflections on the Black Experience 
at MIT, 1941 1999. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 



Patrick, Ruth 



b. 1907 

Botanist, Limnologist 

Education: B.S., Coker College, South Carolina, 1929; M.S., University of 
Virginia, 1931, Ph.D., botany, 1934 

Professional Experience: assistant, Coker College, 1929; assistant, research, 
Temple University, 1934; phycology researcher and volunteer curator, Academy 
of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 1933-1937, associate to assistant curator, 
Leidy Microscopical Collection, 1939-1947, chair (and founder), depart- 
ment of limnology, 1947-1973, curator, 1947-, Francis Boyer research chair, 
1973- 

Concurrent Positions: lecturer, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, 
Massachusetts, 1951-1955; lecturer, botany, University of Pennsylvania, 1952- 
1970, adjunct professor, 1970- 

Ruth Patrick is a botanist and limnologist, or hydrobiologist, a multidisciplinary 
scientist who studies freshwater ecosystems. Patrick's specific expertise has been 
on the biodynamic cycle of rivers, and on the taxonomy, ecology, and physiology 
of diatoms, a family of microscopic one-celled algae that is the basic food for 
many organisms in the freshwater ecology. She was employed as an assistant at 
Coker College and Temple University before receiving her doctorate in botany 
from the University of Virginia in 1934. Soon after, she began her long career with 
the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, leading expeditions to build the 
world-renowned collection of the Diatom Herbarium and becoming founding 
chair and curator of a new Department of Limnology there in 1947 (a department 
now known as the Patrick Center for Environmental Research). Although she 



746 | Patrick, Ruth 

celebrated her one-hundredth birthday in November 2007, she has never formally 
retired and still maintains an affiliation with the Academy. 

Patrick's invention of a device called the diatometer made it possible for the 
first time to determine accurately the presence of pollution in fresh water. For 
many years, she was a consultant for government and corporate projects, assessing 
the ecological impact of nuclear power plants, groundwater pollution, and acid 
rain. In 1975, she became the first woman to sit on the board of directors of the 
Du Pont company. Along with Rachel Carson, Patrick was among the scientists 
largely responsible for calling attention to such ecological concerns in the mid- 
twentieth century; she published a book on the topic, Groundwater Contamination 
in the United States, in 1983. 

Patrick was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1970 and received the National Medal of Science in 1996. She has received 
more than 25 honorary degrees and an astonishing list of awards and honors 
from government, industry, and citizen's groups. The most prestigious of these 
include a $150,000 John and Alice Tyler Ecology Award (1975), Public Service 
Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior (1975), Golden Medal of the 
Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Belgium (1978), Founders Award of 
Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (1982), Commonwealth 
of Pennsylvania Governor's Award for Excellence in the Sciences (1988), 
Benjamin Franklin Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement from American 
Philosophical Society (1993), Lifetime Achievement Award from American 
Society of Limnology and Oceanography (1996), Mendel Medal from Villanova 
University (2002), Chairman's Medal of the Heinz Family Foundation (2002), 
and Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Council for Science and 
the Environment (2004). She has been a member of the Phycological Society 
of America (president, 1954-1957), American Society of Naturalists (president, 
1975-1977), American Philosophical Society, Botanical Society of America, 
South Carolina Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, American Institute of 
Biological Sciences, Ecological Society of America, and American Society of 
Plant Taxonomists. 



Further Resources 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 

Patrick Center for Environmental Research, Academy of Natural Sciences. "Dr. Ruth 
Patrick." http://www.ansp.org/research/pcer/rp/index.php. 



Patterson, Flora Wambaugh | 747 

Patterson, Flora Wambaugh 

1847 1928 
Plant Pathologist 

Education: A.B. Antioch College, 1860; M.L.A., Cincinnati Wesleyan College, 
1865, A.M., 1883; A.M., University of Iowa, 1895 

Professional Experience: assistant, Gray Herbarium, Harvard University, 1895; 
private school instructor, 1896; assistant pathologist, herbarium, U.S. Department 
of Agriculture (USDA), 1896-1901, mycologist, pathological collections, Bureau 
of Plant Industry, 1901-1923 

Flora Patterson was a plant pathologist whose research included fungal diseases 
of plants and insects and systemic mycology. She was only the second woman sci- 
entist employed by the USDA; the first was Effie (Southworth) Spalding. Patterson 
worked as an assistant at the Gray Herbarium at Harvard University and as a pri- 
vate school teacher before obtaining a position at the USDA in 1896, where she 
remained until retiring in 1923. One benefit for women scientists working at the 
USDA in the early twentieth century was that, unlike in many academic research 
labs, they were able to publish their research under their own names. Patterson 
published numerous papers on her mycological research in addition to the pam- 
phlets she prepared for the USDA series. She was co-author of Mushrooms and 
Other Common Fungi (1915), with fellow mycologist Vera Charles, and she 
wrote a chapter on "The Plant Pathologist" for a 1920 guide to Careers for Women 
(edited by Catherine Filene). 

After college, Patterson married and had two children. When her husband 
became debilitated and then died, Patterson was forced to find a way to support 
herself and her children. She returned to college and received another master's 
degree from Cincinnati Wesleyan, then on to continue her studies at the University 
of Iowa, where she became interested in botany. She moved to Massachusetts with 
her brother, and studied botany at Radcliffe for three years and became an assistant 
at the Gray Herbarium at Harvard. During this time, she also became interested in 
mycology and served as assistant editor of Economic Fungi. She received another 
master's degree from the University of Iowa in 1895 and began teaching biology at 
a private school in Boston. Soon after, she began working for the USDA as a veg- 
etable pathologist and then as a mycologist overseeing collections for the new 
Bureau of Plant Industry. 

Patterson was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, the American Phytopathological Society, and the Botanical Society 
of America. 



748 | Payne, Nellie Maria de Cottrell 



Further Resources 



Rossman, Amy Y. 2002. "Flora W. Patterson: The First Woman Mycologist at the USDA." 
The Plant Health Instructor. APSnet Education Center, http://www.apsnet.org/ 
education/feature/patterson/. 



Payne, Nellie Maria de Cottrell 

1900 1990 

Entomologist and Agricultural Chemist 

Education: B.S., Kansas State Agricultural College, 1920, M.S., 1921; Ph.D., 
zoology, University of Minnesota, 1925 

Professional Experience: assistant zoologist and entomologist, Kansas State Agri- 
cultural College, 1918-1921; instructor, science and math, Lindenwood College, 
1921-1922; assistant and librarian, entomology, University of Minnesota, 1925- 
1930, lecturer, 1933-1937; National Research Foundation fellow, University of 
Pennsylvania, 1925-1927; scientific staff, Biological Abstracts, 1927-1933; assis- 
tant research entomologist, American Cyanamid Company, 1937-1943, entomolo- 
gist, 1943-1944, zoologist, 1944-1957; literature chemist, Velsicol Chemical 
Corporation, 1957-1971; consultant 

Concurrent Positions: National Research Council fellow, zoology, University of 
Pennsylvania, 1925-1927; research investigator, University of Vienna and Univer- 
sity of Berlin, 1930-1931 

Nellie Payne was an entomologist and agricultural chemist whose research inter- 
ests included hydroid pigments, hibernation and low-temperature effects in 
insects, and the mathematics of population growth. She had a varied career, 
involving both academic and corporate appointments. She was employed as an as- 
sistant zoologist and entomologist while she was working toward both her bache- 
lor's and master's degrees at Kansas State. She taught for one year in chemistry 
and mathematics at Lindenwood College, then received an appointment as assis- 
tant entomologist while she completed her doctorate in invertebrate zoology 
at the University of Minnesota. After positions as a fellow at the University of 
Pennsylvania and a member of the scientific staff of the major index Biological 
Abstracts, she returned to Minnesota as a lecturer for five years. She was appointed 
entomologist and zoologist in research at American Cyanamid in 1937. In 1957, 
she accepted a position as a literature chemist at Velsicol Chemical, then became 
a consultant starting in 1971. Payne also worked for the Entomological Society 



Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia Helena | 749 

of America. Prior to the 1960s, many women scientists were employed as indexers 
and abstracters rather than in research positions in industry. Today, corporations 
hire both men and women scientists in their information centers to keep abreast 
of both the internal and external research data. 

Payne was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, the Entomological Society of America, and the American Institute of 
Chemists. She also was a member of the American Chemical Society, the Biometric 
Society, the Zoological Society of America, and the New York Academy of 
Sciences. 



Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia Helena 

1900 1979 
Astronomer 

Education: A.B., natural sciences, Newnham College, Cambridge University, 
1923; Ph.D., astronomy, Radcliffe College, 1925 

Professional Experience: National Research Fellow, Harvard University, 1925- 
1927, astronomer, Harvard College Observatory, 1927-1938, Phillips Astronomer, 
1938-1967, Phillips Professor and Chair, astronomy, Harvard University, 1956— 
1967; staff member, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, 1967-1979 

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, an authority on variable stars and galactic structure, 
was the first woman to achieve the rank of full professor at Harvard. Early in her 
career, she developed new techniques for ascertaining stellar magnitudes from 
photographic plates. She applied these techniques to a large collection of photo- 
graphic plates dating back to 1890 that were stored at the observatory. In the 
mid- 1930s, she concentrated on the study of variable stars. Her research team 
made several million observations over the entire sky. She often collaborated with 
her husband, Sergei I. Gaposchkin, and other staff members, and published more 
than 300 papers on galactic structure and novae. In addition to her scientific pub- 
lications, she was the author of several books, including Variable Stars (1938), 
Stars in the Making (1952), Variable Stars and Galactic Structure (1954), and 
Galactic Novae (1957). 

After receiving her undergraduate degree from Cambridge in 1923, she won a 
National Research Fellowship to study at Radcliffe and to work at the Harvard 
College Observatory, where she spent her entire career. In 1925, she was the first 
scholar at Radcliffe to receive a doctorate in astronomy, changing the career pat- 
tern for women astronomers (many of whom received degrees in physics) and 



750 | Payton, Carolyn (Robertson) 

broadening their research and employment opportunities. She continued working 
at the observatory and was appointed a permanent member of the staff in 1927. 
At the time, there were numerous other prominent women astronomers working 
at Harvard, including Annie Jump Cannon, Antonia Maury, and others. Payne- 
Gaposchkin was eventually promoted to full professor of astronomy and chaired 
the department at Harvard. After she retired in 1967, she became a staff member 
at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. 

Payne-Gaposchkin received the first Annie J. Cannon Prize of the American 
Astronomical Society (AAS) (1935) and was the first woman to give the Henry 
Norris Russell Prize Lecture of the AAS (1976), the Society's highest honor for 
lifetime achievement in astronomy. She received honorary doctorates from Wilson 
College (1942), Smith College (1943), Western College (1951), Cambridge Univer- 
sity (1952), Colby College (1958), and Women's Medical College of Philadelphia 
(1961). She was a member of the American Astronomical Society, the American 
Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the 
Royal Astronomical Society. 

Further Resources 

Byers, Nina and Gary A. Williams. 2006. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth- 
Century Women to Physics. New York: Cambridge University Press. 



Payton, Carolyn (Robertson) 

1925 2001 
Psychologist 

Education: B.S, home economics, Bennett College, 1945; M.S., clinical psychol- 
ogy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1948; Ed.D., counseling and administration, 
Teachers College, Columbia University, 1962 

Professional Experience: instructor, psychology, Livingstone College, North 
Carolina, 1948-1953; dean of women and instructor, psychology, Elizabeth City 
State Teachers College, North Carolina, 1953-1956; associate professor, psychol- 
ogy, Virginia State College, 1956-1959; assistant professor, psychology, Howard 
University, 1959-1964; Chief Field Selection Officer, U.S. Peace Corps, 
1964-1966; deputy director, Peace Corps Eastern Caribbean Section, 1966-1971; 
assistant professor and director, Counseling Services, Howard University, 1971— 
1977; director, U.S. Peace Corps, 1977-1978; dean, counseling and career devel- 
opment, Howard University, 1978-1995 



Payton, Carolyn (Robertson) | 75 1 

Carolyn Payton was a psychologist known for her work in counseling and career 
development, and served for one year as the first black and the first female director 
of the U.S. Peace Corps. When the Peace Corps was formed in 1961, it was charged 
with sharing technical skills with requesting countries. Trained volunteers spent two 
years in host countries working primarily in the areas of agriculture, rural develop- 
ment, health, and education. At first, the corps sent volunteers to Latin America, 
Africa, and the Middle East, but after 1990 and the end of the Cold War, Eastern Bloc 
countries also began requesting volunteers. Payton joined the Peace Corps in 1964 as 
a field selection officer and progressed in rank until she was deputy director of the 
Eastern Caribbean Section in 1966. She returned to Howard University to teach until 
1977, when she was named by President Carter director of the Peace Corps. At that 
time, most recruits were experienced, highly skilled persons who could fill the spe- 
cialized needs of developing countries; however, they tended to "teach down" to the 
people they were sent to help. Payton planned a program to train the volunteers to 
be better teachers and planned to recruit more blacks, women, and college graduates 
from varied backgrounds for the program. The Peace Corps was no longer an autono- 
mous organization, however, and it was being administered by the American Council 
to Improve Our Neighborhoods (ACTION), whose head did not agree with her plans. 
Payton was forced to resign. However, her resignation had a positive impact in that 
President Carter restored the Peace Corps to an independent agency in 1981. 

Payton worked to promote world understanding through cross-cultural interac- 
tions in both public and private forums. She was convinced that the inequalities 
in America were related to worldwide problems of poverty, hunger, and illiteracy, 
and was committed to the idea that professional scientists had an ethical impera- 
tive to work for social justice. She published a 1984 article in American Psycholo- 
gist entitled "Who Must Do the Hard Things?," in which she argued that the 
discipline of psychology must have application to social problems and policy. 
She urged psychologists to "place our talents, our expertise, and our energy in 
the service of our conscience as well as our discipline." She was involved in the 
Public Policy Committee of the American Psychological Association (APA) and 
supported psychological research and education through the establishment of a 
scholarship fund at her alma mater, Bennett College. 

Payton was a fellow of the APA and was awarded the APA's Distinguished 
Professional Contributions Award (1982) and the APA Committee on Women in 
Psychology Leadership Citation Award (1985). The APA honored her again in 1997 
with the Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to the field of psychology. 

Further Resources 

Keita, Gwendolyn P. 2001. "Carolyn Robertson Payton (1925 2001)." The Feminist Psy- 
chologist. 28(3). Newsletter of the Society for the Psychology of Women, Division 35 



752 | Pearce, Louise 

of the American Psychological Association. (Summer 2001). http://www.psych.yorku 
.ca/femhop/Carolyn%20Robertson%20Payton.htm. 

O'Connell, Agnes N. and Nancy Felipe Russo, eds. 1988. Models of Achievement: 
Reflections of Eminent Women in Psychology. Vol. 2. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum 
Associates. 



Pearce, Louise 

1885 1959 
Pathologist 

Education: A.B., physiology, Stanford University, 1907; student, Boston Univer- 
sity School of Medicine, 1907-1909; M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of 
Medicine, 1912 

Professional Experience: intern, Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1912; fellow, Rockefeller 
Institute for Medical Research, 1913-1923, associate member, 1923-1951 

Concurrent Positions: visiting professor, syphilology, Peiping Union Medical 
College, China, 1931-1932; president, Women's Medical College of Philadelphia, 
1946-1951 

Louise Pearce was one of the foremost American women scientists of the early 
twentieth century and one of the principal figures in developing the drug tryparsa- 
mide to control African sleeping sickness. Her results, in collaboration with 
pathologist Wade Hampton Brown, were published in the Journal of Experimental 
Medicine in 1919, and she went to Africa in 1920 to supervise tests of the drug on 
humans. She spent her entire career at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical 
Research after receiving her medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University 
School of Medicine. Her other work included the biology of infectious and inher- 
ited diseases, such as syphilis and smallpox. In her study of syphilis in rabbits, she 
found that it closely resembled the human variety. The observations were therefore 
valuable to students of immunity and to physicians engaged in treating syphilitic 
patients. She and her collaborators found a tumor in rabbits that was capable of 
being grown in a laboratory and transplanted. The Brown-Pearce tumor was 
subsequently studied in cancer laboratories throughout the world. The breeding 
program and studies led the research team to isolate a virus similar to human 
smallpox when an epidemic of rabbit pox nearly destroyed the carefully developed 
rabbit colony. In the 1930s, the team enlarged its breeding program for rabbits, 
and by 1940, more than two dozen hereditary diseases and deformities were 



Peckham, Elizabeth Gifford | 753 

represented in the rabbit colony. Unfortunately, many of Pearce's files were 
destroyed after her death, and she had not completed writing up the results of all 
of her research. 

Pearce also worked to advance the cause of women in medicine and science, and 
served as a member of the board of the Women's Medical College of Philadelphia 
from 1941 to 1946, and as president from 1946 to 1951. She also served on the 
scientific advisory council of the American Social Hygiene Association. She 
received several honors from the Belgian government for her work on sleeping sick- 
ness in the Belgian Congo (now Zaire), including the Ancient Order of the Crown, 
membership in the Belgian Society of Tropical Medicine, and the King Leopold II 
Prize in 1953. 

Further Resources 

National Institutes of Health. "Dr. Louise Pearce." Changing the Face of Medicine: 
Celebrating America's Women Physicians. National Library of Medicine, National 
Institutes of Health, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/ 
biography 248.html. 



Peckham, Elizabeth Gifford 

1854 1940 

Arachnologist and Entomologist 

Education: B.A., Vassar College, 1876, A.M., 1889; Ph.D., Cornell University, 
1916 

Professional Experience: independent researcher 

Elizabeth Peckham was an early entomologist and taxonomist recognized by her 
contemporaries for her research on spiders and wasps, fields known as arachnology 
and hymenoptera. Before receiving her doctorate, she collaborated and co-authored 
numerous papers and articles with her husband, entomologist George Williams 
Peckham, a high school biology teacher and public-library director with a medical 
degree. George Peckham was an innovator in emphasizing scientific research in 
secondary school, and the couple met when she came to work in his high school 
laboratory. They lived and worked in Wisconsin, and many of their publications 
were issued by organizations such as the Natural History Society of Wisconsin, the 
Wisconsin Geological Survey, and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and 
Letters. Elizabeth Peckham had a solid educational background, with undergraduate 
and master's degrees from Vassar. After George Peckham's death in 1914, she 



754 | Peden, Irene (Carswell) 

returned to New York to pursue a doctorate from Cornell University, which housed 
one of the preeminent programs in entomology in the nation. She earned her Ph.D. 
from Cornell in 1916, at the age of 62. 

In 1898, the Peckhams published a book, On the Instincts and Habits of Solitary 
Wasps. Influenced by the new theories of Charles Darwin on adaptability and vari- 
ability within species, they also published research in the new field of insect psy- 
chology, emphasizing insect behavior and not just physical characteristics in 
some of the first papers on the mental powers of spiders and courtship and sexual 
selection among insects. Elizabeth Peckham was listed as the primary author of 
their 1905 book, Wasps Social and Solitary, which details their firsthand observa- 
tions of wasp communities and the working habits of wasps. Among their impor- 
tant discoveries detailed in this book was the use of tools by one species of wasps. 

Elizabeth and George Peckham have a distinguished legacy as early arachnolo- 
gists. A genus of jumping spiders, Peckhamia, is named in their honor, as well as 
20 individual species and subspecies. The Peckham Society was founded in 1977 
to honor their work and to bring together both amateur and professional scientists 
interested in studies of salticid, or jumping spiders. 

Further Resources 

Bonta, Marcia. 1991. Women in the Field: America's Pioneering Women Naturalists. 
College Station: Texas A & M University Press. 

The Peckham Society, http://peckhamia.110mb.com/. 



Peden, Irene (Carswell) 

b. 1925 

Electrical Engineer, Radio Scientist 

Education: B.S., University of Colorado, 1947; M.S., Stanford University, 1957, 
Ph.D., electrical engineering, 1962 

Professional Experience: junior engineer, Delaware Power and Light Company, 
1947-1949; junior engineer, Aircraft Radio Systems Laboratory, Stanford 
Research Institute, 1949-1950, research engineer, 1950-1952, antenna research 
group, 1954-1957; research engineer, Midwest Research Institute, 1953-1954; 
research assistant, Hansen Laboratory, Stanford University, 1958-1961, acting 
instructor in electrical engineering, 1959-1961; assistant to associate professor, 
University of Washington, Seattle, 1961-1971, professor, 1971—, associate dean 
of engineering, 1973-1977, associate chair, Electrical Engineering Department, 
1983-1986 



Peden, Irene (Carswell) | 755 




Irene Peden is a specialist in radio 
science and electromagnetic waves 
who conducted geophysical studies 
of radio wave propagation through 
the Antarctic ice pack, and she was 
the first American woman scientist to 
live and work in the interior of that 
continent. At the Byrd Antarctic Re- 
search Station in the 1970s, she devel- 
oped new methods to analyze the deep 
glacial ice by studying the effect it has 
on radio waves directed through it, and 
she has continued this line of research 
by studying certain properties in the 
lower ionosphere over Antarctica. 
She developed the methodology for 
her own experiments and invented the 
mathematical models needed to study 
and interpret the data the team col- 
lected. She and her students were the 
first researchers to measure many of 
the electrical properties of Antarctic 
ice and to describe important aspects of very low frequency (VLF) propagation 
over long paths in the polar region. Later, she turned her attention to subsurface 
exploration technologies, using very high frequency (VHF) radio waves to detect 
and locate subsurface structures and other targets. 

Although women scientists from other countries had been conducting research 
at their countries' research stations in Antarctica for a number of years, American 
women were excluded from the U.S. station before Peden applied to go in 1970. 
The U.S. Navy was in charge of the research station and was responsible for trans- 
portation to and from the area, plus any travel within Antarctica, and the Navy 
argued that the weather was too harsh and the living quarters inadequate for women. 
Even when Peden received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for 
research on Antarctic ice, only her male graduate students could visit the site. 
Finally, under pressure from the NSF, the Navy approved Peden to make the trip in 
1970 with the requirement that she have another female scientist accompany her. 
Peden described her experiences in Barbara Land's 1981 book, The New Explorers. 

Peden later served as a Division Director at NSF and served on the Polar 
Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. She was also a council 
member for the International Arctic Research Center in Fairbanks, Alaska. 



Electrical engineer and radio scientist, Irene 
Peden. (Courtesy of University of Washington/ 
UnivPhoto) 



756 | Peebles, Florence 

She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1993. She has 
received numerous awards for her research, including the Society of Women 
Engineers Achievement Award (1973), U.S. Army's Outstanding Civilian Service 
Medal (1987), and Centennial Medals from the Institute of Electrical and Elec- 
tronics Engineers (1984) and the University of Colorado (1988), and was named 
to the Hall of Fame of the American Society for Engineering Education. She is a 
fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), from whom 
she has received numerous honors, including the 2000 Third Millennium Medal 
and the 2000 Distinguished Achievement Award of the IEEE Education Society. 
She is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
the Explorers' Club, the American Geophysical Union, the New York Academy 
of Science, and the Society of Women Engineers. 

Further Resources 

University of Washington. Faculty website, http://www.ee.washington.edu/faculty/peden/. 

Shoemaker, Brian. 2005. "Dr. Irene Peden, 8 May 2002." Interview. Polar Oral History 
Program. Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program. The Ohio State University 
Libraries, http://hdl.handle.net/181 1/6058. 



Peebles, Florence 

1874 1956 
Zoologist 

Education: A.B., Goucher College, 1895; Ph.D., Bryn Mawr, 1900 

Professional Experience: assistant, biology, Bryn Mawr College, 1897-1898; 
instructor, Goucher College, 1899-1902, associate professor, 1902-1906; lecturer, 
Bryn Mawr, 1913; professor, biology, Newcomb College, Tulane University, 1915— 
1917; associate professor, physiology, Bryn Mawr, 1917-1919; professor, biology, 
California Christian (Chapman) College, 1928-1942 

Florence Peebles was recognized for her work on tissue regeneration in both 
plants and animals. Her research included the morphology of regeneration, growth 
and development, and the embryology of chicks. She conducted early research at 
Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory and was appointed an assistant in biol- 
ogy at Bryn Mawr while completing her doctorate, which she received in 1900. 
She also completed coursework at the Universities of Halle and Munich and post- 
doctoral work at the Naples Zoological Station and several European universities. 
She received her undergraduate degree at the Women's College of Baltimore 



Pennington, Mary Engle | 757 

(Goucher College) and in 1899 was appointed as an instructor. She was promoted to 
associate professor in 1902. Between 1898 and 1927, she worked five times at the 
Naples Zoological Station, and 10 times at the Woods Hole Marine Laboratory 
between 1895 and 1924. Since she was recognized as an important contributor to sci- 
entific literature, she received support from fellowships for many of these research 
sessions. She held a position at Newcomb College in 1915, returning to Bryn Mawr 
in 1917. She moved to California and established a bacteriology department at 
California Christian College (now known as Chapman College) in 1928 and a 
biology department in 1935. Peebles continued teaching and research even after 
her formal retirement, establishing a biology laboratory at Lewis and Clark College 
in Portland, Oregon, in 1942. Both the lab and a science scholarship fund at Lewis 
and Clark are named in her honor. 

Peebles received an honorary LL.D. from her alma mater, Goucher College, in 
1954. She was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science and the American Society of Naturalists. 



Pennington, Mary Engle 

1872 1952 

Chemist, Food Scientist 

Education: certificate of proficiency, University of Pennsylvania, 1892, Ph.D., 
1895 

Professional Experience: fellow, botany, University of Pennsylvania, 1895-1897; 
fellow, physiological chemistry, Yale University, 1897-1898; researcher, University 
of Pennsylvania, 1898-1901; director, chemical laboratory, Women's Medical 
College of Pennsylvania, 1898-1906, lecturer, 1898-1906; owner, Philadelphia 
Chemical Laboratory, 1901-1905; director, bacteriological laboratory, Philadelphia 
Health Department, 1904-1907; bacteriological chemist, Bureau of Chemistry, 
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 1907-1908, chief, Food Research Labora- 
tory, 1908-1919; director, research and development, American Balsa Company, 
1919-1922; consultant, 1922-1952 

Mary Pennington was a chemist and authority on food refrigeration, chemico- 
bacteriology of milk, and the chemistry, bacteriology, and histology of fresh and 
frozen foods. She developed methods for preserving dairy products and standards 
for milk inspection that were later employed throughout the country. She con- 
ducted a series of studies that led to methods of processing, storing, and shipping 
food that greatly increased its quality and availability. During World War I, she 



758 | Pert, Candace Dorinda (Bebe) 

devised standards for railroad refrigerator cars that were used nationally. After 
several years working in various academic and government positions, she estab- 
lished her own consulting firm in 1922, where she specialized in food handling, 
storage, and transportation for the next 30 years. She did original research on 
frozen foods, earning her the nickname in one article of the "Ice Lady." 

Pennington faced various hurdles as a woman scientist. Although she completed 
the requirements for a B.S. at the University of Pennsylvania, as a woman she was 
given only a certificate of proficiency instead of a degree. She received her doctorate 
and went on to Yale for another year of study in physiological chemistry. Unable 
to find a regular position, she briefly operated her own laboratory for chemical analy- 
sis, the Philadelphia Chemical Laboratory. She later secured a position as a bacterio- 
logical chemist with the USDA by taking the civil service exam under the name 
"M. E. Pennington" and accepting the job before the officials knew she was a 
woman. She used the same strategy when she was made chief of the Food Research 
Laboratory of the USDA in 1908. 

Pennington was awarded the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society in 
1940. She was the first woman member of the American Society of Refrigerating Engi- 
neers and was the first woman elected to the American Poultry Historical Society's 
Hall of Fame. She was a member of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science, American Chemical Society, American Society of Biological Chemists, 
American Institute of Refrigeration, and Society of American Bacteriologists. 



Pert, Candace Dorinda (Bebe) 

b. 1946 

Neurophysiologist, Pharmacologist 

Education: B.A., biology, Bryn Mawr, 1970; Ph.D., pharmacology, School of 
Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, 1974 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral research fellow, National Institutes of 
Health, Johns Hopkins University, 1974-1975; staff fellow, National Institute of 
Mental Health, 1975-1977, senior staff fellow, 1977-1978, research pharmacologist, 
1978-1982, chief, Section on Brain Chemistry, 1982-1988; founder and scientific 
director, Peptide Design, 1987-1990; Chief Scientific Officer and Director, RAPID 
Pharmaceuticals, 2007- 

Concurrent Positions: research professor, physiology and biophysics, Georgetown 
University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C. 



Pert, Candace Dorinda (Bebe) | 759 

Candace Pert is a neuroscientist and pharmacologist who is one of the world's 
foremost researchers on the chemistry of the brain and chemical receptors, which 
are the places in the body where molecules of a drug or natural chemical can be 
inserted, thus stimulating or inhibiting various physiological or emotional effects. 
As a graduate student, she was the co-discoverer, with her professor, of the brain's 
opiate receptors, the areas in which painkilling substances such as morphine can 
be inserted. Her work led to the discovery of endorphins, the naturally occurring 
substances manufactured in the brain that relieve pain and produce sensations of 
pleasure, by two Scottish scientists, who were awarded the Lasker Award in 
1978. Pert's major professor at Johns Hopkins University medical school, neuro- 
scientist Solomon Snyder, also shared the Award, but her name was omitted 
although she had conducted the early research and had already received her doc- 
torate. This oversight created a controversy in the scientific world, because the 
Lasker Award is often an early step toward receiving the Nobel Prize. 

Pert continued her work on neurotransmitters at the National Institute of Mental 
Health for a number of years. She examined Valium receptors in the brain and the 
receptors where the street drug PCP, or "angel dust," takes hold, and she also led 
the team that discovered peptide-T. She left the government laboratory to form 
her own company, Peptide Design, to encourage research on peptides, and worked 
there from 1987 to 1990. Pert's work on peptides and their receptors has led to a 
new area of research, the use of a chemical called peptide-T as a potential treat- 
ment for AIDS. She has evidence that the purified peptide-T prevents viruses from 
getting into cells by blocking the receptor sites on the cells, and there is also 
evidence that peptide-T reverses the symptoms of the disease. The first work 
was done in 1985, and clinical trials started in the early 1990s. She continues to 
investigate immune systems and the nature of HIV/ AIDS as an adjunct professor 
of physiology at Georgetown University, and, in 2007, co-founded RAPID 
Pharmaceuticals. 

Pert has explored the mind-body connection and the effect of brain chemicals 
on emotional and spiritual well-being. She wrote a book entitled Molecules 
of Emotion: Why You Feel the Way You Feel (1999), and co-authored Everything 
You Need to Know to Feel Go(o)d (2006). She also produced a guided imagery 
and music CD, Psychosomatic Wellness: Healing Your Body-Mind. She won the 
Arthur S. Fleming Award in 1979 for her research. She is a member of the American 
Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, American Society of 
Biological Chemists, and Society for Neuroscience. In 1980, Pert was the primary 
founder of Women in Neuroscience (WIN), a professional organization and commit- 
tee of the Society for Neuroscience dedicated to assessing the status of women in 
the field. 



760 | Petermann, Mary Locke 

Further Resources 

Candace Pert, PhD. http://www.candacepert.com/. 



Petermann, Mary Locke 



1908 1975 
Biochemist 

Education: A.B., Smith College, 1929; Ph.D., physiological chemistry, Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin, 1939 

Professional Experience: technician, Yale University, 1929-1930; researcher, 
Boston Psychopathic Hospital, 1930-1934; postdoctoral researcher, physical 
chemistry, University of Wisconsin, 1939-1945; research chemist, Memorial Hos- 
pital, New York, 1945-1946; associate professor, biochemistry, medical school, 
Cornell University, 1952-1966, professor, 1966-1973 

Concurrent Positions: professional assistant, Committee on Medical Research, 
1942-1944; associate, Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, 1946- 
1960, associate member, 1960-1963, member, 1963-1973 

Mary Petermann was the first person to isolate and characterize animal ribosomes, 
which are the site of protein synthesis in cells. Her research included the physical 
chemistry of proteins, electrophoresis, plasma proteins, and ribosomes. Petermann 
showed an early interest in science, but was deterred from science as a career path. 
Undaunted, she became a chemistry major at Smith College, receiving her degree 
in 1929. She graduated from Smith with high honors and went on to work and con- 
duct research at Yale and then at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital for four years 
investigating the acid-base balance of mentally unstable patients. In 1936, she 
entered the University of Wisconsin and received her doctorate in physiological 
chemistry in 1939. She remained at Wisconsin as a postdoctoral researcher and 
was the recipient of several prestigious fellowships, including a Rockefeller Foun- 
dation fellowship. In 1952, she was appointed associate professor of biochemistry 
at Cornell University medical school, and was the first woman promoted to full 
professor there in 1966. 

Petermann was also a longtime member and researcher at Sloan-Kettering Insti- 
tute for Cancer Research in New York City, and in 1963 became the first woman 
appointed a full member of the Institute. Because of her research at Sloan- 
Kettering, the ribosomes (previously known as "particles") were referred to by 
her colleagues as "Petermann's particles." However, simultaneous research was 



Phillips, Melba Newell | 761 



being conducted at the Rockefeller 
Institute by another researcher, 
George Palade, who received public 
credit as the "father of the particles." 
Palade, at least, acknowledged Peter- 
mann's work and privately gave her 
credit as "mother of the particles." 
In addition to nearly 100 scientific 
papers, Petermann was the author of 
a book, The Physical and Chemical 
Properties of Ribosomes (1964). 

Petermann received the Sloan 
Award in cancer research (1963) and 
used the money to conduct research 
and give lectures in Europe. She also 
received the Garvan Medal of the 
American Chemical Society (1966) 
and a Distinguished Service Award 
from the American Academy of 
Achievement. In 1974, she organized 
the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer 
Center Association for Professional 

Women and served as its first president. She was elected a fellow of the New York 
Academy of Sciences, and was a member of the American Society of Biological 
Chemists, the Harvey Society, and the Biophysical Society. 




American biochemist Mary Locke Petermann. 
She was the first person to isolate and 
characterize animal ribosomes, which are the 
site of protein synthesis in cells. (Bettmann/ 
Corbis) 



Phillips, Melba Newell 



1907 2004 
Physicist 

Education: A.B., mathematics, Oakland City College, 1926; A.M., physics, Bat- 
tle Creek College, 1928; Ph.D., physics, University of California, Berkeley, 1933 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, 1926-1927; instructor, Battle Creek 
College, 1928-1930; research associate, University of California, Berkeley, 1933- 
1934, instructor, 1934-1935; research fellow, Bryn Mawr College, 1935-1936; 
fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, 1936-1937; instructor, physics, Connecticut 
College for Women, 1937-1938; instructor, Brooklyn College, 1938-1944, assistant 



762 | Phillips, Melba Newell 

professor, 1944-1952; lecturer, physics, Washington University, St. Louis, 1957- 
1962; professor, physics, University of Chicago, 1962-1972 

Concurrent Positions: lecturer, University of Minnesota, 1941-1944; member, 
theoretical group, radio research laboratory, Harvard University, 1944; visiting 
professor, State University of New York, Stony Brook, 1972-1975; visiting lec- 
turer, University of Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, 
Beijing, 1980 

Melba Phillips was a physicist whose research included theory of complex spectra 
and theory of light nuclei. She began her career at Oakland City College and 
retired as a professor of physics at the University of Chicago. She then was an 
instructor at Battle Creek College for three years after receiving her master's 
degree from that institution. She worked as an instructor at Berkeley after receiv- 
ing her doctorate in 1933. Jobs were difficult to find during the Depression, but 
she was appointed an instructor at Connecticut College for Women for two years. 
She then moved to Brooklyn College in 1938, was promoted to assistant professor 
in 1944, and helped found the Federation of American Scientists in 1945. 

At Berkeley, Phillips had worked under the direction of J. Robert Oppenheimer, 
who later became head of the Manhattan Project on development of the atomic 
bomb. In the 1930s, they had identified "the Oppenheimer-Phillips effect" to 
explain the behavior of the nuclei of radioactive hydrogen atoms. Despite her 
accomplishments of nearly 15 years at Brooklyn College, she was fired in 1952 
for refusing to testify about the Manhattan Project before the McCarthy-era U.S. 
Senate subcommittee on internal security. Brooklyn College later publicly apolo- 
gized to Phillips, but by then she had retired from the University of Chicago, 
where she had spent 10 years as a professor. She co-authored two textbooks: 
Principles of Physical Science (1957) and Classical Electricity and Magnetism 
(1955; rev. ed., 2005). After her formal retirement in 1972, she continued to teach 
for several years as a visiting lecturer at the State University of New York, Stony 
Brook, and at the Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing. 

Phillips was especially active with the American Association of Physics Teachers 
(AAPT) throughout her career, serving as the first female president of the AAPT 
(1966-1967) and later acting executive officer (1975-1977). She received numer- 
ous awards from the AAPT, including a Distinguished Service Citation (1963) and 
the Oersted Medal (1974), and she was the first recipient of the Melba Newell 
Phillips Award (1982), established in her honor. She also received the Compton 
Award of the American Institute of Physics (1981), an Outstanding Teaching 
Award in Undergraduate Physics from Vanderbilt University (1988), and the 
Joseph Burton Forum Award of the American Physical Society (2003). She was 



Pitelka, Dorothy Riggs | 763 

a fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the American Associ- 
ation for the Advancement of Science. 

Further Resources 

University of Chicago News Office. "Melba Phillips, Physicist, 1907 2004." http://www-news 
.uchicago.edu/releases/04/041 1 16.phillips.shtml. 



Pitelka, Dorothy Riggs 

1920 1994 
Zoologist 

Education: B.A., zoology, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1941; Ph.D., zoology, 
University of California, Berkeley, 1948 

Professional Experience: assistant, zoology, University of California, Berkeley, 
1941-1943, 1945-1946, lecturer, 1949-1952, assistant research zoologist, 1953- 
1960, associate research zoologist, 1960-1966, research zoologist, 1966-1984, 
adjunct professor of zoology, 1971-1984 

Concurrent Positions: fellow, University of Paris, 1957-1958 

Dorothy Pitelka conducted research on protozoa, single-cell organisms, in order 
to understand other simple organisms, such as cancer-causing viruses. Her 
research interests included ultrastructure, function, and carcinogenesis in 
mammary glands; epithelial cell differentiation in cell culture; interactions of 
epithelium and stroma; and the ultrastructure and morphogenesis of protozoa. 
She was one of the early biologists (and one of the first at Berkeley) to use 
the new electron microscope, and in addition to her scientific papers, she pub- 
lished an early book, Electron-Microscopic Structure of Protozoa, in 1963. She 
isolated and studied mammary-gland cells at the University of California, 
Berkeley's Cancer Research Laboratory and was one of the first researchers to 
identify congenitally transmitted tumor viruses. She served on the editorial 
boards of the Journal of Protozoology, Journal of Morphology, and Transactions 
of the American Microscopical Society. 

Pitelka was born in Turkey. Her family moved to the United States when she 
was a young child and settled in Colorado, where she completed her undergradu- 
ate degree in zoology at the University of Colorado. She went on to receive a 
Ph.D. in zoology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1948, and spent 
the remainder of her career at Berkeley. At Berkeley, she met and married her 



764 | Pittman, Margaret 

husband, also working on a Ph.D. in zoology. She spent her entire career at Berkeley, 
first as a research fellow and lecturer in zoology before being promoted through the 
ranks as a research scientist. She was supervisor of the electron microscope and also 
taught as an adjunct professor before retiring in 1984. In the 1950s, she spent a year 
conducting research in Paris as a fellow of the U.S. Public Health Service's National 
Cancer Institute. 

Pitelka was elected the first woman president of the Society of Protozoologists 
(1964-1967). She was a member of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, the American Society for Cell Biology, the American Associa- 
tion of Cancer Research, and the Tissue Culture Association. She was also 
elected an honorary member of the Societe Francaise des Protistologues. 

Further Resources 

University of California. "Dorothy Riggs Pitelka, Zoology, Berkeley: 1920 1994." http:// 
content. cdlib.org/xtf/ vie w?docld=hb5g50061q&doc. vie w=frames&chunk. id 
=div00079&toc.depth=l&toc.id=. 



Pittman, Margaret 

1901 1995 
Bacteriologist 

Education: A.B., Hendrix College, Arkansas, 1923; M.S., University of Chicago, 
1926, Ph.D., bacteriology, 1929 

Professional Experience: principal and instructor, Galloway Woman's College, 
1923-1925; fellow, Influenza Commission, Metropolitan Life Insurance 
Company, 1926-1928; research assistant, Rockefeller Institute for Medical 
Research, 1928-1934; assistant bacteriologist, New York State Department of 
Health, 1934-1936; associate bacteriologist, National Institutes of Health (NIH), 
U.S. Public Health Service, 1936-1941, bacteriologist, 1941-1947, senior bacteri- 
ologist, 1948-1954, principal bacteriologist, 1954-1958, chief, Laboratory of 
Bacterial Products, Division of Biological Standards, 1958-1971, guest scientist, 
1971-1972; guest scientist and consultant, Center for Biological Evaluation and 
Research, Food and Drug Administration, 1972-1975 

Concurrent Positions: consultant, World Health Organization, 1958-1959, 1962, 
1969, 1971-1973; U.S. Pharmacopeia Panels, 1966-1975; guest lecturer, Howard 
University, 1967-1970 



Pool, Judith Graham | 765 

Margaret Pittman was known for her work standardizing the pertussis vaccine for 
whooping cough and for her international involvement in standardizing other 
vaccines, such as cholera and typhoid. Her work led to a dramatic decrease in 
whooping cough mortality by the 1950s. After several teaching and research posi- 
tions that earned her renown as a bacteriologist, she joined the NIH/U.S. Public 
Health Service in 1936, where she had a long career, advancing quickly through 
the ranks to chief of the laboratory of bacterial products in 1958. After her official 
retirement from the NIH in 1971, she continued to consult and work for the Food 
and Drug Administration. She was a consultant for the World Health Organization 
numerous times and was active on the U.S. Pharmacopeia Panels. 

Pittman grew up in rural Arkansas, where she and her sister assisted their father, a 
doctor, in his practice. She went on to study biology and mathematics at Hendrix 
College. She taught science and Spanish at Galloway Women's College in Searcy, 
Arkansas, and became principal of the school as well. She was saving her money to 
attend medical school, but decided to pursue graduate study in bacteriology at the 
University of Chicago, where she received a research fellowship to pay for her studies. 
She earned both a master's and a doctorate in bacteriology at Chicago, focusing on 
the bacterium responsible for pneumonia. She moved to New York, where she spent 
several years as a research scientist at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research 
studying bacterium responsible for childhood meningitis. During the Depression, she 
was lucky to continue her work with the New York State Department of Health 
before joining the NIH, where in 1958 she was named the first female laboratory 
chief. The NIH later named the Margaret Pittman Lectureship series in her honor. 

Pittman received numerous awards and honors, such as the Superior Service 
Award (1963) and Distinguished Service Award from the U.S. Department of 
Health, Education, and Welfare (1968), the Federal Woman's Award (1970), 
and the Alice Evans Award from the American Society for Microbiology 
(1990). She also received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Hendrix 
College. She has been a member of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology, the Society for Exper- 
imental Biology and Medicine, and the International Association of Biological 
Standardization. 



Pool, Judith Graham 

1919 1975 
Physiologist 

Education: B.S., biochemistry, University of Chicago, 1939, Ph.D., physiology, 
1946 



766 | Pool, Judith Graham 

Professional Experience: assistant, physiology, University of Chicago, 1940- 
1942; instructor, physics, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 1943-1945; assis- 
tant, physiology and pharmacology, toxicity laboratory, University of Chicago, 
1946; research associate, Stanford Research Institute, 1950-1953; research fellow, 
Stanford University Medical Center, 1953-1956, research associate, 1957-1960, 
senior research associate, 1960-1970, senior scientist, 1970-1972, professor, 
medicine, 1972-1975 

Concurrent Positions: Fulbright research scholar, Norway, 1958-1959 

Judith Pool was renowned for her work in blood coagulation, which resulted in 
major contributions to the treatment of hemophilia. She developed the method of 
isolating the anti-hemophilic factor (AHF) in blood plasma that can be removed 
and frozen for later use, a method that is used for transfusions to correct bleeding 
in hemophiliac patients and improve their quality of life. This process, called cry- 
oprecipitation, has since become the standard. She did not receive credit, however, 
for her participation as a graduate student in the development of a microelectrode 
to determine the electrical potential of a muscle fiber, later referred to as the Ling- 
Gerard electrode. (Another woman medical researcher, Ida Hyde, had also made 
early discoveries in this area.) 

Pool became interested in science in high school and studied biochemistry as 
an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. She worked as a research assistant 
before following her husband, a political science professor, to Hobart and 
William Smith Colleges in New York, where she taught physics. She returned 
to Chicago to complete requirements for her doctorate in physiology, which 
she received in 1946. She held temporary teaching and research positions 
before moving to the Stanford Research Institute as a research associate in 
1950. She then became a fellow in the school of medicine at Stanford University, 
where she switched from muscle physiology to research on blood. She was senior 
scientist before being promoted to full professor of medicine in 1972, just three 
years prior to her death. 

Among her numerous honors, the National Hemophilia Foundation established 
a Judith Graham Pool Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in her name. She received 
the Murray Thelin Award of the National Hemophilia Foundation (1968), the 
Elizabeth Blackwell Award of Hobart and William Smith Colleges (1973), and a 
Professional Achievement Award from the University of Chicago (1975). She 
was president of the Association for Women in Science in 1971, and was a 
member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American 
Physiological Society, and Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, and 
chair of Professional Women of Stanford University Medical Center. 



Poole, Joyce | 767 

Poole, Joyce 

b. 1956 
Wildlife Biologist 

Education: B.A., biological sciences, Smith College, 1979; Ph.D., animal 
behavior, Cambridge University, 1983 

Professional Experience: researcher, Amboseli Elephant Research Project, 
1974-1990; coordinator, elephant conservation and management, Kenya Wildlife 
Service, 1990-1994; consultant and independent researcher, 1994-2000; founder 
and director, ElephantVoices, 2000- 

Concurrent Positions: research director, Amboseli Elephant Research Project, 
2002-2007 

Joyce Poole is one of the world's authorities on the African elephant. Along with 
her colleague, Cynthia Moss, she has made several significant contributions to 
our knowledge of elephants. In particular, she and Moss were the first to recognize 
that male African elephants experience musth — an aggressive period of increased 
sexual activity — just as Asian elephants do. Poole is also credited for her research 
on vocalization among elephants and the discovery that elephants communicate in 
sound ranges that are below what the human ear is able to detect. She spearheaded 
the campaign against ivory poaching by providing counts and identification of 
individual elephants to the African Wildlife Fund and World Wildlife Fund, which 
led to African elephants being placed on the endangered species list in 1989. 

Poole has lived in Africa most of her life. Her family first moved there in 1962 
when her father was appointed director of the Peace Corps program in Malawi 
when she was six years old. After a brief return to the United States, the family 
moved in 1965 to Kenya for four years. Poole decided on biology as a career path 
after hearing primatologist Jane Goodall speak at the National Museum of Kenya 
about her research. Poole took a year off from her studies at Smith College when her 
father accepted a job in Nairobi with the African Wildlife Leadership Foundation. 
During this time she held an unpaid position with Cynthia Moss at the Amboseli 
Elephant Research Project. Poole helped compile vast records on all of the individ- 
ual elephants in the preserve, identifying them through photographs of their ears 
and tusks. Poole returned to Smith the following year, but spent each summer 
and some of the Christmas holidays at Amboseli. Since she was concentrating on 
identifying the male elephants, she took note of their aggressive behavior during 
mating and identified it as musth, previously thought to be found only in Asian 
elephants. Poole used some of the early data for an undergraduate thesis at Smith 
and later expanded the data for her doctoral work at Cambridge University. During 



768 | Pour-El, Marian Boykan 

a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton, Poole gained access to infrared sound 
equipment used to study whale vocalizations, and applied the technology to the 
study of elephant sounds. 

Once she earned her doctorate, Poole decided to leave Moss's group and 
became elephant coordinator of the Kenya Wildlife Service with Richard Leakey; 
she resigned in protest when Leakey was fired in 1994, but continued her work as 
an independent elephant researcher. In 2000, she co-founded (with husband Petter 
Granli) the Savanna Elephant Vocalization Project, now known as ElephantVoices. 
In 2004, Poole left Africa after more than 30 years and set up headquarters for 
ElephantVoices in Norway. Her work has been profiled in documentaries and in 
wildlife and conservation magazines, such as National Geographic and Smithso- 
nian, and she published an autobiography, Coming of Age with Elephants (1996). 
She has published numerous scientific papers and book chapters on the African 
elephants, and is a member of various advisory boards, including the Captive 
Elephant Management Coalition, Species Survival Network, and Amboseli Trust 
for Elephants, still run by her colleague, Cynthia Moss. 

Further Resources 

ElephantVoices. http://www.elephantvoices.org/. 



Pour-El, Marian Boykan 

1928 2009 

Mathematician, Computer Scientist 

Education: B.A., physics, Hunter College, 1949; M.A., mathematics, Harvard 
University, 1951, Ph.D., mathematical logic, 1958 

Professional Experience: assistant professor, mathematics, Pennsylvania State 
University, 1958-1962, associate professor, 1962-1964; associate professor, 
mathematics, University of Minnesota, 1964-1968, professor, 1968-2000 

Concurrent Positions: visiting faculty member, Institute for Advanced Study, 
Princeton, New Jersey, 1962-1964 

Marian Pour-El was a mathematician who pioneered investigations on the inter- 
face among mathematical logic, mathematical analysis, computer science, and 
physics. Among the topics she studied in her research are the computability or 
noncomputability of the propagation of waves, the diffusion of heat, eigenvalues, 
and eigenvectors. She studied physics as an undergraduate at Hunter College in 



Pressman, Ada Irene | 769 

New York and went on to graduate study at Harvard University. At Harvard in the 
1950s, it was still unusual for a woman to prepare for a career as a mathematician 
or scientist. She recalled her first day in class at Harvard, when she was surrounded 
by empty chairs, as none of the other students, all men, would sit within two or three 
places of her, but she was soon accepted as a fellow student. After receiving a mas- 
ter's degree and then doctorate in mathematical logic in 1958, she joined the faculty 
of Pennsylvania State University. She received tenure a few years later, and then 
moved to the University of Minnesota, where she spent the remainder of her career. 

Her husband, a biochemist, took a position in Illinois at the time she moved to 
the University of Minnesota (at that time, the University of Minnesota had a strong 
anti-nepotism rule, so it was not possible for both husband and wife to hold faculty 
positions there). Pour-El commented publicly on the dynamics of a long-distance 
marriage as a choice in order to pursue careers, and she has been committed to 
encouraging women to achieve satisfying careers in mathematics and science. 

Pour-El was an invited lecturer on numerous occasions at colloquia, conferen- 
ces, seminars, and symposia throughout Europe and the United States, and in 
Japan and China. She has also co-authored, with Ian Richards, Computability in 
Analysis and Physics (1989). She was a fellow of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, and a member of the American Mathematical Soci- 
ety, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Association for Symbolic 
Logic. 

Further Resources 

Henrion, Claudia. 1997. Women in Mathematics: The Addition of Difference. Bloomington: 
Indiana University Press. 



Pressman, Ada Irene 

1927 2003 

Control Systems Engineer 

Education: B.S., mechanical engineering, Ohio State University, 1950; M.B.A., 
Golden Gate University, 1974 

Professional Experience: project engineer, Bailey Meter Company, 1950-1955; 
project engineer, Bechtel Power Corporation, 1955-1974, chief control engineer, 
1974-1979, engineering manager, 1979-1987 

Ada Pressman was an authority in power-plant controls and process instrumenta- 
tion, and an expert in both fossil-fuel (coal, oil, and diesel) and nuclear power 



770 | Prichard, Diana (Garcia) 

plants. She was especially known for the measures she devised to safeguard people 
working on the sites of nuclear power plants from the danger of radiation and to 
protect people living in the vicinity of the plant. She specialized in the area of shut- 
down systems for these plants and worked to find ways to ensure that a nuclear 
power plant's turbine, steam engine, and reactor work together properly and safely 
to generate electrical power. She contributed to the technology of emergency sys- 
tems, including developing a secondary cooling system that operates from a diesel 
generator in the event of a primary power source loss. After working for Bailey 
Meter Company for a few years, Pressman accepted a position as a project engi- 
neer with Bechtel Corporation in Los Angeles, a company that manages nuclear 
power plants throughout the world. She advanced in responsibilities to the position 
of engineering manager in 1979. Before she retired in 1987, she managed 18 
design teams for more than 20 power-generating plants scattered around the world. 
In the 1970s, Pressman successfully campaigned to have control-systems engi- 
neering classified as a separate field with the state engineering board of California, 
and she was the first person to be registered in the new discipline; she was also a 
registered mechanical engineer in California and Arizona. She received several 
honors and awards, including a Distinguished Alumni Award of Ohio State 
University (1974), Society of Women Engineers Annual Achievement Award 
(1976), and E. G. Bailey Award of the Instrument Society of America (1985). 
She was a member of the American Nuclear Society, Instrument Society of 
America, and Society of Women Engineers (president, 1979-1980). 

Further Resources 

Hatch, Sybil E. 2006. Changing Our World: True Stories of Women Engineers. Reston, 
VA: American Society of Civil Engineers. 



Prichard, Diana (Garcia) 

b. 1949 
Chemical Physicist 

Education: L.V.N, (nursing) degree, College of San Mateo, 1969; B.S., chemistry 
and physics, California State University, Hayward, 1983; M.S., University of 
Rochester, 1985, Ph.D., chemical physics, 1988 

Professional Experience: research scientist, Photo Science Research Division, 
Eastman Kodak Company, 1983— 

Diana Prichard is a research scientist who conducts research on fundamental 
photographic materials for Eastman Kodak Company. She received praise for her 



Prince, Helen Walter Dodson | 771 

graduate work on the behavior of gas phases at the University of Rochester, and 
the inventiveness of her project brought unusual attention and recognition by the 
scientific community. Her graduate work involved the high-resolution infrared 
absorption spectrum, which basically tells how much or what type of atoms or 
molecules are present, and she was able to construct the first instrument ever to 
be able to measure van der Waals clusters, which allows scientists to predict the 
behavior of gases. Van der Waals clusters are weakly bound complexes that exist 
in a natural state but are low in number, and Prichard's work allows scientists to 
produce these rare clusters by experimental methods in order to study them. Her 
graduate publications on the subject, such as a 1988 article in the Journal of 
Chemical Physics, have been cited in more than 100 subsequent publications. 

In her position at Eastman Kodak, Prichard conducts basic studies in silver hal- 
ide materials for photographic systems, and such work is in stark contrast to her 
early education. Although her parents had themselves received little education, 
they knew the value of education and supported her interest in learning. She 
received a degree in nursing and spent several years working and raising her chil- 
dren, but she had always been intrigued by the creativity required to do scientific 
research. She enrolled in California State University, Hayward, for her under- 
graduate degree, and then moved to the University of Rochester for her master's 
and doctorate degrees. 

In 1992, she served on President Clinton's Transition Cluster for Space, Sci- 
ence, and Technology. She is active in encouraging students to undertake science 
and engineering careers, and founded a program in Rochester called Partnership 
in Education that provides Hispanic role models in the classroom to teach science 
and mathematics to students with only limited English proficiency. She also 
co-founded the Hispanic Organization for Leadership and Advancement (HOLA) 
at Eastman Kodak, and she is an active member of the Society of Hispanic Profes- 
sional Engineers. 



Prince, Helen Walter Dodson 

1905 2002 
Astronomer 

Education: A.B., Goucher College, 1927; A.M., University of Michigan, 1932, 
Ph.D., astronomy, 1934 

Professional Experience: assistant statistician, State Department of Education, 
Maryland, 1927-1931; assistant, astronomy, University of Michigan, 1932-1933; 



772 | Prince, Helen Walter Dodson 

instructor, astronomy, Wellesley College, 1933-1937, assistant professor, 
1937-1945; associate professor to professor, astronomy and mathematics, Goucher 
College, 1945-1950; astronomer, McMath-Hulbert Observatory, University of 
Michigan, 1949-1957, associate director and professor of astronomy, 1957-1976; 
emerita professor and researcher, 1976-1979; consultant, Applied Physics Labora- 
tory, Johns Hopkins University, 1979-2002 

Concurrent Positions: summer observer, Maria Mitchell Observatory, Nantucket, 
1934 and 1935; summer research assistant, Observatoire de Paris, 1938 and 
1939; staff member, Radiation Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
1943-1945 

Helen Dodson Prince spent 50 years observing solar activity, particularly the out- 
break of solar flares and their effect on space, on light, and on the Earth's magnetic 
field. Prince was quoted in a 1963 Time magazine article, advising that the United 
States postpone missions to the moon until after 1972, when the then-current 
period of solar flare activity had passed and space travel would be safer and more 
effective. Prince worked as a statistician for a Maryland state agency before 
returning to graduate school to pursue a master's degree and then doctorate in 
astronomy. She joined the astronomy faculty at Wellesley after receiving her 
master's degree. 

In 1934, while on the faculty at Wellesley, she completed her Ph.D. with a thesis 
entitled "A Study of the Spectrum of 25 Orionis." She spent several summers con- 
ducting research on solar flares and on the sun in residence at the Maria Mitchell 
Observatory in New England and at the Paris Observatory. Prince (then under 
the name Dodson) published the results of several years of her observations in 
the Astrophysical Journal in 1940. During World War II, she worked at the MIT 
Radiation Laboratory on the mathematical development of radar. She also taught 
astronomy and math at Goucher College before joining the staff of the McMath- 
Hulbert Observatory at the University of Michigan, where she was appointed full 
professor and associate director of the observatory. She published later articles 
on solar flares jointly with a colleague, Ruth Hedeman, and with the founder of 
the McMath-Hulbert Observatory, Robert McMath. Prince co-authored a bio- 
graphical memoir of McMath for the National Academy of Sciences after his 
death in 1962. 

Prince was also a revered teacher and received an honorary degree from 
Goucher College in 1952. Among her awards was the Annie Jump Cannon Prize 
of the American Astronomical Society (1955) and a Distinguished Achievement 
Award from the University of Michigan (1974). After retiring from the University 
of Michigan in 1979, Prince remained active as an independent consultant, work- 
ing with the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. She was 



Prinz, Dianne Kasnic | 773 

elected a fellow of the American Astronomical Society and held memberships in 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American 
Geophysical Union. She married later in life, in her fifties, and many of her publi- 
cations appeared under the name Helen Dodson 



Prinz, Dianne Kasnic 

1938 2002 
Solar Physicist 

Education: B.S., University of Pittsburgh, 1960; Ph.D., physics, Johns Hopkins 
University, 1967 

Professional Experience: E. O. Hulbert fellow in physics and astronomy, Univer- 
sity of Maryland, 1968-1971; research physicist, Space Science Division, U.S. 
Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C., 1967-1968 and 1971-2001 

Concurrent Positions: payload specialist, National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA), 1985 

Dianne Prinz was known for her expertise in solar-terrestrial physics, and was a 
specialist in designing optical instrumentation. Her research includes infrared 
spectroscopy of atmospheric gases and ultraviolet spectroscopy of solar and 
atmospheric gases. She conducted research for 30 years at the U.S. Naval 
Research Laboratory, beginning in 1967, taking time in the 1980s for a special 
assignment with NASA as a payload specialist on Spacelab-2. She began NASA 
training in 1978 and was finally called up on the Spacelab-2 mission in 1985 as 
a liaison between the experimenters and NASA, defining page displays as they 
evolved, developing the mission timeline, and working up detailed ground com- 
mand paths. As a specialist in optical instrumentation, she designed the optics 
and the flight software for instruments aboard Spacelab-2. The Challenger 
accident of 1986 delayed subsequent shuttle missions and cut short any further 
opportunities for Prinz to participate in space flight. 

At the Naval Research Laboratory, she headed a research team on solar radia- 
tion and developed new instruments and data analysis software for measuring 
ultraviolet radiation in the Earth's upper atmosphere, a field of study known as 
"space weather." Her team took high-resolution images of the sun, and their Solar 
Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SUSIM) has been used on space shuttle 
flights as well as other NASA and government research missions. 

Prinz was a member of the American Geophysical Union, American Astro- 
nomical Society, Washington Academy of Science, and National Capital Section 



774 | Profet, Margie 

of the Optical Society of America (vice president, 1976). She received the Navy 
Award of Merit for Group Achievement (1985), the NASA Public Service Group 
Achievement Award (1987), and the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award 
(2001). 

Further Resources 

Cook, John William and Russell Alfred Howard. "Obituary: Dianne K. Prinz, 1938 2002." 
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. 35(5). (December 2003). http:// 
adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003BAAS. . .35.1469C 



Profet, Margie 

b. 1958 

Biomedical Researcher, Evolutionary Biologist 

Education: B.A., political philosophy, Harvard University, 1980; B.S., physics, 
University of California, Berkeley, 1985 

Professional Experience: independent researcher and author 

Margie Profet is an evolutionary biologist who has presented new theories relating 
to how humans adapt to their environment and, in particular, has challenged 
accepted theories on allergies, pregnancy sickness, and menstruation. Her own 
allergies to various foods and chemicals inspired her inquiries into an explanation 
for allergies. She published her early findings in a 1991 article entitled "The Func- 
tion of Allergy: Immunological Defense against Toxins," in which she proposed 
that humans develop allergic reactions as a means of protecting the body from 
harmful toxins. She even noted that people with allergies are less likely to develop 
cancer than individuals without allergies, and believes that allergies are an internal 
warning device for the body. Another area of research was the cause of morning 
sickness during pregnancy; again, she theorized that the brain's ability to discern 
what is toxic becomes recalibrated during pregnancy so that almost any food or 
odor can cause an aversion. Her hypothesis is that all plants contain toxins and that 
pregnancy sickness is a natural defense mechanism that reduces the amount of 
toxins one ingests during the first trimester, the period when the embryo is particu- 
larly vulnerable to toxins that could cause birth defects. She presented her research 
in two books: Protecting Your Baby -to -Be: Preventing Birth Defects in the First 
Trimester (1995) and Pregnancy Sickness: Using Your Body's Natural Defenses 
to Protect Your Baby-to-Be (1997). 

Profet next turned to an investigation into why women menstruate, and she pre- 
sented the theory that sperm carry pathogens into the uterus, and that the menstrual 



Profet, Margie | 775 

flow allows the uterus to rid itself of bacteria and infection. Rather than being 
merely a monthly waste of blood and energy, Profet theorized that the myriad bac- 
teria found in and around the genitals of both men and women hitch rides on 
sperm, thus gaining access to the uterus and fallopian tubes, and that menstruation 
in fact washes away the contaminants that could cause infection or infertility. She 
published her controversial theory in the September 1993 issue of Quarterly 
Review of Biology as, "Menstruation as a Defense against Pathogens Transported 
by Sperm." 

Profet received two undergraduate degrees (in political philosophy and physics), 
but was not interested in the constraints of university research. Without an advanced 
degree or faculty position, she embarked upon a career as an independent researcher 
and evolutionary biologist, supporting herself with grants and various laboratory 
affiliations. Her article on menstruation led to a prestigious five-year MacArthur 
"genius" fellowship in 1993. In 2005, Profet disappeared while working at Harvard 
University and has not been seen since. 

Further Resources 

Martin, Mike. 2009. "Margie Profet's Unfinished Symphony: A Promising Scientist Van- 
ishes Without a Trace." Weekly Scientist. (29 June 2009). http://weeklyscientist.blogspot 
.com/2009/07/margie-profets-unfinished-symphony.html. 



Q 



Quimby, Edith Hinkley 



1891 1982 
Radiological Physicist 

Education: B.S., Whitman College, 1912; M.A., physics, University of California, 
Berkeley, 1916 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, 1912-1914; assistant, physics, 
University of California, 1914-1915; assistant to associate physicist, New York 
City Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied Diseases, 1919-1942; assistant 
professor, radiology, Medical College, Cornell University, 1941-1942; associate 
professor, radiological physics, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia 
University, 1942-1954, professor, 1954-1960 

Edith Quimby was a pioneer in the new fields of radiology and nuclear medicine in 
the first half of the twentieth century. Her research helped physicians in the use of 
x-rays for diagnostic purposes and determining safe levels of radiation therapy for 
the treatment of cancer and other tumors. When she started working at Memorial 
Hospital in 1919, commercial radium had been in production in the United States 
for only six years. She was one of the scientists who brought the field to maturity; 
between 1920 and 1940, she published more than 50 papers describing the results 
of her research. She not only prepared data on radiation hazards and radiation 
safety, but also developed training courses in medical physics. She attended 
Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, on a full scholarship to study phys- 
ics and mathematics. She taught high school for two years after graduating from 
college and then returned to the University of California, Berkeley on a physics 
scholarship, receiving her master's degree in 1916. At Berkeley, she met and 
married fellow physics student Shirley L. Quimby, who went on to teach at 
Columbia University. Edith followed her husband to New York, accepting a posi- 
tion as an assistant physicist at the new Memorial Hospital for Cancer and Allied 
Diseases, where she began her career in the medical use of x-rays and radiation. 
She was promoted to associate physicist in 1932, but she accepted a position as 
associate professor of radiological physics at Columbia's medical college in 
1942. She was promoted to full professor in 1954 and retired in 1960. 



777 



778 | Quimby, Edith Hinkley 

At Columbia, Quimby helped found the Radiological Research Laboratory, 
where she researched radiation therapy for thyroid disease, brain tumors, and other 
diseases. Not surprisingly, her research into radioactive isotopes had implications 
for the U.S. government's World War II-era interest in the development of a 
nuclear bomb, and Quimby was involved in the Manhattan Project and worked 
as a consultant for the Atomic Energy Commission. She was also head of the 
National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. Over the course of 
her long career, Quimby published her findings in numerous scientific journals 
and was the author or co-author of three books: Radioactive Isotopes in Clinical 
Practice (1958), Safe Handling of Radioactive Isotopes in Medical Practice 
(1960), and Physical Foundations of Radiology (1970). 

Quimby received honorary science doctorates from her alma mater, Whitman 
College (1940), and from Rutgers University (1957). She was the first woman 
(and still one of the few) to receive the Janeway Medal of the American Radium 
Society (1940), and was also the recipient of the Gold Medal of the Radiological 
Society of North America (1941), an Achievement Medal from the International 
Women's Exposition of Arts and Industries (1947), the Medal of the American 
Cancer Society (1957), the Gold Medal of the Inter- American College of Radiology 
(1958), and the Gold Medal of the American College of Radiology (1963). She 
was a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American College of 
Radiology, and was a member of the American Roentgen Ray Society and the 
American Radium Society (vice president, 1929; president, 1954). 



R 



Ramaley, Judith (Aitken) 



b. 1941 

Endocrinologist, Reproductive Biologist 

Education: B.A., Swarthmore College, 1963; Ph.D., anatomy, University of 
California, Los Angeles, 1966 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, anatomy and physiology, Indiana 
University, 1967-1968, assistant professor, 1969-1972; assistant to associate 
professor, physiology and biophysics, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 
1972-1978, professor, 1978-1982, assistant vice president for academic affairs, 
1981-1982; vice president of academic affairs, State University of New York, 
Albany, 1982-1984, acting president, 1984-1985, executive vice president of 
academic affairs, 1985-1987; executive vice chancellor, University of Kansas, 
1987-1990; acting president, State University of New York, Albany, 1990; 
president and professor, biology, Portland State University, Oregon, 1990-1997; 
president and professor, biology, University of Vermont, 1997-2001; assistant 
director, Education and Human Resources Directorate, National Science Founda- 
tion, 2001-2004; president, Winona State University, Minnesota, 2005- 

Judith Ramaley is an endocrinologist whose specialty is the physiology of puberty 
and the control of male and female fertility. She has been prominent both in aca- 
demic research and in administration, having now served as president or acting 
president of four major state universities. In addition to numerous scientific publi- 
cations, she published two early books, Progesterone Function: Molecular and 
Biochemical Aspects (1972) and Essentials of Histology (1974, rev. ed., 1978), 
and edited a volume of papers from the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science on Covert Discrimination of Women in the Sciences (1978). 
Ramaley has remained committed to educational opportunity and science educa- 
tion. In addition to her administrative roles within academia, as assistant director 
of the Education and Human Resources Directorate of the National Science, she 
worked on initiatives for leadership education in science, engineering, technology, 
and mathematics. She has written dozens of papers and articles on higher educa- 
tion reform, responsibility, and opportunity. 



779 



780 | Ramey, Estelle Rosemary White 

Ramaley has been an active participant in the communities in which she has 
lived, involving herself in sports leagues, historical and cultural societies, Girl 
Scouts, Planned Parenthood, and other women's and family resources. She has 
been a member of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) 
board of directors in 1995, board member of the American Association of Higher 
Education, member of the National School-to- Work Advisory Board, member of 
the Advisory Council for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 
and fellow of the Margaret Chase Smith Center for Public Policy. In 2005, she was 
a visiting senior scientist at the National Academy of Sciences. 

Ramaley is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science and a member of the American Association of Anatomists, Endocrine 
Society, Society for the Study of Reproduction, Society for Neuroscience, and 
American Physiological Society. 

Further Resources 

Winona State University. "Office of the President." http://www.winona.edu/president/. 



Ramey, Estelle Rosemary White 

1917 2006 
Endocrinologist 

Education: B.S., mathematics and biology, Brooklyn College, 1937; M.S., physical 
chemistry, Columbia University, 1940; Ph.D., physiology, University of Chicago, 
1950 

Professional Experience: teaching fellow, chemistry, Queens College, New York, 
1938-1941; lecturer, biochemistry, University of Tennessee, 1942-1947; postdoc- 
toral fellow and instructor, endocrinology, University of Chicago, 1950-1954, 
assistant professor, physiology, 1954-1958; assistant to associate professor, school of 
medicine, Georgetown University, 1956-1966, professor, physiology, 1966-1987, 
professor, biophysics, 1980-1987 

Concurrent Positions: visiting professor, Stanford University, Harvard Univer- 
sity, Yale University 

Estelle Ramey researched endocrinology metabolism chiefly in the field of adrenal 
function, sex hormones, and insulin action. She began her teaching career at 
Queens College while completing work for her master's degree, which she 



Ramey, Estelle Rosemary White | 781 

received from Columbia University in 1940. She followed her husband's career to 
Knoxville, Tennessee, but when she first applied for a teaching job at the local uni- 
versity, she was told by the chairman that "he had never hired a woman, would 
never hire a woman, and I ought to go home and take care of my husband." After 
many male faculty members were called to duty in World War II, however, the 
same chairman called to offer her a teaching job. She stayed on at the University 
of Tennessee for five years. She went on to obtain her doctorate from the Univer- 
sity of Chicago in 1950 and continued teaching there for several years as a U.S. 
Health Service postdoctoral fellow and then as the first female faculty member at 
the medical school. She accepted a position at Georgetown University medical 
school as assistant professor in 1956, and was promoted to associate professor in 
1960 and professor in 1966. She was named professor of biophysics in 1980 and 
emeritus professor upon her retirement in 1987. 

Ramey was committed to women's equality, in science and in society at large. 
Even after formally retiring, she continued to lecture, often donating her fees to 
women's organizations. She was a longtime member of the Association for 
Women in Science (AWIS) and founder of the AWIS Educational Foundation. 
As president of the AWIS (1972-1974), Ramey pressured the publisher of a stan- 
dard medical school textbook to remove unnecessary photos of nude women from 
a new edition of the book. Her own research on sex hormones even had feminist 
implications in the 1970s, as she spoke out against people who would use 
"hormones" as a basis of sexism, rejecting the idea "that ovarian hormones are 
toxic to brain cells." She published more than 150 scientific papers or articles 
and was the co-author of Electrical Studies on the Unanesthetized Brain (1960). 

Ramey was awarded numerous honorary doctorates, including one from her 
employer, Georgetown University (1977). Her other awards and honors include 
an Outstanding Alumna Award from the University of Chicago (1973), the Public 
Broadcasting Company Woman of Achievement Award (1984), and the National 
Women's Democratic Club Woman of Achievement Award (1993). In 1989, 
Newsweek magazine named her "one of 25 Americans who have made a differ- 
ence." Ramey's expertise was widely sought, and she sat on the advisory boards 
of numerous government and medical institutions, including Planned Parenthood, 
the National Institutes of Health, the National Academy of Science, the Veteran's 
Administration for Women Veterans, and President Carter's Committee on the 
Status of Women. She was a member of several professional societies, includ- 
ing the American Physiological Society, the American Chemical Society, the 
Endocrine Society, the American Diabetes Association, and the American Academy 
of Neurology. 



782 | Rand, (Marie) Gertrude 



Further Resources 



Fox, Margalit. 2006. "Estelle R. Ramey, 89, Who Used Medical Training to Rebut Sexism, 
Is Dead." New York Times. (12 September 2006). http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/ 
obituaries/12ramey.html. 



Rand, (Marie) Gertrude 

1886 1970 
Psychologist 

Education: A.B., experimental psychology, Cornell University, 1908; M.A. and 
Ph.D., psychology, Bryn Mawr College, 1911 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral research fellow, Bryn Mawr College, 
1911-1913, associate, experimental and applied psychology, 1913-1927; associate 
professor, research in ophthalmology, Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute, Johns 
Hopkins University School of Medicine, 1928-1932, physiological optics, 1932- 
1936, associate director, Research Laboratory of Physiological Optics, 1936-1942; 
research associate, ophthalmology, Knapp Foundation, Columbia University College 
of Physicians and Surgeons, 1943-1957 

Gertrude Rand was an experimental psychologist and leading researcher in the 
field of physiological optics. In collaboration with her husband, Clarence E. Ferree 
(also her dissertation director), she developed numerous ophthalmological tools, 
including a way to map the retina for its perceptual abilities and sensitivity to 
color. The Ferree-Rand perimeter became an important tool for diagnosing vision 
problems. She and Ferree moved to Johns Hopkins in 1928, where she taught first 
in the area of research ophthalmology, then physiological optics, before becoming 
associate director of the research laboratory of physiological optics in 1936. 
Besides their academic work, the couple served as consultants on a variety of 
industrial lighting projects, including consulting for New York City on plans for 
glare-free illumination of the Holland Tunnel and for the U.S. government on 
night vision for the military. After her husband's death in 1942, she moved to 
Columbia University, where she resumed her earlier work on color perception. It 
was at Columbia that she and two colleagues developed plates for testing color 
vision and color blindness, a test known as the H-H-R (or Hardy-Rand-Rittler, 
for the collaborators) test. 

Rand was the first woman elected a fellow of the Illuminating Engineering 
Society (1952) and she was the recipient of a Gold Medal from the Society 
(1963). She was also the first woman to win the Edgar Y. Tillyer Medal of the 



Ranney, Helen Margaret | 783 

Optical Society of America (1959), and in 1971, one of her students, Louise Sloan, 
became the second woman to receive the Tillyer Medal. Rand was a member of 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American 
Psychological Association. 



Ranney, Helen Margaret 

1920 2010 
Hematologist 

Education: B.A., Barnard College, 1941; M.D., Columbia University, 1947 

Professional Experience: assistant professor, clinical medicine, Columbia Univer- 
sity, 1958-1960; associate professor, medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medi- 
cine, 1960-1965, professor, 1965-1970; professor, State University of New York 
at Buffalo, 1970-1973; chair, Department of Medicine, University of California, 
San Diego, 1973-1986, professor of medicine, 1973-1990, professor emeritus 

Concurrent Positions: board member, Squibb Corporation, 1975-1989; distin- 
guished physician, Veterans Administration Medical Center, San Diego, 1986— 
1991; staff member and consultant, Alliance Pharmaceutical Corporation, San 
Diego, 1991-2010 

Helen Ranney was known for her research in abnormal hematology, the study of 
blood. Her research involved the relationship of hemoglobin and red cell mem- 
brane in sickle-cell disease and red cell survival. For many years, she was a major 
force in medical education, clinical hematology, and blood-related research and 
training, and for more than 40 years, her work extended into disciplines and direc- 
tions as diverse as biochemistry, physical chemistry, immunology, metabolism, 
genetics, rheology, pharmacology, and analytical technologies. She received early 
renown for identifying the hereditary or genetic aspect of sickle-cell anemia, a 
disease that affects primarily African Americans. 

Ranney began her college studies at Barnard, the women's annex of Columbia 
University. When she applied for graduate study at Columbia's College of Physi- 
cians and Surgeons in 1941, she was denied acceptance. It was not until after 
World War II that more women were needed and therefore admitted to such pro- 
grams, and she was able to complete her M.D. at Columbia by 1947. She had a dis- 
tinguished early teaching and research career at the Albert Einstein College of 
Medicine, where she founded a heredity clinic and trained important hematolo- 
gists, and then at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In 1973, she became 
chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, 



784 | Ratner, Sarah 

where there is now an endowed chair in her name. She authored a textbook, 
Genetics in Hematology (1990). 

Ranney was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1973. Among her awards are the J. M. Smith Prize of Columbia University 
(1955), the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Medical Achievement Award (1972), Gold 
Medal of the College of Physicians and Surgeons (1978), and May H. Soley 
Research Award of the Western Society of Clinical Investigation (1987). She was 
a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a 
member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American College of 
Physicians, American Society of Clinical Investigation, and American Physiologi- 
cal Society, and was the first female president of both the American Society of 
Hematology (1974) and the Association of American Physicians (1984-1985). In 
1979, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Southern California. 

Further Resources 

Bunn, H. Franklin. "Helen Margaret Ranney: A Woman of Many Firsts." The Hematolo- 
gist. American Society of Hematology. (1 March 2008). http://www.hematology.org/ 
Publications/Hematologist/2008/1296.aspx. 

National Institutes of Health. "Dr. Helen M. Ranney." Changing the Face of Medicine: 
Celebrating America's Women Physicians. National Library of Medicine, National 
Institutes of Health, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/ 
biography 260.html. 



Ratner, Sarah 



1903 1999 
Biochemist 

Education: A.B., Cornell University, 1924; A.M., Columbia University, 1927, 
Ph.D., biochemistry, 1937 

Professional Experience: assistant, pediatrics, Long Island College of Medicine, 
1926-1930; assistant biochemist, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia 
University, 1930-193 1, teaching assistant, 1932-1934, Macy research fellow, depart- 
ment of biochemistry, 1937-1939, instructor, 1939-1943, associate, 1943-1946, 
assistant professor, 1946; assistant to associate professor, pharmacology, college 
of medicine, New York University, 1946-1954; associate member, division of 
nutrition and physiology, Public Health Research Institute of the City of New York, 
Inc., 1954-1957, member, division of biochemistry, 1957-1992 



Ray, (Marguerite) Dixy Lee | 785 

Concurrent Positions: Fogarty scholar in residence, National Institutes of Health, 
1978-1979 

Sarah Ratner was one of the leading researchers in the biochemistry of amino 
acids and protein metabolism. She did early work on acids and hormones excreted 
in urine and blood, but one of her most important discoveries was argininosuccinic 
acid, an indicator of a genetic defect related to neurological damage and even 
mental retardation. She was employed at Columbia University starting in 1930 
as an assistant biochemist and advancing to assistant professor in 1946. A portion 
of this time was spent in completing her doctorate, which she received in 1937. 
Her slow advancement could be due to working during the years of the Depres- 
sion, when faculty positions of any type were scarce, especially for women. She 
later taught pharmacology at New York University before accepting a position at 
the Public Health Research Institute of the City of New York in 1954, where she 
worked until her retirement in 1992 at the age of almost 90 years old. 

Ratner served on the editorial boards of Journal of Biological Chemistry and 
Analytical Biochemistry. She received numerous awards, such as the Neuberg 
Medal (1959), the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society (1961), and 
the Freedman Award of the New York Academy of Sciences (1975). She was elected 
to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1974 and was awarded an 
honorary doctorate from the State University of New York, Stony Brook (1984). 
She was elected a fellow of the Harvey Society and of the New York Academy of 
Sciences. She was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the 
American Society of Biological Chemists, and the American Chemical Society. 

Further Resources 

Bentley, Ronald. "Sarah Ratner. June 9, 1903 July 28, 1999." Biographical Memoirs. 
National Academies Press, http://www.nap. edu/readingroom.php?book=biomems 
&page=sratner.html. 



Ray, (Marguerite) Dixy Lee 

1914 1994 
Zoologist 

Education: B.A., zoology, Mills College, 1937, M.A., 1938; Ph.D., biological 
sciences, Stanford University, 1945 

Professional Experience: public school teacher, 1939-1942; instructor, zoology, 
University of Washington, Seattle, 1945-1947, assistant to associate professor, 



786 | Ray, (Marguerite) Dixy Lee 



zoology, 1947-1976; Assistant Secretary of State, International Environmental 
and Scientific Affairs' Bureau of Oceans, U.S. Department of State, 1975; gover- 
nor, Washington State, 1977-1981 

Concurrent Positions: director, Pacific Science Center, Seattle, Washington, 
1963-1972; visiting professor, Stanford University, 1964; chief scientist, 
International Indian Ocean Expedition's Te Vega, 1964; consultant, Argonne 
National Laboratory and Livermore National Laboratory, 1987-1994 

Dixy Lee Ray was trained as a marine biologist and later received recognition as the 
first female governor of the state of Washington. Her scientific research focused on 
crustacean and other invertebrates. She spent 30 years teaching zoology at the 
University of Washington, Seattle, during which time she also served as director 
of the Pacific Science Center, an institution committed to encouraging public 
interest in and awareness of science. In the early 1960s, Ray was a chief 

scientist for the International Indian 
Ocean Expedition, a multinational 
exploration of that ocean's marine 
environment. Ray was involved in 
many national and international 
projects in environmental science and 
policy issues. She was a consultant 
for the National Science Foundation, 
U.S. representative to the Organiza- 
tion for Economic Cooperation and 
Development for Science, member of 
the President's Task Force on Ocean- 
ography, and member and last chair- 
person of the U.S. Atomic Energy 
Commission under President Nixon. 
In this capacity, Ray was concerned 
about environmentally sound alterna- 
tives to fossil fuel, and she promoted 
the safety of nuclear power plants, a 
position that brought her into conflict 
with environmentalist groups. She 
published several articles and co- 
authored two books on environmental- 
ism (both with Louis R. Guzzo): 
Trashing the Planet (1990) and Envi- 
ronmental Overkill (1994). 




Marine biologist and environmental scientist 
Dixy Lee Ray was the only woman to chair the 
Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), appointed 
by President Richard Nixon in 1972, and, in 
1976, became the first woman governor of 
Washington. (Washington State Archives) 



Rees, Mina Spiegel | 787 

Because of the nature of her work, spanning academic research to government 
policy to community development, she has been honored by various groups and 
was the recipient of several honorary degrees. A small selection of Ray's impres- 
sive awards includes a Guggenheim fellowship (1952), Foreign Fellow Award of 
the Danish Royal Society of Natural History (1965), Axel-Axelson Johnson Award 
from the Swedish Royal Academy of Science and Engineering (1974), Achieve- 
ment Award of the American Association of University Women (1975), Abram 
Sacher Award from Brandeis University (1976), Walter H. Zinn Award of the 
American Nuclear Society (1977), Washington Award of the Western Society of 
Engineers (1978), Centennial Medallion Award of the American Society of 
Mechanical Engineers (1980), Outstanding Woman in Energy Award from 
Nuclear Energy Women (1981), Centennial Medal from the Institute of Electrical 
Engineers (1984), Woman of Achievement in Energy Award (1988), and being 
named among the One Hundred Honored Citizens at the State of Washington Cen- 
tennial (1989). She appeared on the cover of Time magazine (December 12, 1977) 
and, in 1998, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) established 
an annual Dixy Lee Ray Award for contributions to the field of environmental 
protection. 

Further Resources 

Pace, Eric. "Dixy Lee Ray, 79, Ex-Governor; Led Atomic Energy Commission." New York 
Times. (3 January 1994). http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/03/obituaries/dixy-lee-ray 
-79-ex-governor-led-atomic-energy-commission.html. 



Rees, Mina Spiegel 

1902 1997 
Mathematician 

Education: A.B., Hunter College, 1923; A.M., Columbia University, 1925; Ph.D., 
mathematics, University of Chicago, 1931 

Professional Experience: teacher, Hunter College High School, 1923-1926; 
instructor, mathematics, Hunter College, 1926-1932, assistant to associate 
professor, 1932-1943; principal technical aide, Applied Mathematics Panel, 
National Defense Research Committee, Office of Scientific Research and Devel- 
opment, 1943-1946; head, mathematics division, Office of Naval Research, 
1946-1949, director, mathematics science division, 1950-1952, deputy science 
director, 1952-1953; professor, mathematics, and dean of faculty, Hunter 
College, 1953-1961; dean of graduate studies, City University of New York 




788 | Rees, Mina Spiegel 

(CUNY), 1961-1968, provost, 
graduate studies, president, CUNY 
Graduate School and University 
Center, 1969-1972 

Mina Rees was a researcher of linear 
algebra, numerical analysis, and the 
history of computers, and helped set 
up programs for government support 
of mathematical research. She was 
employed by Hunter College for 
35 years, starting as an instructor in 
mathematics in 1926 and rising 
through the ranks to full professor 
and then dean of faculty in the 
1950s. During World War II, she took 
a leave from Hunter to work for the 

Applied Mathematics Panel of the 
Mathematician Mina Rees was the first woman Qffice of Scientific Resea rch and 
president of the American Association for the 

Advancement of Science in 1971. (Bettmann/ Development (OSRD). She worked 
Corbis) on military applications for jet rocket 

propulsion and high-speed com- 
puters, receiving certificates and medals of service from both the U.S. and British 
governments. After the war, she established the program in mathematics at the 
Office of Naval Research (ONR) and was the deputy science director there from 
1952 to 1953. When the National Science Foundation was established in 1950, 
her ONR program for connecting government with academia was used as the 
model for government funding of mathematical and computer research. In 1953, 
she returned to Hunter College as professor and dean of faculty, then moved to 
CUNY as dean of graduate studies in 1961. She became founding president of 
the CUNY graduate school, where, in 1985, the Mina Rees Library was named 
in her honor. 

Rees received many honorary degrees, honors, and awards. Among the latter 
were the President's Certificate of Merit (1958) and the first Award for Distin- 
guished Service to Mathematics of the Mathematical Association of America 
(1962). She was the first female president of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science (1971) and was a fellow of both the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science and the New York Academy of Sciences. 
She received honorary membership in the National Academy Sciences (NAS) 
when she was awarded the NAS Public Welfare Medal (1983). She was a member 



Reichard, Gladys Amanda | 789 

of the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America, 
and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. 

Further Resources 

Williams, Kathleen Broome. 2001. Improbable Warriors: Women Scientists and the US 
Navy in World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. 



Reichard, Gladys Amanda 



1893 1955 
Anthropologist 

Education: A.B., Swarthmore College, 1919; A.M., Columbia University, 1920, 
Ph.D., anthropology, 1925 

Professional Experience: school teacher, 1909-1915; instructor, anthropology, 
Barnard College, 1923-1928, assistant to associate professor, 1928-1951, profes- 
sor, 1951-1955 

Concurrent Positions: Guggenheim fellow, Hamburg, Germany, 1926-1927 

Gladys Reichard was an anthropologist known for her expertise in Navajo lan- 
guage and culture, but she studied other tribes. She spent her entire career at 
Barnard College, which for many years was the only anthropology department in 
a women's college in the United States. Starting about 1923, Reichard spent 
summers each year on Southwestern reservations learning languages, learning to 
weave, and observing daily life by living with families from time to time. Much 
of her work was financially supported by another female anthropologist, Elsie 
Clews Parsons. In 1934, Reichard made the first attempt to teach native speakers 
to write the Navajo language. Since Navajo society traditionally is matriarchal, 
women anthropologists were more successful than men in working with these 
tribes, and much of Reichard's work was focused on women's roles and contribu- 
tions to native society. In addition to scientific articles, she published a number of 
books, including Social Life of the Navajo Indians (1928), which traced Navajo 
genealogy back several generations. She also published on textile production and 
designs, as well as books on Navajo Religion: A Study of Symbolism (1950), and 
Navajo Grammar (1951). The latter book on Navajo language was controversial 
in that she did not accept a method of transcription that was newer than the one 
she developed. 



790 | Reichmanis, Elsa 

Reichard was a member of the American Ethnological Society (secretary, 
1924-1926), the American Folklore Society (secretary, 1924-1935), and the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Further Resources 

University of South Florida. "Gladys Amanda Reichard (1893 1955)." Celebrating 
Women Anthropologists, http://anthropology.usf.edu/women/reichard/reichard.html. 

Lavender, Catherine J. 2006. Scientists and Storytellers: Feminist Anthropologists and the 
Construction of the American Southwest. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico 
Press. 



Reichmanis, Elsa 

b. 1953 

Computer Scientist, Organic Chemist 

Education: B.S., chemistry, Syracuse University, 1972, Ph.D., organic chemistry, 
1975 

Professional Experience: intern, organic chemistry, Syracuse University, 1975- 
1976, Chaim Weizmann fellow of scientific research, 1976-1978; technical staff, 
organic chemistry, AT&T Bell Laboratories, 1978-1984, technical manager, 
Radiation Sensitive Material and Applications, 1984-1994, director, Polymer 
and Organic Materials Research, 1994- 

Elsa Reichmanis is known for her contributions to the science of manufacturing 
integrated circuits, or computer chips, specifically her research centers on develop- 
ing sophisticated chemical processes and materials for computer chips. She holds 
11 patents, some of which are for the design and development of organic poly- 
mers, called resists, which are used in microlithography (the principal process by 
which circuits, or electrical pathways, are imprinted upon the tiny silicon chips 
used in computers). During the multistage process of chip manufacture, layers of 
resist material are applied to a silicon base and exposed to patterns of ultraviolet 
light. As portions of the resists harden, they become templates for the application 
of subsequent layers of positively and negatively charged semiconductors that 
serve as the channel through which electric current travels. As computer products 
have become smaller and smaller, it has become more and more of a challenge to 
develop materials and processes to manufacture them. 

In addition to publishing more than 100 scientific papers, Reichmanis has 
edited four volumes for the American Chemical Society (ACS): The Effects of 



Reinisch, June Machover | 791 

Radiation on High-Technology Polymers (1989), Polymers in Microlithography: 
Materials and Processes (1989), Irradiation of Polymeric Materials: Processes, 
Mechanisms, and Applications (1993), and Microelectronics Technology: Poly- 
mers for Advanced Imaging and Packaging (1995). She also edited a volume of 
the proceedings of an International Society for Optical Engineering symposium, 
Advances in Resist Technology and Processing VI (1989). 

Reichmanis was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineer- 
ing in 1995. She is a fellow of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and a 
member of the ACS (president, 2003), American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, Materials Research Society, and Society of Photo-Optical Instru- 
mentation. She has received several awards, including Research and Development 
Magazine's R&D 100 Award for one of the 100 most significant inventions of 
1992, SWE Annual Achievement Award (1993), American Society for Metals 
(ASM) Engineering Materials Achievement Award (1996), Photopolymer Science 
and Technology Award (1998), ACS Award in Applied Polymer Science (1999), 
and Perkin Medal (2001). She was a member of the Committee to Survey Materials 
Research Opportunities and Needs for the Electronics Industry of the National 
Research Council and the Air Force Science Advisory Board. 

Further Resources 

Bell Laboratories, Physical Sciences Research. "Elsa Reichmanis." http://www.bell 
-labs.com/org/physicalsciences/profiles/reichmanis.html. 



Reinisch, June Machover 



b. 1943 
Psychologist 

Education: B.S., New York University, 1966, M.A., Columbia University Teach- 
ers College, 1970, Ph.D., psychology, Columbia University, 1976; diplomate, 
American Board of Sexology, 1989 

Professional Experience: instructor, psychology, Columbia University Teachers 
College, 1972, 1974-1975; staff research associate, psychiatry, University of 
California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, 1973-1974; assistant to associate 
professor, psychology, Rutgers University, 1975-1982; professor, psychology 
and psychiatry, Indiana University, 1982-1993; director and professor, Kinsey 
Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, 1982-1993, director 
and professor emeritus, senior research fellow, and trustee, 1993- 



792 | Reinisch, June Machover 



Concurrent Positions: adjunct assis- 
tant professor, psychiatry, College of 
Medicine and Dentistry of New 
Jersey, Rutgers University Medical 
School, 1976-1981, adjunct associate 
professor, psychiatry, 1981-1982 

June Reinisch is a developmental 
psychobiologist who served as direc- 
tor of one of the most controversial 
social science institutes in the United 
States, the Kinsey Institute for 
Research in Sex, Gender, and Repro- 
duction at Indiana University. 
Founder Alfred Kinsey's books, Sex- 
ual Behavior in the Human Male 
(1948) and Sexual Behavior in the 
Human Female (1953), helped 
demystify sex and make public 
discussion acceptable. The Kinsey 
Institute is an independent corpora- 
tion and, during Reinisch's 11-year 
tenure as director, federal and private 
research grant funding increased 
tenfold; the library, archives, art col- 
lections, and research and administrative spaces were expanded, modernized, 
and renovated; the Institute's research became multidisciplinary in focus; and a 
public education program was instituted. A series of international multidiscipli- 
nary conferences led to the publication of four scholarly volumes on sex differ- 
ences, adolescence and puberty, sexual orientation, and AIDS and sexuality, and 
"The Kinsey Report" regular column was published to inform the public of Insti- 
tute research. 

Increased public awareness brought increased criticism, and Reinisch defended 
the Institute from attacks by conservative political and religious forces as well as 
from academic critics. In the late 1980s, a university committee issued an unfavor- 
able review of Reinisch's programs and requested her resignation. The board of 
trustees, however, supported her tenure as director for five more years and, after 
an investigation, the president of Indiana University apologized to Reinisch and 
publicly supported the accomplishments of her directorship. She retired in 1993 
with the titles of Director Emerita and Senior Research Fellow. 




Psychologist June Reinisch was the director 
of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, 
Gender, and Reproduction from 1982-1993. 
(Douglas Kirkland/Corbis) 



Reskin, Barbara F. | 793 

Reinisch initially planned to be an elementary school teacher, but held a variety 
of jobs before returning to school to obtain a master's degree in psychology to 
enhance her career as a music business executive. After reading Eleanor Maccoby's 
The Development of Sex Differences (1966), she became fascinated by the discus- 
sion of the effects of prenatal hormones on the development of gender and sex 
differences, and decided to pursue advanced studies at Columbia University. She 
taught at Rutgers University before moving to Indiana University as professor of 
psychology and psychiatry, and was chosen as the third director of the Kinsey 
Institute in 1982. She has published scientific articles in many leading journals 
as well as a book, The Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex (1990), which was 
translated into several languages. The volume was based on a national survey of 
American sexual knowledge, and addressed the public's questions with the most 
current scientific information. After leaving the Institute, Reinisch continued to 
work as an independent consultant and researcher for a variety of organizations, 
including the Institute of Preventive Medicine at Copenhagen University Hospital, 
Denmark and the Museum of Sex in New York City. 

Among Reinisch's many awards are the Morton Prince Award from the American 
Psychopathological Association (1976), the Dr. Richard J. Cross Award for 
Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Human Sexuality from Robert Wood 
Johnson Medical School (1991), and an Award for Contributions to Sexology of 
the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex (1993). She is a fellow of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, American Psychological Associa- 
tion, and American Psychological Society, and a member of the American Associ- 
ation of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists, International Academy of Sex 
Research, International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology, International Soci- 
ety for Research on Aggression, International Society for Developmental Psycho- 
biology, World Research Network on the Sexuality of Women and Girls, Behavior 
Genetics Association, and Society for Research in Child Development. 

Further Resources 

The Kinsey Institute, http://www.kinseyinstitute.org. 



Reskin, Barbara F. 



Sociologist 

Education: B.A., sociology, University of Washington, 1968, M.A., sociology, 
1970, Ph.D., sociology, 1973 



794 | Reskin, Barbara F. 

Professional Experience: acting assistant professor, University of California, Davis, 
1971-1972; assistant professor to associate professor, sociology, Indiana University, 
Bloomington, 1973-1983; professor, sociology and women's studies, University of 
Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1983-1985; professor, sociology, and Director of Graduate 
Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1985-1991; professor, sociology, 
Ohio State University, 1991-1997; professor, sociology, Harvard University, 
1997-2002; S. Frank Miyamoto Professor of Sociology, University of Washington, 
Seattle, 2002- 

Concurrent Positions: study director, Committee on Women's Employment and 
Related Social Issues, National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences, 
Washington, D.C., 1981-1982; visiting scholar, Institute for Research on Women 
and Gender, Stanford University, summer, 1987; visiting professor, sociology, 
University of North Carolina, 1988, University of Notre Dame, 1997, Stockholm 
University, 1999, Manchester University, 1999 

Barbara Reskin specializes in the sociology of work, including sexual and racial 
inequality in the workplace. In addition to numerous articles on topics related to 
affirmative action, gender and promotion, gender and management, racial segrega- 
tion among female workers, and the effect of family responsibilities on women's 
careers (in particular, many of her early publications, including her dissertation, 
focused on the professional advancement of women scientists), among the books 
she has authored, co-authored, or edited are Sex Segregation in the Workplace: 
Trends, Explanations, Remedies (1984), Women's Work, Men's Work: Sex Segre- 
gation on the Job (1986), The Realities of Affirmative Action (1998), and Women 
and Men at Work (1994, 2nd ed., 2002). Reskin has been an invited lecturer at uni- 
versities and organizations in the United States and abroad, and she has consulted 
with corporations and on legal cases on issues related to employment discrimina- 
tion. Her research has been supported by grants from academic, government, and 
professional organizations, including the National Science Foundation, Economic 
Policy Institute, Institute for Women's Policy Research, Rockefeller Foundation, 
and National Institute of Mental Health. 

Reskin was born in Minnesota, and her parents had ties to radical political 
and labor groups. Her father died when she was only seven years old, and her 
mother worked a series of clerical jobs to support the family. Barbara also worked 
a variety of clerical and manual jobs before attending Reed College. She left Reed 
and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where she was introduced to the Congress on 
Racial Equality (CORE) during the civil rights movement of the mid-1960s. She 
was involved in actions such as organizing strikes, sit-ins, and a summer Freedom 
school. She attended a sociology night class at Case Western Reserve in Ohio, and 



Resnik, Judith A. | 795 

she went on to receive her degree in sociology from the University of Washington, 
Seattle in 1968. She continued on for graduate study and became active in the 
feminist movement as well, helping organize a Reproductive Counseling Center 
and co-authoring a pamphlet about birth control for college women. She received 
a master's degree and then a Ph.D. in 1973 with her dissertation on "Sex Differ- 
ences in the Professional Life Chances of Chemists." She began her teaching 
career at the University of California, Davis while still a graduate student and later 
served on the faculty of several Midwestern universities. In 1981, she took a year 
off from teaching to direct a study of sex segregation in the workplace for the 
National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in Washington, D.C. This experience 
galvanized her commitment not only to feminist social science research but also 
to applying research to social justice policy. 

Reskin was elected a fellow of the NAS in 2006 and has served on numerous 
NAS and National Research Council committees, including the Committee on 
the Education and Employment of Women in Science and Engineering (1978- 
1982). She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the 
Sociological Research Association, and has served as vice president (1990) and 
president (2002) of the American Sociological Association (ASA). Her numerous 
awards and honors include a Distinguished Scholar Award of the ASA Section on 
Sex and Gender (1995), an SWS Mentorship Award (1998), and a DuBois Distin- 
guished Scholarly Career Award from the ASA (2008). 

Further Resources 

University of Washington. Faculty website, http://www.soc.washington.edu/people/ 
faculty detail. asp?UID=reskin. 

American Sociological Association. "Barbara F. Reskin. President 2002." http://www2 
.asanet.org/governance/reskin.html. 



Resnik, Judith A. 

1949 1986 

Electrical Engineer, Astronaut 

Education: B.S., Carnegie Mellon University, 1970; Ph.D., electrical engineering, 
University of Maryland, 1977 

Professional Experience: electrical engineer, RCA Corporation, 1970-1974; 
biomedical engineer, Laboratory of Neurophysiology, National Institutes of Health, 
1974-1977; senior systems engineer, Xerox Corporation, 1977-1978; astronaut, 



796 | Resnik, Judith A. 




National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA), 1978-1986, 
missions STS 41-D (1984) and STS 
51-L(1986) 

Judith Resnik was one of the first six 
women to be selected as astronauts 
by NASA in 1978. She was the sec- 
ond woman in the United States to 
fly in space, and she was among the 
crew who died when the space orbiter 
Challenger exploded on January 28, 
1986, just after the launch from Cape 
Canaveral, Florida. Earlier, in 1984, 
she was a member of the crew of the 
Earth orbiter Discovery and was 
responsible for operating the Remote 
\£M Manipulator System (RMS) on that 

mission. The RMS is the huge robotic 
arm that can lift satellites out of the 
orbiter and bring them back again. 
The crew was nicknamed "Icebust- 
ers" because they were able to use 
the arm to remove ice particles from the orbiter. When the RMS was first tested 
in space in 1981, it was another female astronaut, Sally Ride, who assisted 
from Mission Control. Although Resnik was an expert on using the shuttle arm, 
her initial flight assignment did not call for that specialty but instead required a 
great deal of photographic work. Later, when the flight was changed to include 
the shuttle arm, she had the opportunity to use her expertise as an electrical 
engineer. 

Many of the male astronauts and employees of NASA were vehemently 
opposed to adding women to the program, but most reluctantly admitted that the 
women were qualified for their jobs. The first men selected had all been military 
test pilots because they had experience flying at high altitudes. However, in the 
late 1970s, the space program was shifting toward developing an orbiting space 
station, which required crewmembers with more scientific backgrounds, and most 
of the women astronauts held degrees in engineering or physics. All of the astro- 
nauts trained in multiple assignments in order to expand their capabilities to the 
maximum. After her death, Resnik became a hero and role model and was profiled 
in various news magazine and books about the women astronauts. 



Electrical engineer Judith Resnik was one of 
the first six women selected as astronauts in 
1978. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Richardson, Jane S. | 797 



Further Resources 

Kevles, Bettyann H. 2003. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. New York: 
Basic Books. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Judith A. Resnik (Ph.D.)." http:// 
www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/resnik.html. 



Richardson, Jane S. 



b. 1941 
Biochemist 

Education: B.A., philosophy, Swarthmore College, 1962; M.A., philosophy, 
Harvard University, 1966 

Professional Experience: technical assistant, chemistry, Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology, 1964-1969; general physical scientist, Laboratory of Molecular 
Biology, National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases, 1969; associate, 
anatomy, Duke University, 1970-1984, medical research associate professor, bio- 
chemistry and anatomy, 1984-1988, biochemistry, 1988-1991, James B. Duke 
Professor of Biochemistry, 1991— 

Concurrent Positions: co-director, Molecular Graphics and Modeling Shared 
Resource, Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duke University, 1988— 

Jane Richardson is a biochemist and crystallographer who studies the three- 
dimensional structures of proteins, emphasizing the underlying principles of their 
architecture, aesthetics, interrelationships, and folding mechanism. She and her 
husband and collaborator, David Richardson, developed a way of mapping protein 
folding known as the Richardson diagram. Her 3-D ribbon diagrams were 
first published in the journal Protein Chemistry in 1981 and have since become 
the standard images for visualizing protein strands and structures. In 1985, 
she received a five-year MacArthur "genius" grant, and Science Digest chose 
the Richardsons' work on the first chemical synthesis of the protein betabellin 
as one of the year's 100 best inventions. Betabellin is a bell-shaped, beta- 
pleated-sheet protein whose structural properties were accurately predicted. 
Creating proteins that do not occur in nature can provide scientists with a better 
understanding of the structure of natural proteins, and the synthesis of proteins 
may open the way to designing hormones and drugs, and improving myriad 
industrial products. 



798 | Ride, Sally Kristen 

Richardson had an early interest in science, and as a teenager in 1958, she won 
third place in the national Westinghouse Science Talent Search with her project on 
calculations of the satellite Sputnik's orbit made from her own observations. She 
studied philosophy, mathematics, and physics at Swarthmore College, and went 
on to receive a master's degree from Harvard. Although she never earned a Ph.D. 
or M.D., she worked at the National Institutes of Health in the Laboratory of 
Molecular Biology for several years before moving to Duke University, where 
she advanced in rank to become the James B. Duke Professor of Biochemistry, 
and became co-director of a lab and of the Molecular Graphics and Modeling 
Shared Resource at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center. She has received 
honorary doctorates from Swarthmore and from the University of North Carolina. 

Richardson was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1991 and the Institutes of Medicine in 2006. She has been a member of the 
National Center for Research Resources and the National Institutes of Health, 
and an industrial consultant for Upjohn Company, Hoffman-LaRoche Company, 
Allied Chemical Corporation, Becton Dickinson, and NutraSweet. She is a 
member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Biophysical Society, 
American Crystallographic Association, and Protein Society Office. 

Further Resources 

Duke University. "Richardson Laboratory." http://kinemage.biochem.duke.edu/. 



Ride, Sally Kristen 

b. 1951 

Physicist, Astronaut 

Education: B.A., English and B.S., physics, Stanford University, 1973, M.S., 
1975, Ph.D., physics, 1978 

Professional Experience: researcher, Department of Physics, Stanford Univer- 
sity, 1978; trainee, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 
1978-1979, astronaut, 1979-1987, missions STS-2 (1981), STS-3 (1982), STS-7 
(1983), STS 41-G (1984), special assistant, long-range and strategic planning, 
1987; science fellow, Stanford University Center for International Security and 
Arms Control, 1987-1989; professor, physics and director, California Space Insti- 
tute, University of California, San Diego, 1989— 

Sally Ride was the first American woman to be sent into outer space in 1983 and 
the first American woman to make two space flights. Ride's first flight was in the 



Ride, Sally Kristen | 799 




Sally Ride, America's first woman astronaut, communicates with ground controllers 
from the flight deck during the six day mission of the Challenger in June, 1 983. (National 
Archives) 



space shuttle Challenger in June 1983. Among the team's missions were deploy- 
ment of international satellites and numerous research experiments supplied by a 
number of groups — ranging from a naval research lab to high school students. 
While operating the shuttle's robot arm, she handled the first satellite deployment 
and retrieval, the first time such an arm had been used in space during flight. Her 
second flight was also in the Challenger in October 1984. This time, the robot 
arm was used to readjust a radar antenna on the shuttle as well as to deploy and 
capture a satellite. Objectives on this mission covered scientific observations of 
the Earth and demonstrations of potential satellite-refueling techniques. Ride 
was chosen for a third scheduled flight, but it was canceled after the Challenger 
exploded in January 1986. She was the only astronaut chosen for the commission 
investigating the mid-launch explosion of the Challenger, which killed all crew- 
members aboard. 

Ride created NASA's Office of Exploration, and she was also the first woman 
astronaut to leave the space program when she quietly resigned in 1987 to join 



800 | Riley, Matilda (White) 

the Stanford Center for International Security and Arms Control. She went on to 
become director of the California Space Institute and physics professor at the Uni- 
versity of California, San Diego. Ride has always been committed to science edu- 
cation, and during her tenure at NASA, she regularly addressed students at high 
schools and colleges about careers in science and engineering. In 2001, she created 
Sally Ride Science, an organization that encourages girls to study science, and she 
established an interactive educational Internet site, Space.com. She has published 
three children's books about space: To Space and Back (1986), Voyager: An 
Adventure to the Edge of the Solar System (1992), and The Third Planet: Explor- 
ing the Earth from Space (1994). 

Ride was appointed a member of the Presidential Commission of Advisors on 
Science and Technology in 1994, and she has received the Jefferson Award for 
Public Service from the American Institute for Public Service (1984) and two 
National Spaceflight Medals (recognizing her shuttle missions of 1983 and 
1984). At the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., there is a 
model of Sally Ride in her space uniform honoring her as the first American 
woman in space. 

Further Resources 

Kevles, Bettyann H. 2003. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. New York: 
Basic Books. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Sally K. Ride (Ph.D.)." http://www 
.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/ride-sk.html. 

University of California, San Diego. Faculty website, http://cass.ucsd.edu/personal/ 
sride.html. 

Space.com. http://www.space.com. 



Riley, Matilda (White) 

1911 2004 
Sociologist 

Education: B.A., Radcliffe College, 1931, M.A., sociology, 1937 

Professional Experience: research assistant, Harvard University, 1932; vice presi- 
dent, Market Research Company of America, 1938-1949; research specialist, 
Rutgers University, 1950, professor, 1951-1973, director, sociology laboratory, and 
chair, Departments of Sociology and Anthropology, 1959-1973; professor, political 
economics and sociology, Bowdoin College, 1973-1981; associate director, 



Riley, Matilda (White) | 801 

National Institute on Aging, Washington, D.C., 1979-1998, scientist emeritus, 
1999-2004 

Concurrent Positions: chief consulting economist, War Production Board, 1941— 
1943; summer faculty, Harvard University, 1955; visiting professor, New York 
University, 1956-1961; associate and director, Aging and Society, Russell Sage 
Foundation, 1964-1973, staff sociologist, 1974-1977; research fellow, Center for 
Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto, CA, 1978-1979; senior 
research associate, Center for Social Sciences, Columbia University, 1978-1980 

Matilda Riley was one of the foremost authorities on aging and gerontology. While 
aging refers to the psychological of mental, emotional, or physical development of 
a person of any chronological age, gerontology deals with the aging process and 
with issues specifically related to later life. In the February 1987 issue of American 
Sociological Review, Riley stated, "I believe that an understanding of age can 
clarify and specify time-honored sociological propositions, raise new research 
questions, demand new (as well as the old) methodological approaches, and even 
enhance the integrative power of our discipline (a power eroded in recent years 
through pluralism and disputes)." A few years later, she developed a theory about 
the influence exerted by the lives and experiences of sociologists on social and 
intellectual structure and change, both in sociology and in society as a whole. 
She identified examples of this influence in four areas of concern: sociological 
practice, gender, age, and dynamic social systems. In addition to papers published 
in journals, she published eight books and edited five more. She co-edited Age and 
Structural Lag: Society's Failure to Provide Meaningful Opportunities in Work, 
Family, and Leisure (1994), in which the authors argued that the lack of employ- 
ment opportunities for older people was both unnecessary and modifiable. As the 
American baby-boomer generation reaches retirement age in the early twenty-first 
century, Riley's work remains especially relevant. 

For much of her career, she had a professional partnership with her husband, 
Jack Riley, who died in 2002. Even as she approached her nineties, she remained 
active in her career. Instead of retiring after nearly 25 years at Rutgers University, 
she moved to Bowdoin College and then spent 20 years as associate director of the 
National Institute on Aging. Her election to membership in the National Academy 
of Sciences in 1994 was a long-delayed recognition of her years of research. In 
1998, she was named Scientist Emeritus at the National Institutes of Health 
(NIH), the only social scientist ever given that distinction, and the NIH organized 
a 2001 lecture series in her honor entitled "Soaring: An Exploration of Science and 
the Life Course." 

Riley received numerous honorary degrees and awards, such as the Common- 
wealth Award in Sociology (1984), the Distinguished Creative Contribution to 



802 | Rissler, Jane Francina 

Gerontology Award (1990) and the Kent Award (1992), both of the Gerontological 
Society of America, and the Radcliffe Alumnae Award (1982). She was a fellow of 
the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and a member of the 
Gerontological Society of America and the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science. She served as executive secretary of the American 
Sociological Association (ASA) (1949-1960), at a time when women rarely held 
office in any professional associations, and eventually served a term as president 
of the ASA (1986). Both Rutgers University and Bowdoin College have estab- 
lished academic prizes in her name. 

Further Resources 

Abeles, Ronald P. "Soaring: Celebrating Matilda White Riley (1911 2004)." http://www 
.asanet.org/footnotes/jan05/indexthree.html. 



Rissler, Jane Francina 

b. 1946 
Botanist 

Education: B.A., Shepherd College, 1966; M.A., West Virginia University, 1968; 
Ph.D., plant pathology, Cornell University, 1977 

Professional Experience: fellow, fungal physiology, Boyce Thompson Institute, 
1977-1978; assistant professor, plant pathology and botany, University of Maryland; 
staff scientist, Environmental Protection Agency; National Wildlife Federation; 
senior staff scientist and deputy director, Agriculture and Biotechnology, Food & 
Environment Program, Union of Concerned Scientists, 1993— 

Jane Rissler is a plant pathologist and activist who has raised public awareness 
about genetically modified and engineered plants. Although scientists and farmers 
have practiced plant breeding for centuries, in recent decades it has become possible 
to transfer genetic material among plants. As a plant pathologist, she is concerned 
about the possibility of transferring diseases from plant to plant and about the pos- 
sibility of introducing diseased plants into food crops. 

Rissler is a senior scientist and director of the Food & Environment Program for 
the Union of Concerned Scientists, which conducts and compiles scientific 
research for the purpose of presenting policy suggestions on issues related to agri- 
culture, biotechnology, pesticides, and the environment. In addition to numerous 
papers and interviews, she has co-authored two of the books the group has pub- 
lished. Perils Amidst the Promise: The Ecological Risk of Transgenic Plants in a 



Rivlin, Alice (Mitchell) | 803 

Global Market (1993) was written as a scientific and ecological response to policy 
issues and the politics of biotechnology. That research was enlarged and revised as 
The Ecological Risks of Engineered Crops (1996), in which the authors acknowl- 
edge that applications of biotechnology in crops are already a commercial reality. 
Rissler and others do not oppose genetic engineering as a component of agricul- 
ture as a whole, but only wish to encourage public debate about the potential 
harmful consequences of transgenic plants and to suggest a risk-assessment 
methodology. 

Rissler grew up in rural West Virginia and received her doctorate in plant path- 
ology from Cornell University in 1977. She taught plant pathology at the Univer- 
sity of Maryland and was a policy consultant for the Environmental Protection 
Agency and the National Wildlife Federation before joining the Union of Con- 
cerned Scientists. She has been an important liaison to the public, co-editing a 
newsletter on genetic engineering and appearing on television and radio shows 
such as NPR, CNN, and various news outlets. She is a member of the American 
Phytopathological Society. 

Further Resources 

"Harvest of Fear. Interviews: Jane Rissler." PBS. (October 2000). http://www.pbs.org/ 
wgbh/harvest/interviews/rissler.html. 

Union of Concerned Scientists. "Experts." http://www.ucsusa.org/news/experts/jane 
-rissler.html. 



Rivlin, Alice (Mitchell) 



b. 1931 
Economist 

Education: B.A., Bryn Mawr, 1952; M.A., Radcliffe College, 1955, Ph.D., 
economics, 1958 

Professional Experience: teaching fellow and tutor, economics, Harvard Univer- 
sity, 1954-1957; research fellow, Economic Studies, Brookings Institution, 1957- 
1958, senior staff economist, 1958-1966; Deputy Assistant Secretary for Program 
Coordination, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1966-1968, 
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, 1968-1969; senior fellow, Eco- 
nomic Studies, Brookings Institution, 1969-1975; director, U.S. Congressional 
Budget Office, 1975-1983; director, Economic Studies Program, Brookings Insti- 
tution, 1983-1987, senior fellow, 1987-1992; professor, Public Policy, George 



804 | Rivlin, Alice (Mitchell) 

Mason University, 1992-1993; deputy director, U.S. Office of Management and 
Budget, 1993-1994, director, 1994-1996; vice chair, Federal Reserve Board, 
1996-1999; senior fellow, Economic Studies, Brookings Institution, 1999-; co- 
director, Brookings-Greater Washington Research Program, 2001-2002; profes- 
sor, Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, New School Uni- 
versity, 2001-2003; director, Greater Washington Research Program, Brookings 
Institution, 2002- 

Concurrent Positions: staff member, Advisory Commission on Intergovernmen- 
tal Relations, 1961-1962; visiting professor, J. F. Kennedy School of Government, 
Harvard University, 1988; chair, District of Columbia Financial Assistance and 
Management Authority, 1998-2001; visiting professor, Public Policy Institute, 
Georgetown University, 2003- 

Alice Rivlin is an economist who has spent at least half of her career in the federal 
government, beginning as a member of the staff of the U.S. Department of Health, 
Education, and Welfare, where she implemented a system of budgeting and 
programming, and brought economic analyses to bear on the agency's policy deci- 
sions. She was the first head of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) when it 




Economist Alice Rivlin has held numerous appointments with the U.S. government, 
including as first head of the Congressional Budget Office and vice chair of the Federal 
Reserve Board. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Rivlin, Alice (Mitchell) | 805 

was established in 1975. In 1996, she became vice chair of the Federal Reserve 
Board. Rivlin would have been in a position to replace the chair of the Federal 
Reserve, Alan Greenspan, but she resigned in 1999, one year before his retirement. 
After completing her doctorate, Rivlin obtained a position as an economist with 
the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., a well-known non-profit think tank 
devoted to independent research, education, and publications on social issues. She 
has been affiliated with Brookings off and on during her career and in 2002 
became the director of their Greater Washington Research Program. Under the 
auspices of the Brookings Institution, she has published regularly on pressing 
political and economic issues since the 1960s, providing an economic analysis of 
education policy, medical care, welfare, elder care, and balancing the budget. 
Her most recent publications include Beyond the Dot Corns: The Economic Prom- 
ise of the Internet (2001) and Restoring Fiscal Sanity: How to Balance the Budget 
(2004). She has also served as a consultant to a variety of government agencies. 

In 1974, Congress passed the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control 
Act, which provided for a House budget committee, a Senate budget committee, 
and the CBO. The last was to be an independent, nonpartisan office that would 
work with the two congressional committees to assist the members of Congress 
in analyzing and forming policy on federal spending and income. The CBO was 
also responsible for monitoring the national economy and its impact on the federal 
budget, for providing budgetary statistics to Congress, and for proposing alterna- 
tive budgeting policies. As director of the CBO, Rivlin found herself embroiled 
in controversy because some of the recommendations of the CBO stepped on the 
toes of powerful people in Congress who had pet projects they were promoting. 
Also, her analyses and recommendations often were more negative than those pro- 
vided by the executive branch, a factor that annoyed a series of U.S. presidents. 
For example, she found herself in conflict with Ronald Reagan's supply-side eco- 
nomics, and she forecast a deficit for 1984 while his office insisted he would bal- 
ance the budget. Although her forecast proved to be correct, she was able to 
keep her job because there was a sharp drop in inflation that defused the argument. 

After completing her second term at the CBO, Rivlin resigned her office there and 
returned to teaching, research, and writing. In 1993, she returned to federal employ- 
ment when President Bill Clinton appointed her the deputy director of the U.S. 
Office of Management and Budget, the budgeting agency for the executive branch 
and the agency whose data she had disagreed with while head of the CBO. She 
was promoted to director in 1994 but resigned in 1996 to serve as vice chair of the 
Federal Reserve Board. Rivlin has received numerous honors and distinctions, 
including an honorary law degree from Hood College (1970), the Radcliffe Col- 
lege Founders Award (1970), a prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship 



806 | Roberts, Edith Adelaide 

(1983-1988), and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the D.C. Chamber of 
Commerce (2004). 

Further Resources 

Brookings Institution. "Alice M. Rivlin." http://www.brookings.edu/scholars/arivlin.htm. 

Olson, Paulette I. and Zohren Emami, eds. 2002. Engendering Economics: Conversations 
with Women Economists in the United States. New York: Routledge. 



Roberts, Edith Adelaide 

1881 1977 
Botanist 

Education: A.B., Smith College, 1905; M.S., University of Chicago, 1911, Ph.D., 
plant physiology, 1915 

Professional Experience: instructor to associate professor, botany, Mount 
Holyoke College, 1915-1917; extension worker with women, U.S. Department 
of Agriculture (USDA), 1917-1919; associate professor, botany, Vassar College, 
1919-1921, professor, 1921-1950; consultant and guest scientist, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology (MIT), 1950-retirement 

Edith Roberts was recognized by her contemporaries for her research in plant physi- 
ology, ecology, germination of seeds, and propagation of native plants. She was a 
faculty member at Vassar College for more than 30 years and established the first 
outdoor ecological laboratory in the United States in Dutchess County, New York. 
The laboratory eventually contained more than 2,000 local native plant species, 
and Roberts co-authored a botanical history of Dutchess County in 1938. After com- 
pleting her doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1915, she joined the faculty 
of Mount Holyoke for three years, then accepted a position with the USDA as an 
extension worker with women for three years. Sources do not mention the specific 
work she did for the USDA. Since this was during World War I, it is possible she 
was involved in gardening projects for women during wartime, when women 
managed farms for the men who were in service. She was appointed an associate 
professor of botany at Vassar College in 1919 and promoted to professor in 1921. 

With gardener and landscape architect Elsa Rehmann, Roberts wrote a series 
of articles on plant ecology for House Beautiful magazine which were collected 
into a popular 1929 book, American Plants for American Gardens: Plant 
Ecology, the Study of Plants in Relation to Their Environment; the book was 
reprinted in a new edition in 1996. Roberts was also the author of American Ferns: 



Roberts, Lydia Jane | 807 

How to Know, Grow and Use Them (1935). She retired from Vassar in 1950, but 
went on to consult for the department of food technology at MIT, researching plant 
sources for vitamins. Roberts was a member of the Botanical Society of America, 
the American Forestry Association, and the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science. 



Roberts, Lydia Jane 

1879 1965 

Nutritionist and Home Economics Educator 

Education: teaching credential, Mount Pleasant Normal School (later Central 
Michigan University), 1909; B.S., home economics, University of Chicago, 1917, 
M.S., 1919, Ph.D., home economics, 1928 

Professional Experience: school teacher, 1899-1915; assistant to associate 
professor, home economics, University of Chicago, 1919-1930, professor and 
department chair, 1930-1944; chair, home economics, University of Puerto Rico, 
1946-1952 

Lydia Roberts was a pioneer in the field of nutrition of children and had a key role 
in the development of government nutrition standards, such as determining the 
Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) of vitamins and minerals. She entered 
the University of Chicago at age 36 to begin her formal training in nutrition. She 
was already teaching at Chicago when received her Ph.D. in home economics in 
1928; she was promoted to full professor and became department chair in 1930. 
At Chicago, she offered a curriculum with a strong basis in scientific research and 
was able to work on children's nutrition issues in a clinical setting. She conducted 
surveys of children's feeding and nutrition status for the U.S. Children's Bureau. 
Her book, Nutrition Work with Children (1927), was based on her dissertation 
research and became a classic in its field, going through several editions. It was 
as chair of the U.S. government's Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) that she devel- 
oped the RDA guidelines based on the latest scientific research on human nutrient 
and vitamin needs. The first RDA report was the result of a committee of more than 
40 nutrition scientists, an amazing 25 of whom were women. The findings of the 
FNB committee were first published by the American Dietetic Association in 1943. 
After retiring from the University of Chicago, Roberts accepted a position as 
chair of the home economics department at the University of Puerto Rico, a posi- 
tion she retained until 1952. During this time she reported on nutrition on the island 
for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and co-authored a report, Patterns of Living 



808 | Robinson, Julia Bowman 

in Puerto Rican Families (1949). Even after formally retiring from the University, 
she remained in Puerto Rico working on issues of nutrition and economic develop- 
ment for a rural community and developing an experimental program that became 
an island-wide model. 

Roberts received the Borden Award of the Home Economics Association (1938). 
She was a member of the Council of Foods and Nutrition of the American Medical 
Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Further Resources 

Harper, Alfred E. 2003. "Contributions of Women Scientists in the U.S. to the Develop- 
ment of Recommended Dietary Allowances." The Journal of Nutrition. 133: 3698 
3702. (November 2003). http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/133/ll/3698. 



Robinson, Julia Bowman 

1919 1985 
Mathematician 

Education: A.B., University of California, Berkeley, 1940, M.A., 1941, Ph.D., 
mathematics, 1948 

Professional Experience: mathematician, Berkeley Statistical Laboratory, 1939— 
1945; junior mathematician, Rand Corporation, 1949-1950; lecturer, mathemat- 
ics, University of California, Berkeley, 1960-1964, 1966-1967, 1969-1970, and 
1975, professor, mathematics, 1976-1985 

Julia Robinson was a mathematician whose research focused on number theoreti- 
cal decision problems and on recursive functions. She was one of the first American 
women mathematicians. She showed an early interest in mathematics and was 
often the only girl in high school taking advanced courses in mathematics and 
physics. Upon her high school graduation, she received a special medal for 
excellence in science and math, and entered San Diego State University at the 
age of 16; she later transferred to and received multiple degrees from the Univer- 
sity of California, Berkeley. She was married to a mathematics professor, Raphael 
M. Robinson, in December 1941, just after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 
and during World War II, she worked for the Berkeley Statistical Laboratory on 
military projects. She was discouraged at being unable to secure a faculty position 
at Berkeley (due to anti-nepotism rules) and being unable to have children (due to 
serious health problems since her own childhood), but she continued on to receive 
her doctorate in 1948. 



Roemer, Elizabeth | 809 

She worked for the Rand Corporation for two years and then took several years 
off for her health, including heart surgery. Beginning in 1960, she began teaching 
one graduate course per quarter at Berkeley. She became interested in a list of 
unsolved mathematical problems posed in 1900 by German number theorist David 
Hilbert. Robinson set to work on solving the equation known as "Hilbert's Tenth 
Problem" and published several papers on the topic. In 1970, she learned that a 
Russian mathematician had solved the equation based on her hypothesis. She 
became internationally known for this work and, in 1975, was promoted to full 
professor at Berkeley. Her sister, Constance Reid, collected Robinson's autobiog- 
raphy as well as several articles about her work for the 1996 volume, Julia, A Life 
in Mathematics. 

Robinson was the first woman mathematician elected to the National Academy of 
Sciences (1975), and she became the first woman elected president of the American 
Mathematical Society (1983). She received an honorary degree from Smith College 
(1979) and in 1983 was awarded a prestigious five-year MacArthur Fellowship. 
She also was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the 
Association for Symbolic Logic. 

Further Resources 

Reid, Constance, ed. 1996. Julia, A Life in Mathematics. Washington, D.C.: Mathematical 
Association of America. 

Agnes Scott College. "Julia Bowman Robinson." Biographies of Women Mathematicians. 
http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/robinson.htm. 



Roemer, Elizabeth 



b. 1929 
Astronomer 

Education: B.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1950, Ph.D., astronomy, 
1955 

Professional Experience: assistant astronomer, University of California, 1950- 
1952, laboratory technician, Lick Observatory, 1954-1955, research astronomer, 
1955-1956; research associate, Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago, 1956; 
astronomer, Flagstaff Station, U.S. Naval Observatory, 1957-1966, acting director, 
1965; associate professor, astronomy, and member, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, 
University of Arizona, Tucson, 1966-1969, professor, 1969-1998, astronomer, 
Steward Observatory, 1980-1998, emerita 



810 I Roemer, Elizabeth 

Elizabeth Roemer is renowned as the premier recoverer of "lost" comets, that is, 
comets whose planned rediscovery is based on predictions from previous returns. 
She calls her profession "astrometry," which is the branch of astronomy that deals 
with the measurement of the positions and motions of the celestial bodies. In her 
lifetime study of comets, she has rediscovered at least 79 returning periodic com- 
ets and visual and spectroscopic binary stars, plus computing the orbits of comets 
and minor planets. Her publications have covered many topics, such as comets and 
minor planets, astronomy and practical astronomy, computation of orbits, astro- 
metric and astrophysical investigations of comets, minor planets and satellites, 
and dynamical astronomy. She is regarded by her peers as a contributor to many 
scientific and astronomical discoveries, and her precise photographic observations 
of comets have led to a great many cometary orbits of importance. 

In 1965, a colleague named Asteroid 1657 "Roemera" in her honor. Although 
each comet and asteroid is assigned a number in an international database, 
not all have names; after the sightings have been verified, it is the privilege of the 
discoverer to name the item or to have it named in their honor. Roemer made her 
first major rediscoveries while she was working at the U.S. Naval Observatory at 
Flagstaff, Arizona, and it was at that same time that her photographic records of 
comets and her notes on their physical characteristics began to earn her national 
recognition. 

She taught adult classes in the local public school system while attending 
school at the University of California, Berkeley. She also served as an assistant 
astronomer and later as a laboratory technician at the Lick Observatory. She 
worked briefly for the university after graduation and was also a research associate 
at the Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago. She then joined the staff of 
the Flagstaff Station of the U.S. Naval Observatory and later moved to the Univer- 
sity of Arizona as an associate professor and a member of the Lunar and Planetary 
Laboratory before becoming a full professor of astronomy. She retired in 1998 but 
continues her research on comets and asteroids. 

She has received numerous prizes, such as the B. A. Gould Prize of the National 
Academy of Sciences (1971), the Donohoe lectureship of the Astronomical Society 
of the Pacific (1962), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 
Special Award (1986), and the Dorothea Klumpke Roberts Prize of the Astronomi- 
cal Society of the Pacific (1950) named for another American astronomer who 
was recognized for her work in charting and cataloging stars in the late nineteenth 
century. Roemer is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science and a member of the American Astronomical Society, American Geo- 
physical Union, Astronomical Society of the Pacific, International Astronomical 
Union, British Astronomical Association, and Royal Astronomical Society of 
London. 



Rolf, Ida P. | 811 

Rolf, Ida P. 

1896 1979 

Biochemist, Physical Therapist 

Education: B.S., Barnard, 1916; Ph.D., biological chemistry, College of Physi- 
cians and Surgeons, Columbia University, 1920 

Professional Experience: associate, chemotherapy and organic chemistry, 
Rockefeller Institute, 1920-1928; independent practitioner and physical therapist, 
1930-1979; founder, Rolf Institute of Structural Integration, Boulder, Colorado, 
1971-1979 

Ida Rolf was a biochemist and physical therapist who created a unique and contro- 
versial treatment of "structural integration," also termed "Rolfing." Her method is 
a vigorous program of physical manipulations to release anger and tensions, and to 
restore the free flow of fluids, nerve impulses, and energy through the body. It was 
based on the belief that the body is plastic and not a fixed unit, as medical science 
would hold. A key feature of the treatment is that the structure, particularly the 
alignment, of the body would often be changed, and the patient might look much 
different because he or she was standing, moving, and walking in a new way. 
Some sources attribute Rolf's interest in physical therapy and natural medicine 
to a condition suffered by one her children; others report that Rolf herself was 
seeking alternative treatments after suffering from illnesses resulting from being 
kicked by a horse as a young woman. 

After receiving her doctorate in biological chemistry, Rolf worked for the 
Rockefeller Institute. She eventually inherited some money and left the Institute 
to independently study various methods of physical therapy. She traveled to Swit- 
zerland, where she studied physics and homeopathic medicine and returned to the 
United States to study chiropractic medicine and yoga therapy. Around 1940, she 
began to develop her own theories of the mind-body connection based on the idea 
that both psychological and physical histories shape, and sometimes deform, peo- 
ple's bodies, thickening connective tissue and tightening muscles in response to 
psychological as well as physical injury, and revealing past tensions and unex- 
pressed angers. These abnormal tightenings and thickenings interfere with the flow 
of fluids and can sometimes block the free passage of nerves and nerve impulses 
through the body. She began traveling throughout the United States, Canada, and 
Europe, lecturing and demonstrating her method of "structural integration." In 
the mid-1960s, she was invited to give demonstrations at the Esalen Institute in 
California, a community that tried to integrate elements of Eastern cultures, such 
as Zen Buddhism, and radical therapy systems, such as Gestalt psychotherapy. 
Although Rolf did not approve of the Esalen lifestyle, which included nudism 



812 | Roman, Nancy Grace 

and drugs, the Institute provided a base of operations for her for a few years. In 
1971, based on the success of her workshops at Esalen, she organized the Guild 
for Structural Engineering, later renamed the Rolf Institute of Structural Integra- 
tion, in Boulder, Colorado. 

The Institute continues to train Rolf practitioners to carry on her work, based on 
the principles laid out in her 1977 book, Rolfing: The Integration of Human Struc- 
ture. There are presently more than 1,500 certified Rolf practitioners worldwide, 
and the method has received regular attention in the popular press. Most recently, 
the Rolfing method was featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show in April 2007. In 
some circles, it is still seen as controversial because Rolf did not have a medical 
degree, but also because the emotional release common at the sessions can be 
overwhelming for a patient without concurrent psychiatric treatment. 

Further Resources 

The Rolf Institute of Structural Integration, http://www.rolf.org/. 



Roman, Nancy Grace 



b. 1925 
Astronomer 

Education: B.A., Swarthmore College, 1946; Ph.D., astronomy, University of 
Chicago, 1949 

Professional Experience: assistant, Swarthmore College Observatory, 1943- 
1946; graduate assistant, astronomy and astrophysics, University of Chicago, 
1946-1948, research associate, stellar astronomy, Yerkes Observatory, University 
of Chicago, 1949-1951, instructor, 1951-1954, assistant professor, 1954-1955; 
astronomer, Radio Astronomy Branch, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, 1955- 
1956, head, Microwave Spectroscopy Section, 1956-1957, consultant, 1958-1959; 
head, observational astronomy program, National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA), 1959-1960, chief astronomer, 1960-1979, program 
scientist, Hubble Space Telescope, 1979-1980, principal scientist, Astronomical 
Data Center, Goddard Space Flight Center, 1981-1997, astronomer/programmer, 
Sigma Data and MA/Com, 1981-1986, principal scientist, Hughes STX, 1986- 
1996, head, Astronomical Data Center, 1995-1997, chief scientist, 1997; teacher 
training, Montgomery College, Maryland, 1997-1999 



Roman, Nancy Grace | 813 

Concurrent Positions: consultant, ORI, Inc. 1980-1989; senior professional, 
Space Systems Division, McDonnell Douglas, 1988-1994 

Nancy Roman is renowned for developing satellite observatories to explore the 
universe from a vantage point that is free from atmospheric interference. She pio- 
neered the use of satellites for gamma ray, x-ray, and radio observations, and she 
has also used traditional Earth-based telescopes to study topics such as stellar 
motions, photoelectric photometry, and spectroscopy. She is especially noted for 
the research she conducted at NASA, where for many years she was the highest- 
ranking woman scientist. The opening of the astronaut program to women in 
1978, and the launch of NASA's moon program in 1988, greatly expanded oppor- 
tunities for women scientists, but Roman and a few others achieved recognition for 
their work prior to that program. In a 1964 NASA-approved book, Scientists Who 
Work with Astronauts, by Lynn and Gray Poole, astronomers Nancy Roman and 
Jocelyn Gill were the only two women who were profiled. 

Roman's association with NASA began in 1959, when she was appointed head 
of the observational astronomy program. She developed an ambitious plan to 
observe objects in space by using rocket and satellite observatories, and in the 
1960s, she designed instrumentation and made substantial measurements from 
gamma ray, radio, and visible light satellites, such as the orbiting solar observato- 
ries. Her programs provided astronomers with the planetary surface knowledge 
that led to the successful 1976 Viking probes to collect data from Mars. In the 
1970s, her papers dealt with new satellite data, but she still did Earth-based obser- 
vation, such as at Kitt Peak Observatory. Asteroid number 2516 Roman is named 
after her. In the 1970s and 1980s, she measured x-ray and ultraviolet readings from 
the successful OAO-3, or Copernicus, satellite, and recorded stellar spectra from 
the U.S. space station Skylab, which circled the Earth between 1973 and 1979. 
She was also the NASA program scientist for a planned space telescope, and the 
Hubble was eventually launched in 1990. She has also worked as a consulting 
astronomer for the Astronomical Data Center, editing and documenting astro- 
nomical catalogs for electronic archiving. 

Roman has also been committed to science education, and during the late 
1990s, she team-taught courses for advanced students and K-12 science teachers. 
Roman has received numerous honorary degrees. She is a fellow of the American 
Astronautical Society and American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
and a member of the American Astronomical Society. 

Further Resources 

Montgomery College. Faculty website. http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/ 
planet/Nancy/Nancy.htm. 



814 | Romanowicz, Barbara 
Romanowicz, Barbara 



b. 1950 

Geophysicist, Seismologist 

Education: Ecole Normale Superieure, "Sevres", Paris, France, 1970-1974; 
Maitrise de Mathematiques Pures, Universite Paris, 1972; Agregation de Mathe- 
matiques, Paris, 1973; M.S., applied physics, Harvard University, 1975; Doctorat, 
astronomy, Universite Paris, 1975; Doctorat d'Etat, Universite Paris, Specialite 
Geophysique, 1979 

Professional Experience: Attachee de Recherches, C.N.R.S., Institut de Physique 
du Globe, Paris, 1978-1979; postdoctoral associate, Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology (MIT), 1979-1981; Chargee de Recherches, C.N.R.S., I. P. G., Paris, Director, 
Geoscope Program, 1981-1986, Directeur de Recherches, 1986-1990; professor, 
geophysics, University of California, Berkeley, and director, Berkeley Seismological 
Laboratory, 1991— 

Barbara Romanowicz is a geophysicist and seismologist who studies earthquakes, 
plate tectonics, and deep-earth (from the crust to the inner core) structures and move- 
ment. She has been involved in the development of special tools and observatories for 
measuring global seismic activity on land and in the oceans, including as co-founder 
in 1985 of ORFEUS, a European data center for broadband seismology, and co- 
founder in 1986 of the Federation of Digital Seismic Networks (FDSN). In 1997, 
she collaborated on the Monterey Bay Ocean-Bottom International Seismic Experi- 
ment (MOISE), and since 2002 has been involved with the Monterey Bay Ocean- 
Bottom Broadband Seismometer experiment (MOBB) in collaboration with the 
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). Trained in France, she has 
been a professor of geophysics and director of the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory 
in California since 1991. She also served as chair of the Department of Earth and 
Planetary Science at the University of California, Berkeley between 2002 and 2006. 
Romanowicz was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2005. She 
is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (president, Seismology Section, 
1994-1998) and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has served on 
numerous government and scientific research committees, including the National 
Earthquake Prediction Evaluation Council, National Research Council Committee 
on the Science of Earthquakes, International Ocean Network Committee, and 
Advisory Council to the Southern California Earthquake Center. She is the recipi- 
ent of the French Academy of Sciences Prize (Fonds Doistau-Blutet) (1989), 
Silver Medal of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (French NSF) 
(1992), A. Wegener Medal of the European Union of Geosciences (1999), and 
Gutenberg Medal of the European Geophysical Society (2003). 



Rose, Flora | 815 

Further Resources 

University of California, Berkeley. Faculty website, http://eps.berkeley.edu/development/ 
view person. php?uid=8698. 

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. "New Seafloor Observatory Provides Round- 
the-Clock Monitoring of Ocean and Earth." (18 March 2009). Monterey Ocean-Bottom 
Broadband Seisometer. http://www.mbari.org/news/homepage/2009/mars-mobb 
-deimos.html. 



Rose, Flora 



1874 1959 
Home Economist 

Education: B.S., Kansas State Agricultural College, 1904; M.A., food and nutri- 
tion, Columbia University, 1909; Ped.D., New York State College for Teachers, 
1931; Sc.D., Kansas State Agricultural College, 1937 

Professional Experience: instructor, food and nutrition, Kansas State College, 
1903-1906; lecturer, home economics, Cornell University, 1907-1911, professor, 
home economics, 1911-1940, co-director, School of Home Economics, 1919— 
1925, co-director, New York State College of Home Economics, 1925-1932, direc- 
tor, 1932-1940, emeritus professor 

Flora Rose was recognized for her 
research in nutrition, weight control, 
and the science of homemaking. She 
received her undergraduate degree 
from Kansas State College and taught 
there for four years before attending 
Columbia University in New York. 
She earned a master's degree in food 
and nutrition from Columbia and then 
spent 30 years as co-director (with 
Martha Van Rensselaer) and then 
director of the School of Home Eco- 
nomics at Cornell University, later 
established as the separate New York 
State College of Home Economics. 
Rose and Van Rensselaer were 
reformers who led a campaign to start 




Home economist Flora Rose. (Courtesy of 
Cornell University) 



816 | Rose, Mary Davies Swartz 

programs in home economics at major universities and were instrumental in 
persuading the New York legislature to create the program at Cornell. Rose 
became a lecturer and then professor in home economics through the agriculture 
department, and then co-director and, after Van Rensselaer's death, director of 
the New York State College of Home Economics. Rose and Van Rensselaer were 
the first women faculty members at Cornell to be promoted to full professors and 
were an inseparable administrative team (one colleague addressed them together 
as "Miss Van Rose"). They also shared their personal lives as well, living together 
until Van Rensselaer's death in 1932. 

In the first decades of the twentieth century, the U.S. Department of Agricul- 
ture instituted programs for vocational education in public schools and for agri- 
cultural extension services for adults, including housewives. This opened up an 
unprecedented amount of funding for jobs for women as teachers and research- 
ers in home economics and nutrition. As a nutrition researcher, Rose focused 
on dietary needs to fit household budgets, in particular the development of 
low-cost fortified cereals and the effect of nutrition on health and infant mortal- 
ity. During World War I, she helped organize food relief program for children in 
Belgium, activities that earned her recognition with the Order of the Crown. 
After retiring in 1940, she moved to California, where she continued with her 
research and teaching through the California State Health Department. Rose 
authored or co-authored several books, including, A Manual of Home-Making 
(1919), The New Butterick Cook-Book (1924), and Pioneers in Home Economics 
(1948). She was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science. 

Further Resources 

Cornell University Library. Faculty biography. http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/homeEc/ 
bios/florarose .html . 



Rose, Mary Davies Swartz 



1874 1941 

Chemist and Nutritionist 

Education: Litt.B., Denison University, 1901; diploma, home economics, 
Mechanics Institute, 1902; B.S., Columbia University, 1906; Ph.D., physiological 
chemistry, Yale University, 1909 



Rose, Mary Davies Swartz | 8 1 7 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, 1899-1905; assistant, nutrition, 
Teachers College, Columbia University, 1906-1907, instructor, nutrition and dietet- 
ics, 1909-1910, assistant to associate professor, 1911-1923, professor, 1923-1940 

Mary Swartz Rose was a pioneer in research on nutrition and dietetics, including 
the vitamin content of food, protein comparison, effects of nutrients on anemia, 
metabolism, and trace elements in the diet. She was appointed an assistant profes- 
sor of nutrition at Teachers College a year after the department was established, 
and the department became a national university center for training teachers of 
nutrition. She published more than 40 scientific papers and two widely used text- 
books, A Laboratory Hand-Book for Dietetics (1912) and The Foundations of 
Nutrition (1927). She also wrote popular books for mothers, Feeding the Family 
(1916) and Teaching Nutrition to Boys and Girls (1932). After receiving a certifi- 
cate from Denison University in 1901 and a diploma in home economics from the 
Mechanics Institute in Rochester, New York, in 1902, she taught high school home 
economics for five years. She then enrolled in Teachers College, Columbia Uni- 
versity, where she received her undergraduate degree in 1906, remaining another 
year as an assistant in the household arts department. Since there were no graduate 
programs in nutrition at the time, she enrolled in Yale, where she received her doc- 
torate in physiological chemistry in 1909. She met Anton Rose when both were 
graduate students at Yale; they were married in 1910 and had one son, Richard. 
She returned to Teachers College to become the first full-time instructor in nutri- 
tion and dietetics. She organized a program in which students could secure a solid 
grounding in the scientific aspects of nutrition as well as in the best methods for 
teaching the subject. She was promoted to assistant professor in 1911, associate 
professor in 1918, and professor in 1923. 

A charter member of the American Institute of Nutrition, she was its president 
in 1937 and 1938 and associate editor of its publication, Journal of Nutrition, from 
1928 to 1936. The American Dietetic Association elected her an honorary member 
in 1919. Teachers College established a scholarship and the Greater New York 
Dietetic Association established a lectureship in her name. She also was a member 
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Soci- 
ety of Biological Chemists, the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine, 
the American Home Economics Association, and the American Public Health 
Association. Her biography is Mary Swartz Rose: Pioneer in Nutrition (1979) by 
Juanita A. Eagles, et.al. Beginning in 2008, the American Society for Nutrition 
and the Council for Responsible Nutrition co-sponsor two awards in her name, 
the Mary Swartz Rose Young Investigator Award and the Mary Swartz Rose 
Senior Investigator Award. 



818 I Rosenblatt, Joan (Raup) 
Rosenblatt, Joan (Raup) 



b. 1926 

Mathematical Statistician 

Education: B.A., mathematics, Barnard College, 1946; Ph.D., statistics, Univer- 
sity of North Carolina, 1956 

Professional Experience: statistical analyst, National Institute of Public Affairs and 
Bureau of the Budget, 1948; assistant statistician, University of North Carolina, 
1953-1954; mathematician, National Bureau of Standards, 1955-1969, chief statisti- 
cian, Engineering Laboratory, 1969-1978, deputy director, Computer and Applied 
Mathematics Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, 1979- 
1993, director, 1993-1996 

Joan Rosenblatt was renowned for her research as a mathematical statistician at 
the National Institute of Standards and Technology, formerly the National Bureau 
of Standards. The mission of the institute is to maintain and disseminate the basic 
units of measurement such as mass, length, temperature, frequency, and electrical 
units for application in industry and government regulations. Her research 
includes nonparametric statistical theory, applications of statistical techniques in 
the physical and engineering sciences, and the reliability of complex systems. At 
the National Bureau, Rosenblatt provided statistical consulting services to all parts 
of the institute and researched improved statistical methods for applications in the 
physical and engineering sciences as well. The research problems with which 
Rosenblatt was concerned in the early 1990s arose from the proliferation of new 
federal regulations based on physical measurements of such things as water, air, 
pesticides, noise, radiation, occupational health and safety, and transportation 
safety. One of the most difficult problems was how to measure chemical additives 
in food that the Food and Drug Administration handles to satisfy regulations that 
bar the use of known cancer-causing additives in food processing. 

Rosenblatt grew up in a family that stressed education, and both her parents held 
Ph.D.s. Her mother, Clara Eliot Raup, a professor of economics at Barnard College, 
was among the first to promote the study of consumer economics and was also a role 
model for combining career and motherhood, being the first woman at Barnard to 
receive an unpaid maternity leave. After receiving her undergraduate degree, Rose- 
nblatt worked for several government agencies before returning to graduate school 
and completing her doctorate in 1956. She spent 40 years in government employ- 
ment, retiring in 1996. 

Among the awards Rosenblatt has received are the Federal Woman's Award 
(1971), the Gold Medal of the Department of Commerce (1976), and the Founders 
Award of the American Statistical Association in 1991. She was a member of the 



Rowley, Janet Davison | 819 

Committee on Applications and Theoretical Statistics of the National Research 
Council from 1985 to 1988. She is a fellow of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, American Statistical Association, and Institute of Math- 
ematical Statistics, and a member of the American Mathematical Society and 
International Statistical Institute. 

Further Resources 

Murray, Margaret Anne Marie. 2000. Women Becoming Mathematicians: Creating an 
Identity in Post World War II America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 



Rowley, Janet Davison 

b. 1925 

Cytogeneticist, Geneticist 

Education: B.S., anatomy, University of Chicago, 1946, M.D., 1948 

Professional Experience: research assistant, University of Chicago, 1949-1950; 
resident, Marine Hospital, U.S. Public Health Service, Chicago, 1950-1951; 
physician, Infant Welfare and Prenatal Clinics, Department of Health, Montgom- 
ery County, Maryland, 1953-1954; research fellow, Cook County Hospital, 
Chicago, 1955-1960; instructor, neurology, University of Illinois Medical School, 
1961; trainee, radiobiology, Churchill Hospital, England, 1961-1962; research 
associate, Department of Medicine and Argonne Cancer Research Hospital, Uni- 
versity of Chicago, 1962-1969, associate professor, Department of Medicine and 
Franklin McLean Memorial Research Institute, 1969-1977, professor, 1977- 
1984, Blum-Riese Distinguished Service Professor, Medicine, Molecular Genetics 
and Cell Biology, and Human Genetics, 1984- 

Janet Rowley is a cytogeneticist internationally renowned for her research on 
chromosome abnormalities in a form of leukemia and lymphoma. Cytogeneticists 
investigate the role of cells in evolution and heredity, and Rowley's research has 
introduced new diagnostic tools for oncologists and opened new avenues to pos- 
sible gene therapies for cancer. She has helped to pinpoint cancer gene locations 
and correlate them to chromosome aberrations. During her long career at the Uni- 
versity of Chicago, she developed the use of quinacrine and Giemsa staining to 
identify chromosomes in cloned cells, and thus was able to identify abnormalities 
that occur in some chromosomes in certain cancers. In 1972, she was the first per- 
son to discover the recurring translocation, or shifting, of genetic material, and 
since that time, more than 70 such translocations have been detected in human 
malignant cells. Her research indicated that both translocations and deletions of 



820 | Rowley, Janet Davison 




Cytogeneticist Janet Rowley is presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by 
President Barack Obama, 2009. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



genetic material occur in malignancy and that cancer is caused by a complex series 
of events within a single cell, making some genes overactive and eliminating other 
genes that would normally suppress growth. Her research revealed that any cell is 
potentially cancerous. 

Starting with her undergraduate studies in the 1940s, Rowley has had a long 
association with the University of Chicago for the majority of her career. In addi- 
tion to her numerous scientific papers, she is the author of Chromosome Changes 
in Leukemia (1978) and the editor or co-editor of Chromosomes and Cancer: From 
Molecules to Man (1983), Genes and Cancer (1984), Consistent and Chromosomal 
Aberrations and Oncogenes in Human Tumors (1984), and Advances in Under- 
standing Genetic Changes in Cancer (1992). She is co-founder and co-editor of 
the journal, Genes, Chromosomes and Cancer. 

Rowley was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1984 
and the Institute of Medicine 1985. She received the National Medal of Science in 
1999 and in 2009 received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest 
civilian honor. She has received almost every major cancer-research award, includ- 
ing the Esther Langer Award (1983), the Kuwait Cancer Prize (1984), the A. Cressy 



Roy, Delia Martin | 821 

Morrison Award from the New York Academy of Sciences (1985), the Judd Memo- 
rial Award from the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (1989), the Charles S. Mott 
Prize from General Motors Research Foundation (1989), the G. H. A. Clowes 
Memorial Award from the American Association for Cancer Research (1989), the 
Robert de Villiers Award from the Leukemia Society of America (1993), the Gaird- 
ner International Prize (1996), the Albert Lasker Clinical Medicine Research Prize 
(1998), the Franklin Medal of the American Philosophical Society (2003), and 
the Genetics Prize of the Peter and Patricia Foundation (2009). She is a member 
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society, 
American Society of Human Genetics (president, 1993), American Society of 
Hematology, and American Association for Cancer Research. She has received 
honorary doctorates from the University of Arizona, the University of Pennsylvania, 
Knox College, the University of Southern California, and Harvard University. 

Further Resources 

University of Chicago. Faculty website. http://experts.uchicago.edu/experts.php?id=212. 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 



Roy, Delia Martin 

b. 1926 

Geochemist, Materials Scientist 

Education: B.S., chemistry, University of Oregon, 1947; M.S., mineralogy, 
Pennsylvania State University, 1949, Ph.D., mineralogy, 1952 

Professional Experience: assistant, mineralogy, Pennsylvania State University, 
1949-1952, research associate, geochemistry, 1952-1959, senior research associ- 
ate, 1959-1969, associate professor, materials science, 1969-1975, professor, 
Materials Research Laboratory, 1975-1992, emerita 

Delia Roy is known for her research in materials science, which is concerned with the 
uses of new materials and their applications to existing processes and products. Her 
research includes phase equilibria, materials synthesis, crystal chemistry and phase 
transitions, crystal growth, cement chemistry, hydration and microstructure, concrete 
durability, biomaterials, special types of glass, radioactive waste management, geo- 
logical isolation, chemically bonded ceramics, and waste management science. 
Much of the new materials-science research arose from the aeronautics and nuclear 
energy programs starting in the 1950s, around the time Roy received her Ph.D. 



822 | Rubin, Vera (Cooper) 

Although Roy's background is in mineralogy, she has worked with many types 
of materials, including ceramics, biomaterials, and concrete. She founded a journal 
for Cement and Concrete Research in 1971. Although her husband, Rustum Roy, is 
internationally known for his research in materials science, science policy, and 
alternative medicine, and the two collaborated on scientific papers, Delia Roy 
maintained her own research programs and, in addition to receiving four patents, 
authored or co-authored hundreds of scientific papers. Both she and her husband 
had minerals named after them: dellaite and rustumite. After receiving her doctor- 
ate from Pennsylvania State University, she was appointed as an assistant in miner- 
alogy and progressed through the ranks to senior research associate and then full 
professor in the Materials Research Laboratory. She formally retired in 1992, but 
continues her affiliation and research at Pennsylvania State University. 

Roy was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1987. She has been 
a member of the Highway Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences, 
was chair of a National Academy of Sciences Research Committee on Concrete 
(1980-1983), and was a member of the Committee on Concrete Durability 
(1986-1987). She has received numerous awards, including the Jepson Medal 
(1982) and the Copeland Award (1987) of the American Ceramic Society, and 
the Slag Award of the American Concrete Institute (1989). She was made an 
honorary fellow of the Institute for Concrete Technology in 1987 and is a fellow 
of the Mineralogical Society of America, American Concrete Society, American 
Ceramic Society, and American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
and a member of the Materials Research Society, Geochemical Society, Clay 
Minerals Society, Concrete Society (UK), American Nuclear Society, American 
Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), and Society of Women Engineers. 

Further Resources 

Pennsylvania State University. Faculty website, http://www.mri.psu.edu/faculty/dmr.asp. 

University of Oregon College of Arts & Sciences. "Alumni. Delia Roy '47: Cement Paves 
the Way to Illustrious Career." Alumni & Development. (19 June 2007). http:// 
uoregon.edu/~wits/wits/files/pdf/della-roy.pdf. 



Rubin, Vera (Cooper) 

b. 1928 

Astronomer, Cosmologist 

Education: B.A., Vassar College, 1948; M.A., physics, Cornell University, 1951; 
Ph.D., astronomy, Georgetown University, 1954 



Rubin, Vera (Cooper) | 823 



Professional Experience: instructor, mathematics and physics, Montgomery 
County Junior College, 1954-1955; research associate astronomer, Georgetown 
University, 1955-1965, lecturer, 1959-1962, assistant professor, astronomy, 
1962-1965; staff member, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institu- 
tion of Washington, 1965- 

Concurrent Positions: associate editor, Astronomical Journal, 1972-1977; asso- 
ciate editor, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 1977-1982; editorial board, Science 
Magazine, 1979-1987; Beatrice Tinsley visiting professor, astronomy, University 
of Texas, Austin, 1988 

Vera Rubin is a specialist in the branch of astronomy called cosmology, which deals 
with the general structure and origin of the universe. She is one of America's fore- 
most astronomers, and has spent her career observing galactic structure, rotation, 
and dynamics. Her pioneering research in the 1970s demonstrated the possible exis- 
tence of a large percentage of matter in the universe that is invisible to the naked eye, 
and astronomers now estimate that up to 90% of the universe may be composed of 
this "dark matter." She studied physics at Cornell, where, for her master's thesis, 
she analyzed the motion of 108 gal- 
axies and discovered that they shared 
a large-scale, systematic motion in 
addition to motion resulting from the 
expansion of the universe. When she 
presented her findings at a meeting of 
the American Astronomical Society 
in 1950, the scientific community 
was not prepared to believe in large- 
scale motions, and her work generated 
great controversy. Several years later, 
she was vindicated when a noted cos- 
mologist agreed with her theory. Her 
doctoral advisor was applying nuclear 
physics to Big Bang cosmology, and 
her dissertation, again ahead of her 
time, showed that instead of being ran- 
domly distributed, galaxies tend to 
clump together. 

Rubin did not start doing observa- 
tional astronomy until the 1960s and, 

with colleague Kent Ford, found evi- Astronomer and cosmologist, Vera Rubin. 
dence that a large group of galaxies, (Courtesy of the Carnegie Institution) 







824 | Rubin, Vera (Cooper) 



Support for Iraqi Women Scientists 

Through the U.S. National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Human Rights, 
several prominent American women scientists helped launch a "twinning project" 
in 2007 to provide professional and social support to Iraqi women scientists and 
engineers whose careers and research have been disrupted by war. The program 
is chaired by Maxine Singer, Vera Rubin, and Myriam Sarachik, and invites 
women members of the NAS, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), and 
the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to be paired with Iraqi colleagues and provide them 
with information, news and scientific papers in their field, and moral support. The 
network reaches out to women living in Iraq as well as those who have fled to 
other countries and are attempting to continue their work. The program works in 
consultation with human-rights groups, nongovernmental organizations, and 
private groups, and does not rely upon funding from the U.S. government. 



including the Earth's Milky Way, are moving rapidly with respect to the rest of the 
universe. Although the theory was immediately controversial, this time the 
astronomy community took "the Rubin-Ford effect" seriously. Rubin and Ford found 
that stars at the outer margins of galaxies travel as rapidly as stars closer to the galaxy 
center. This indicates that there must be a large amount of invisible matter, even at the 
fringe of a galaxy, where the number of visible stars dwindles, because matter is nec- 
essary to accelerate the outer stars in their rapid orbits. Rubin theorized that a huge 
reservoir of extra material that is invisible to the telescope must be part of each gal- 
axy, and her team has analyzed 200 galaxies in pursuit of this research. Her work 
on spiral galaxies was discussed on the public television show, Stephen Hawking 's 
Universe: On the Dark Side, in 1997. 

Rubin was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) 
(1981) and received the National Medal of Science (1993). She was also awarded 
the NAS James Craig Watson Medal (2004) "for her seminal observations of dark 
matter in galaxies, large-scale relative motions of galaxies, and for generous men- 
toring of young astronomers, men and women." She has received numerous honor- 
ary degrees and other awards, including the Russell Lecturer Prize of the 
American Astronomical Society (1994), Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical 
Society (1996), Women and Science Award of the Weizmann Institute (1996), 
Cosmology Prize of the Peter Gruber Foundation (2002), Bruce Medal of the 
Astronomical Society of the Pacific (2003), and Distinguished Achievement 
Award of Vassar College (2007). In 2008, she became co-chair (with geneticist 
Maxine Singer and physicist Myriam Sarachik) of an NAS project to pair 



Rudin, Mary Ellen (Estill) | 825 

women scientists in the United States with Iraqi women scientists for mentoring 
and career support. 

Further Resources 

Carnegie Institution. Faculty website, http://www.dtm.ciw.edu/rubin/. 

National Academy of Sciences. 2008. "International Twinning Project for Iraqi Women 
Scientists, Engineers, and Health Professionals." Committee on Human Rights. 
(March 2008). http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/humanrights/PGA 044086. 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: loseph Henry Press. 

Byers, Nina and Gary A. Williams. 2006. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth- 
Century Women to Physics. New York: Cambridge University Press. 



Rudin, Mary Ellen (Estill) 

b. 1924 
Mathematician 

Education: B.A., University of Texas, Austin, 1944, Ph.D., mathematics, 1949 

Professional Experience: instructor, mathematics, Duke University, 1950-1953; 
assistant professor, University of Rochester, 1953-1957; lecturer, University of 
Wisconsin, Madison, 1959-1970, professor, mathematics, 1971-1991, emerita 

Mary Ellen Rudin is renowned for her contributions to set-theory topology in 
mathematics, particularly the construction of counterexamples. Topology is an 
abstract geometry that looks at the properties of mathematical spaces. She entered 
the University of Texas with no specific plans for an area of study, but was men- 
tored by an unorthodox mathematics research professor by the name of R. L. 
Moore. At the time she completed her Ph.D., in 1949, many universities were 
under pressure to hire women mathematicians, and Rudin found a job as an 
instructor at Duke University. She met and married mathematician Walter Rudin 
at Duke, and they moved to the University of Rochester and then on to the Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin, Madison. At Madison, she was only able to work as a lecturer 
due to an anti-nepotism rule, but after the rules were changed in 1971, she was pro- 
moted to full professor. Each summer at the University of Wisconsin, there were 
mathematics conferences and collaborations, and in 1974, Rudin gave a series of 
10 lectures that were subsequently published as Lectures on Set Theoretic Topology 
(1975). Rudin was considered one of the best-known female mathematicians of her 
generation. In 1991, a conference, "The Work of Mary Ellen Rudin," was held 



826 | Rudnick, Dorothea 

in her honor at Madison, and the proceedings were published in the Annals of the 
New York Academy of Sciences (1993). 

Rudin's family was committed to the value of education. Both of her parents and 
even both of her grandmothers had college degrees, and her family insisted that girls 
as well as boys should have the opportunity for further education. She has exhibited 
outstanding dedication and service to her profession and has written more than 90 
research papers or book chapters. She has been recognized nationally as well as inter- 
nationally, serving on advisory boards for the National Academy of Sciences and 
National Science Foundation, and as a visiting professor at institutions in New 
Zealand, Mexico, and China. Rudin is a member of the American Mathematical 
Society, Mathematical Association of America, the Association for Women in Math- 
ematics, and the Association for Symbolic Logic, and a fellow of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1995, she was elected to the Hungarian Academy 
of Sciences and has been honored by the Mathematical Society of The Netherlands. 

Further Resources 

Henrion, Claudia. 1997. Women in Mathematics: The Addition of Difference. Bloomington: 
Indiana University Press. 

Murray, Margaret Anne Marie. 2000. Women Becoming Mathematicians: Creating an 
Identity in Post World War II America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 



Rudnick, Dorothea 

1907 1990 
Embryologist 

Education: B.A., languages, University of Chicago, 1928, Ph.D., zoology, 1931 

Professional Experience: fellow, Yale University, 1931-1934; research fellow, 
University of Rochester, 1934-1937; assistant instructor, genetics, Storrs experi- 
ment station, University of Connecticut, 1937-1939; instructor, zoology, Wellesley 
College, 1939-1940; assistant professor, biology, Albertus Magnus College, New 
Haven, Connecticut, 1940-1948, professor, 1948-1977; research associate, Yale 
University, 1940-1971, associate fellow, 1969-1977 

Concurrent Positions: Guggenheim fellow, 1952-1953; U.S. Public Health 
Service special fellow, 1965-1966 

Dorothea Rudnick was recognized for her research in embryology, which focused 
on experimental embryology of the chick and rat; developmental genetics of the 



Russell, Elizabeth Shull | 827 

chick; and enzymatic development in the liver, brain, and retina of the chick. She 
discovered an interest in the sciences as an undergraduate taking courses in zool- 
ogy and embryology. While still in graduate school, her research on chick embryos 
was published in a scientific journal. After receiving her doctorate from the Uni- 
versity of Chicago in 1931, she was a fellow of the Osborne Zoological Laboratory 
at Yale and then a National Research Fellow at the University of Rochester. In 
1937, she accepted a position as assistant instructor at the University of Connect- 
icut and as instructor in zoology at Wellesley in 1939. She was appointed assistant 
professor of biology at Albertus Magnus in 1940, and advanced to full professor in 
1948. Albertus Magnus was a small liberal-arts college with very limited labora- 
tory facilities, so she maintained a lab at nearby Yale University, where she con- 
ducted studies on the embryology of the chick and rat. In 1952, she won a 
Guggenheim fellowship to conduct research and lecture in Europe. She retired 
from Yale in 1977. 

Rudnick came from a family of scientists; her father was a chemist and her two 
brothers became physicists. She originally studied languages in college, however, 
but later combined her fluency in several European languages and her interest in sci- 
ence by writing book reviews of English, French, and German works and translating 
a biography of a German scientist, Theodor Boveri: Life and Work of a Great Biolo- 
gist. For several years, she served as editor of the symposia of the Society for the 
Study of Growth and Development, and secretary and editor at the Connecticut 
Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was a member of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, American Society of Zoologists, American Asso- 
ciation of Anatomists, Society for Developmental Biology, Tissue Culture Associa- 
tion, and International Institute of Embryology. 



Russell, Elizabeth Shull 

1913 2001 
Geneticist 

Education: A.B., zoology, University of Michigan, 1933; A.M., Columbia Uni- 
versity, 1934; Ph.D., genetics, University of Chicago, 1937 

Professional Experience: assistant, zoology, University of Chicago, 1935-1937; 
independent investigator, Roscoe B. Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine, 
1937-1940, research associate, 1946-1957, senior staff scientist, 1957-1978, 
emeritus senior scientist, 1978-1988 

Concurrent Positions: Guggenheim fellow, 1958-1959 



828 | Russell, Elizabeth Shull 

Elizabeth Russell was a pioneer in genetics who bred and distributed millions of mice 
for scientific research around the world. Her early research was on fruit flies, but she 
became interested in mammalian genetics and began working with mice, the genetic 
makeup of which is 95 percent identical to that of humans. Her research focused on 
pigmentation, hereditary anemia, muscular dystrophy, cancer, and the genetic effects 
on aging. Her work on marrow transplants in mice had implications for later human 
treatments. She spent much of her career at the Roscoe B. Jackson Laboratory in 
Bar Harbor, Maine, which is known internationally for its research in breeding mice 
(now known by the brand name JAX Mice) to represent specific genetic conditions. 
When a fire broke out at the laboratory in 1947, it destroyed thousands of mice, and 
Russell was in charge of rebuilding the stock, a task that took another 10 years. 

Russell came from a strong family background in science. Her father, Aaron 
Franklin Shull, taught zoology and genetics at the University of Michigan, and 
her mother, Margaret Jeffrey Buckley, had a master's degree in zoology and had 
taught at Grinnell College in Iowa. After receiving her master's degree from 
Columbia in 1934, Elizabeth Shull joined the University of Chicago as an assistant 
in zoology while she completed her doctorate. She received her Ph.D. in 1937 and, 
that same year, married fellow graduate student William L. Russell. The couple 
began working at the Jackson Laboratory, although Elizabeth was unable to secure 
a full-time permanent position due to anti-nepotism rules. She began her career as 
an independent investigator at the lab, and took several years off in the 1940s, prob- 
ably due to family responsibilities, as the couple had four children. The couple 
divorced in 1947, however, and Elizabeth returned to work at Jackson as a research 
associate, then senior staff scientist. She organized a conference at Jackson of sci- 
entists from around the globe and subsequently received a Guggenheim fellowship 
to pursue her research on mammalian genetics. She formally retired in 1988 after 
several years as an emeritus senior scientist and traveled twice to Liberia, West 
Africa as a visiting instructor at Cuttington College. 

Russell was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1972. She was a 
trustee for several colleges in Maine and in 1991 was inducted into the Maine 
Women's Hall of Fame. She was a member of the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences, the Genetics Society of America (vice president, 1974; president, 
1975-1976), the American Philosophical Society, the American Society of 
Naturalists, the Council of the National Institute on Aging, the Society for Devel- 
opmental Biology, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. 

Further Resources 

Barker, Jane E. and Willys K. Silvers. 2002. "Elizabeth S. Russell. 1913 2001." Bio- 
graphical Memoirs. 81. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, http://www.nap 
.edu/html/biomems/erussell.pdf. 



s 



Sabin, Florence Rena 



1871 1953 
Anatomist 

Education: B.S., Smith College, 1893; M.D., Johns Hopkins University, 1900 

Professional Experience: school teacher, 1894-1895; assistant, zoology, Smith 
College, 1896; intern, Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1900-1901, assistant to associate, 
anatomy, School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, 1902-1905, associate 
professor, 1905-1917, professor, histology, 1917-1925; head, Department of Cel- 
lular Studies, Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York, 1925-1938; 
head, Committee on Health, Colorado, 1945-1947; manager, Department of 
Health and Charities, Denver, Colorado, 1947 

Florence Sabin is regarded as one of the outstanding woman scientists in the medi- 
cal field in the first half of the twentieth century. As a medical student, she had 
shown great interest in research, and she published her first paper, on the nuclei 
of cochlear and vestibular nerves, during her second year. She received her medi- 
cal degree in 1900 and chose to continue in research and teaching. She was the first 
female faculty member at Johns Hopkins Medical School when she was appointed 
in 1902 and was the first woman to advance to full professor in 1917. Her major 
areas of research were the origin of the lymphatic vessels, the study of red and 
white corpuscles, and the pathogenesis of tuberculosis. Her first research efforts 
were in a controversial field, the origin of lymphatic vessels. By using the 
approach of injecting lymphatic channels with India ink, she demonstrated that 
the vessels derived from the venous system. This work caused considerable con- 
troversy but ultimately was acclaimed as a highly significant contribution. Other 
important contributions included the development of supravital staining tech- 
niques for living cells and the identification of the monocyte as a definitive type 
of white blood cell. 

Sabin left Johns Hopkins and accepted a position as a member of the Rockefeller 
Institute in 1925, where she conducted significant research on tuberculosis before 
retiring as emeritus member in 1938. After she retired, she returned to her native 
Colorado and continued her involvement with public health issues. She began what 
was, effectively, another career when she was asked to head the Colorado State 



829 



830 | Sager, Ruth 

Committee on Health, established after the end of World War II. Her first project was 
to conduct health surveys of Colorado residents, and she drafted several pieces of 
public -health legislation to address the high mortality rate and poor healthcare sys- 
tems in the state. In 1947, she was appointed head of Health and Charities for the city 
of Denver, and set out to improve public health and hygiene standards in hospitals 
and restaurants, and to promote preventative healthcare in identifying tuberculosis 
and other contagious diseases. 

Sabin was the first woman elected to the National Academy of Sciences (1925). 
She was also the first woman president of the American Association of Anatomists 
(1924-1926). She received honorary degrees from a dozen universities. Among 
her other honors and awards were the National Achievement Award (1932), M. 
Carey Thomas Prize (1935), Trudeau Medal of the National Tuberculosis Associ- 
ation (1945), and Albert Lasker Public Service Award (1951). A bronze statue was 
placed in her honor in Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C. In addition to her numer- 
ous scientific papers, she was the author of An Atlas of the Medulla and Mid-Brain 
(1901) and Biography of Franklin Paine Mall (1934). She was a member of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physiological 
Society, the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, the Harvey Society, 
and the National Tuberculosis Association, and an honorary member of the New 
York Academy of Sciences. 

Further Resources 

National Institutes of Health. "The Florence R. Sabin Papers." Profiles in Science, 
National Library of Medicine. http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/RR/. 



Sager, Ruth 

1918 1997 
Geneticist 

Education: B.S., University of Chicago, 1938; M.S., plant physiology, Rutgers 
University, 1944; Ph.D., genetics, Columbia University, 1948 

Professional Experience: Merck postdoctoral fellow, Rockefeller Institute for 
Medical Research, 1949-1951, assistant biochemist, 1951-1955; research associ- 
ate, zoology, Columbia University, 1955-1960, senior research associate, 1960- 
1966; professor, biology, Hunter College, 1966-1975; professor, cellular genetics 
and chief, Division of Cancer Genetics, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard 
Medical School, 1975-1988 



Sager, Ruth | 83 I 




Ruth Sager was a geneticist who pio- 
neered the development of experi- 
mental material for the analysis of 
nonchromosomal heredity, called 
non-Mendelian inheritance or cyto- 
plasmic inheritance. Her research 
interests included organelle genetics 
and biogenesis, mammalian cell 
genetics, genetic mechanisms of car- 
cinogenesis, tumor suppressor genes, 
and breast cancer. Sager began her 
scientific career as a graduate student 
at Columbia University, where she 
studied plant genetics and was 
heavily influenced by the work of 
contemporary renowned geneticist 
Barbara McClintock. Sager held a 
postdoctoral fellowship to work with 
a microbiologist at the Rockefeller 
Institute for Medical Research, and 
she concentrated her own research 
on chloroplast DNA. She returned to 
Columbia as a research associate and collaborated with Professor Francis Ryan 
on their book on Cell Heredity, published in 1961. 

Sager's work changed the way biologists think about cell heredity. Still, there 
was a long delay in recognizing her achievements in academia, and she was not 
appointed a full professor until she moved to Hunter College in 1966, 18 years 
after receiving her doctorate. She had moved toward cancer research when she 
spent a year in London at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratory as a 
Guggenheim fellow. In 1975, she was invited to head the Dana-Farber Cancer 
Institute at Harvard, where she and her colleagues researched the growth of cancer 
cells and the search for tumor-suppressor genes, and had some success working 
with breast cancer cells. She retired from Harvard in 1988 but continued to be a 
voice for cancer research. She died of bladder cancer in 1997. 

Sager was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1977 and the Insti- 
tute of Medicine in 1992. Among her honors and awards, she received the Gilbert 
Morgan Smith Medal of the National Academy of Sciences (1988). She was a 
member of the American Society for Cell Biology, International Society for Cell 
Biology, Genetics Society of America, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
American Society of Biological Chemists and Molecular Biologists, American 



Geneticist Ruth Sager, 1964. (AP/Wide World 
Photos) 



832 | Saif, Linda 

Society of Naturalists, American Association of Cancer Research, and American 
Society of Human Genetics. 

Further Resources 

"Ruth Sager, Faculty of Medicine Memorial Minute." Harvard University Gazette. 
(4 November 2004). http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/ll.04/16-mm.html. 



Saif, Linda 

b. 1947 

Microbiologist, Animal Scientist 

Education: B.A., College of Wooster, Ohio, 1969; M.S., microbiology, Ohio State 
University, 1971, Ph.D., microbiology and immunology, 1976 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral research associate, Ohio Agricultural 
Research and Development Center (OARDC), Department of Veterinary 
Science, Ohio State University, 1976-1979, assistant to associate professor, 
Food Animal Health Research Program, 1979-1990, Distinguished University 
Professor, 1990- 

Linda Saif is a microbiologist whose work on animal viruses gained international 
attention during the global SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak 
of 2002 and 2003. Her research focuses on animal digestive and respiratory viral 
infections, bases for immunities, the development of vaccines, and foodborne 
illnesses. Saif, a professor of food animal sciences at the OARDC, was called 
upon by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease 
Control as head of one of the only laboratories in the world that had conducted 
research on a deadly coronavirus that had caused a global lethal infection of pigs; 
the virus could be transmitted from animals to humans, and was believed to be the 
pathogen responsible for SARS. Few biologists studying human viruses had 
encountered coronaviruses, and Saif and her husband, Mo Saif (also affiliated 
with the OARDC), consulted on ways to detect, respond to, and stop the spread of 
the SARS virus that killed nearly 1 ,000 people in less than one year. Her lab was 
invited to join the WHO's elite network of International Reference Laboratories, 
an affiliation that has attracted graduate students and grant money to support 
her work. 

Saif was raised in Ohio and spent much of her childhood in and around her 
grandparents' farm. She earned her bachelor's degree from the College of Wooster 
in 1969. She briefly attended Case Western Reserve University before receiving 



Sammet, Jean Elaine | 833 

her master's and doctorate in microbiology and immunology from Ohio State 
University in 1971 and 1976, respectively. She stayed on at the university, rising 
through the ranks from postdoctoral researcher to assistant professor, and in 
2002 became a Distinguished University Professor, the highest faculty honor. 

Saif was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2003. That same year, 
she received an honorary doctorate from Ghent University in Belgium. She has 
also received the Beecham Laboratories Award for Research Excellence (1989), 
a Distinguished Veterinary Immunologist Award from the American Association 
of Veterinary Immunologists (1995), and University Distinguished Scholar 
Awards from the Ohio State University (1995 and 2002). She is an honorary diplo- 
mate of the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists, an elected fellow of 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of 
the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases, American Society 
of Virology, and American Association of Veterinary Immunologists. 

Further Resources 

Ohio State University. "Dr. Linda Saif Laboratory." http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/lsaiflab/. 



Sammet, Jean Elaine 

b. 1928 
Computer Scientist 

Education: B.A., mathematics, Mount Holyoke College, 1948; M.A., mathemat- 
ics, University of Illinois, 1949 

Professional Experience: teaching assistant, mathematics, University of Illinois, 
1948-1951; dividend technician, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, 1951; 
teaching assistant, mathematics, Barnard College, 1952-1953; engineer, Sperry 
Gyroscope Company, 1953-1958; section head, MOBIDIC Programming, Sylva- 
nia Electric Products Company, 1958-1959, staff consultant, program research, 
1959-1961; Boston advanced program manager, International Business Machines 
(IBM) Corporation, 1961-1965, program language technical manager, 1965— 
1968, program technology planning manager, 1968-1979, division software tech- 
nical manager, 1979-1983, program language technology manager, 1983-1986, 
senior technical staff member, 1986-1988; consultant, 1989— 

Concurrent Positions: lecturer, Adelphi College, 1956-1958, Northeastern 
University, 1967, University of California, Los Angeles, 1967-1972, Mount Holyoke 
College, 1974 



834 | Sammet, Jean Elaine 

Jean Sammet is renowned for her professional contributions to the use of com- 
puters for nonnumerical mathematics and for developments in the theory of 
high-level programming languages. She is most famous for her work on the design 
and development of COBOL and FORMAC, the most widely used programming 
language in the world from the late 1960s through the 1970s, primarily for com- 
mercial applications. She studied mathematics in college and graduate school, 
and began work on computers at Sperry Gyroscope in 1955 as supervisor of their 
first scientific programming group. At the same time, she was a lecturer on digital 
computer programming at Adelphi College, where she also taught one of the ear- 
liest courses on FORTRAN in the United States. She moved to Sylvania Electric 
Products in 1958 and oversaw the development of software for MOBIDIC, the 
U.S. Army computer system. During her Sylvania years, she was involved in the 
initial creation of COBOL. 

In 1961, Sammet began her long association with IBM to organize and manage 
the Boston Programming Center. She initiated the concept, and directed the devel- 
opment of, FORMAC (FORmula MAnipulation Compiler), the first widely used 
general language and system for manipulating nonnumeric algebraic expression. 
In 1965, she became programming language technology manager and then moved 
to the IBM Federal Systems Division in 1968, where she held various positions 
involving planning, internal consulting, and lecturing on programming languages. 
In 1969, she published a book, Programming Languages: History and Fundamentals, 
recognized as the "standard work on programming languages" and "an instant 
computer classic." In 1979, she began work on "Ada," the first programming lan- 
guage developed for the U.S. Department of Defense. In 1986, she was named a 
senior technical staff member; she formally retired from IBM in 1988, but contin- 
ued to consult for the company. 

Sammet was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering 
in 1977 and in 1978 received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Mount 
Holyoke College. Among her numerous other awards are IBM's Outstanding 
Contribution Award (1965), Mount Holyoke College Alumnae Association 
Centennial Award (1972), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) 
Distinguished Service Award (1985), Augusta Ada Lovelace Award of the 
Association for Women in Computing (1989), Distinguished Service Award of 
the ACM Special Interest Group on Programming Languages (SIGPLAN) 
(1997), and a Fellow Award of the Computer History Museum (2001). She is 
a member of the Mathematical Association of America and the Association 
for Computing Machinery, serving as president from 1974 to 1976. She was 
also a member of the board of directors of the Computer Museum in Boston 
(1983-1993). 



Sarachik, Myriam Paula (Morgenstein) | 835 

Sarachik, Myriam Paula (Morgenstein) 

b. 1933 
Physicist 

Education: B.A., physics, Barnard College, 1954; M.S., Columbia University, 
1957, Ph.D., physics, 1960 

Professional Experience: research assistant, solid-state physics, International 
Business Machines (IBM) Watson Laboratory, Columbia University, 1955-1960, 
research associate, 1960-1961; member of technical staff, AT&T Bell Laborato- 
ries, 1962-1964; assistant to associate professor, physics, City College of New 
York, 1964-1971, professor, 1971-1995, distinguished professor, 1995- 

Concurrent Positions: principal investigator, U.S. Air Force research grant, 
1965-1972, National Science Foundation grant, 1972-1974; executive officer, 
graduate program in physics, City College of New York, 1975-1978 

Myriam Sarachik is an experimental condensed-matter physicist who is renowned 
for her research on superconductivity, disordered metallic alloys, metal-insulator 
transitions in doped semiconductors, hopping transport in solids, properties of 
strongly interacting electrons in two dimensions, and spin dynamics in molecular 
magnets. She was born Myriam Morgenstein in Antwerp, Belgium, and when 
she was just seven years old, her family began their escape from the Nazis that 
would take them to France, then Cuba, and on to New York. She attended the pres- 
tigious Bronx High School of Science and then majored in physics at Barnard Col- 
lege. While at Columbia working on a master's and then doctorate in physics, she 
worked as a research assistant and then a research associate in the IBM Watson 
Laboratory. After receiving her Ph.D. she worked on the technical staff of AT&T 
Bell Laboratories for two years, and then became an assistant professor of physics 
at the City College of New York. She rose through the ranks to become full profes- 
sor in 1971 and then distinguished professor (the highest faculty rank) in 1995, a 
position she still holds. 

Sarachik was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences 
(NAS) in 1994 and in 2008 was elected to the NAS 17-member Governing Council. 
Among her other most recent awards are the New York City Mayor's Award for 
Excellence in Science and Technology (1995), the Sloan Public Service Award 
from the Fund for the City of New York (2004), the Oliver E. Buckley Prize in 
Condensed Matter Physics (2005), and the L'Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women 
in Science (2005). She has served on numerous national and international 
boards and advisory panels, including for the National Science Foundation, 



836 | Savitz, Maxine (Lazarus) 

U.S. Department of Energy, American Institute of Physics, National Research 
Council, Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials of the University of Groningen, 
Netherlands, and Science Advisory Committee of the Hong Kong University of 
Science and Technology. She is a fellow of the American Physical Society (vice 
president, 2001; president, 2003), New York Academy of Sciences, American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Association for the Advancement 
of Science. In 2008, she became co-chair (with astronomer Vera Rubin and 
geneticist Maxine Singer) of a National Academy of Sciences project to pair 
women scientists in the United States with Iraqi women scientists for mentoring 
and career support. 

Further Resources 

National Academy of Sciences. 2008. "International Twinning Project for Iraqi Women 
Scientists, Engineers, and Health Professionals." Committee on Human Rights. 
(March 2008). http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/humanrights/PGA 044086. 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 

Byers, Nina and Gary A. Williams. 2006. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth- 
Century Women to Physics. New York: Cambridge University Press. 



Savitz, Maxine (Lazarus) 

b. 1937 

Organic Chemist, Electrochemist 

Education: B.A., chemistry, Bryn Mawr College, 1958; Ph.D., organic chemistry, 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1961 

Professional Experience: National Science Foundation fellow, University of 
California, Berkeley, 1961-1962; instructor, chemistry, Hunter College, 1962-1963; 
research chemist, Electric Power Division, U.S. Army Engineering Research and 
Development Laboratory, Fort Belvoir, 1963-1968; associate professor, chemistry, 
Federal City College, 1968-1971, professor, 1971-1972; professional manager, 
Research Applied to National Needs, National Science Foundation, 1972-1973; 
chief, buildings conservation policy research, Federal Energy Administration, 
1973-1975; division director, buildings and industrial conservation, Energy Research 
and Development Administration, 1975-1976, division director, buildings and com- 
munity systems, 1976-1979, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Conservation, Depart- 
ment of Energy, 1979-1983; president, Lighting Research Institute, 1983-1985; 



Scarr, Sandra (Wood) | 837 

assistant to vice president of engineering, Ceramic Components Division, Garret 
Corporation, 1985-1987; general manager, Ceramic Components Division, 
AlliedSignal Aerospace Company (now Honeywell, Inc.), 1987-2000, general 
manager, Technology Partnerships, 2000-2006; vice president, National Academy 
of Engineering, 2006- 

Maxine Savitz is an organic chemist who is recognized for her expertise in 
research management in both government and industry. Her research includes free 
radical mechanisms, anodic hydrocarbon oxidation, fuel cells, more efficient use 
of energy in buildings, community systems, appliances, agriculture and industrial 
processes, transportation, batteries and other storage systems, new materials, and 
advanced structural ceramic materials. She has spent recent years serving as gen- 
eral manager of different divisions at Honeywell, Inc. (formerly AlliedSignal) 
working on ceramics for aerospace applications. Earlier, she was an executive 
with the U.S. Department of Energy, establishing energy-saving guidelines for 
buildings during the oil crises of the 1970s. Recommendations of her team in 
the areas of longer-burning lighting, new batteries, and new technologies, and 
development of alternative fuels for vehicles and improved public transportation, 
were among the measures mandated by the Energy Conservation and Production 
Act of 1976. 

Savitz was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering 
(NAE) in 1992, and in 2006 was elected to a four-year term as vice president of 
the NAE. Among her committee appointments are the Energy and Engineering 
Board of the NAE, the Office of Technical Assessment of the U.S. Congress 
Energy Demand Panel, the natural materials advisory board, National Research 
Council, the advisory committee of the division of ceramics/materials, Oak Ridge 
National Laboratory, the advisory board for the secretary of Energy, and the 
Defense Science Board. She is one of the directors of the Washington Advisory 
Group, and in 2009, she was appointed by President Obama to the Council of Advi- 
sors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Savitz is a member of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science and American Ceramic Society, and a 
fellow of the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST). 



Scarr, Sandra (Wood) 

b. 1936 
Psychologist 

Education: B.A., sociology, Vassar College, 1958; M.A., Harvard University, 
1963, Ph.D., psychology, 1965 



838 | Scarr, Sandra (Wood) 

Professional Experience: instructor, University of Maryland, 1964-1965, assis- 
tant professor, psychology, 1965-1966; lecturer, University of Pennsylvania, 
1967-1968, assistant to associate professor, 1968-1971; associate professor, 
University of Minnesota, 1971-1973, professor, 1973-1977; professor, Yale 
University, 1977-1983; Commonwealth Professor of Psychology, University of 
Virginia, 1983-1995; chief executive officer and chair, KinderCare Learning 
Centers, Inc., 1995-1997, director, 1997-1999 

Concurrent Positions: visiting associate professor, Bryn Mawr College, 1969; fel- 
low, Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, 
1976-1977; visiting professor, Gothenburg, Stockholm, and Uppsala Universities, 
Sweden, 1993-1994 

Sandra Scarr is renowned for her research on how genetics, psychology, and envi- 
ronment can inform public policy debates. Her research interests include genetic 
variability in human behavior, particularly intelligence and personality, and the 
effects of variation in the quality of home and childcare environments on child- 
ren's development. She has investigated how the family influences personality 
development, intelligence, and school achievement, and what effects interventions 
such as preschool programs have on children. She is considered an expert on 
daycare systems and adoption with her studies on the correlation between environ- 
ment and intelligence. Scarr attracted national attention with her research on con- 
troversial topics such as daycare, racial differences in IQ and school performance, 
and the effects of lead exposure on the IQs of children. 

Scarr became interested in child development as an undergraduate studying 
sociology at Vassar in the 1950s, at a time when the subject was only beginning 
to garner serious intellectual consideration. After graduation, she worked for 
social service agencies, where she began to differentiate between the psychologi- 
cal and economic needs of different client groups. She went on to study psychol- 
ogy in graduate school at Harvard and, in 1967, began researching why black 
children perform so poorly in school and on intelligence tests. After 10 years of 
research, she concluded that such performance was owing to sociocultural disad- 
vantage; her work was published as Race, Social Class, and Individual Differences 
in IQ (1981). As a career woman with four children, she combined her background 
in child development with research on daycare to develop expertise on the contro- 
versial subject. Recognizing that childcare is an important social and economic 
necessity that allows women to participate in the labor force, she argued against 
the concern that childcare may have an adverse effect on the emotional develop- 
ment of children, looking at the role of parental attachment and anxiety over 
separation. Her book, Mother Care/Other Care (1984), received the National 
Book Award of the American Psychological Association, and she has published 



Scharrer, Berta Vogel | 839 

hundreds of articles and reviews on the topic. In the mid-1990s, she was chief 
executive officer and then director of a national childcare chain, KinderCare. 

Scarr's awards and recognitions include the Distinguished Contribution to 
Research on Public Policy of the American Psychological Association (1988), James 
M. Cattell Award of the American Psychological Society (1993), and Dobzhansky 
Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Behavior Genetics Association. She is a 
fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Psychological Asso- 
ciation, Behavior Genetics Association (president, 1985-1986), and Society for 
Research in Child Development (president, 1989-1991), and a founding member 
of the American Psychological Society (president, 1996). She is identified in some 
sources as Scarr-Salapatek. 

Further Resources 

O'Connell, Agnes N. and Nancy Felipe Russo, eds. 2001. Models of Achievement: 
Reflections of Eminent Women in Psychology. Vol. 3. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum 
Associates. 



Scharrer, Berta Vogel 

1906 1995 
Neuroendocrinologist 

Education: Ph.D., zoology, University of Munich, 1930 

Professional Experience: assistant, Research Institute of Psychiatry, University 
of Munich, 1932-1934; guest investigator, Neurological Institute, Frankfurt, 
1934-1937; guest investigator, Department of Anatomy, University of Chicago, 
1937-1938; guest investigator, Rockefeller Institute, 1938-1940; senior instructor, 
Western Reserve University, 1940-1946; instructor to assistant professor, Univer- 
sity of Colorado, 1946-1954; professor, anatomy, Albert Einstein Medical 
College, 1955-1995 

Concurrent Positions: Guggenheim fellow, 1947-1948 

Berta Scharrer and her husband, Ernst Scharrer, pioneered the research on neuro- 
secretion that helped to create a new discipline in physiology, that of neuroendo- 
crinology. Neurosecretion is the theory that nerves secrete hormones into 
the blood. Among the most important of the couple's findings was the dis- 
covery that, in both mammals and insects, there were two completely analogous 



840 | Schwan, Judith A. 

neuroendocrine organ systems, each of which controlled a variety of non-nervous 
processes. Her other research interests included comparative endocrinology, ultra- 
structure, and neuroimmunology. Berta Scharrer concentrated on invertebrates 
while her husband studied vertebrates and, therefore, even though they worked 
together, they produced few joint publications. Although she held several presti- 
gious research positions at institutions in the United States and Europe, due to 
anti-nepotism rules, she was unable to obtain a full-time faculty appointment until 
the couple joined the Albert Einstein Medical College. In several interviews, 
Scharrer said the situation was to her advantage because she could concentrate 
on research without the burden of administrative responsibilities and pressure to 
publish. Scharrer remained at Albert Einstein for 40 years, formally retiring just 
months before her death in 1995. 

Scharrer was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1967. She 
received honorary degrees from eight universities and numerous awards, including 
the Kraepelin Gold Medal Award (1978), the Koch Award (1980), the Henry Gray 
Award (1982), the Schleiden Medal (1983), and the National Medal of Science 
from the National Science Foundation (1983). She was elected president of the 
American Association of Anatomists (1978-1979), and was an honorary member 
of the American Society of Zoologists and the International Society of Neuro- 
endocrinology. She was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 
and several German and other European scientific academies. 

Further Resources 

Purpura, Dominick P. 1998. "Berta V. Scharrer. December 1, 1906 July 23, 1995." Bio- 
graphical Memoirs. 74: 288 307. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, http:// 
books. nap. edu/openbook.php?record id=6201&page=288. 



Schwan, Judith A. 

1925 1996 
Chemical Engineer 

Education: B.S., chemical engineering, University of Cincinnati, 1948; M.S., 
physical chemistry, Cornell University, 1950 

Professional Experience: research chemist to senior chemist, Emulsion Research 
Division, Eastman Kodak Laboratories, 1950-1965, laboratory head, 1965-1968, 
assistant director, 1968-1971, director, 1971-1975, assistant director, Kodak 
Research and Development Laboratories, 1975-1987 



Schwarzer, Theresa Flynn | 841 

Judith A. Schwan was a chemical engineer who helped develop new types of film 
during her more than 35-year career at Eastman Kodak Laboratories in Rochester, 
New York. She eventually received more than 20 patents for her new research pro- 
cesses and development of new products related to Kodachrome and Kodacolor 
brand color negative films, print films, and Ektachrome motion picture films. 
Schwan was part of a generation of women who entered into engineering during 
the post-World War II boom in technological and scientific careers. She com- 
pleted her undergraduate work at the University of Cincinnati, and went on to 
graduate school at Cornell University in New York, where she majored in physical 
chemistry and took numerous courses in chemical engineering. She began 
working on new product development at the Kodak Emulsion Research labora- 
tory immediately after receiving her master's degree in 1950. She rose to senior 
research chemist and laboratory head, and held a variety of management positions, 
including assistant director and director of the Research and Development 
Laboratories. 

Schwan was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1982. She 
received a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Cincinnati, the 
Athena Award of Rochester, New York Chamber of Commerce, and the 
Technicolor-Herbert T. Kalmus Gold Medal Award of the Society of Motion Pic- 
ture Engineers (1979). She was on the council of the Industrial Research Institute 
(1979-1981) and was a member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television 
Engineers, American Chemical Society, and Society of Photographic Scientists 
and Engineers. 

Further Resources 

Thomas, Leo J. 2002. "Judith A. Schwan. 1925 1996." Memorial Tributes: National 
Academy of Engineering. 10: 206 209. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. 
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php7record id=10403&page=206. 



Schwarzer, Theresa Flynn 

b. 1940 

Geologist, Petroleum Geologist 

Education: B.S., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1963, M.S., 1966, Ph.D., 
geology, 1969 

Professional Experience: instructor, geology, State University of New York at 
Albany, 1969; research fellow, Rice University, 1969-1972; senior research 



842 | Scott, Juanita (Simons) 

geologist, Exxon Company, 1972-1974, research specialist, 1974-1976, senior 
research specialist, 1976-1978, senior explorer geologist, Gulf Coast Division, 
Exxon USA, 1978-1980, project leader, Texas Offshore Division, 1980-1981, dis- 
trict production geologist, East Texas Division, 1981-1983, senior supervisor, Exxon 
Production Research Company, 1983-1987, geological advisor, Exxon USA, 1987— 

Theresa Schwarzer is a geologist who has been recognized for her expertise in 
petroleum exploration. Her research interests include inorganic and organic geo- 
chemistry; remote sensing; multivariate statistical techniques; and interpretation 
and integration of geophysical, geological, and geochemical data for hydrocarbon 
exploration. For more than 35 years, she has worked for Exxon Corporation in 
increasing levels of responsibility for research in hydrocarbon exploration. Among 
her achievements are the discovery of commercial oil and gas deposits, and 
research on and development of unconventional exploration methods. As a geolo- 
gist, she relies upon detailed maps, soil and rock analyses, soundings, and other 
details to conduct remote sensing of a potential site for exploration. Diminishing 
energy, mineral, and water resources, and increasing environmental and political 
concerns over drilling for oil, have placed a premium on the unique qualifications 
of geoscientists. 

Schwarzer served as chair of the women geoscientists committee of the Ameri- 
can Geological Institute from 1973 to 1977. She is a member of the Geological 
Society of America, American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Society for 
Exploration Geo-Physicists, and Geochemical Society. 



Scott, Juanita (Simons) 

1936 2001 
Developmental Biologist 

Education: A.A., Clinton Junior College, 1956; B.S., biology, Livingstone College, 
North Carolina, 1958; M.S., biology, Atlanta University, 1962; Ed.D., science educa- 
tion, University of South Carolina, 1979 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, 1958-1960; instructor, biological 
science, Benedict College, 1963-1964; instructor, Morris College, 1965-1967; as- 
sistant to associate professor, Benedict College, 1968-1981, professor, 1981-1987, 
head, Division of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, 1987-1994, head, Depart- 
ment of Biological and Physical Science, 1992-1994, dean, Division of Arts and 
Sciences, 1994-2001 



Scott, Juanita (Simons) | 843 

Juanita Scott was a developmental biologist known for her research on problems 
of water pollution in the rivers and streams of South Carolina. She started her 
research in the late 1960s on the pollutants being dumped into the waters by indus- 
trial firms, and by the mid-1980s, she had become interested in the microscopic 
characteristics of individual cells. She studied how pollutants, such as lead, cad- 
mium, and mercury, act on different structures within a cell. Her research 
indicated that parts of a frog's skin cells are more likely to react to metal contami- 
nation than other parts of the skin cells. She and her team of student researchers 
found that a frog's skin not only repels some toxic compounds but also has some 
antibiotic properties. After receiving a doctorate in science education from the 
University of South Carolina in 1979, Scott did additional postdoctoral studies in 
biology, microbiology, and human sexuality at North Carolina State University, 
Columbia College, Clark College, and New York University, continuing her own 
research and publishing papers on environmental and cellular biology. She began 
teaching biology at Benedict College in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1963 and 
spent her entire career there in various teaching and administrative positions, 
including overseeing 10 academic departments as dean of the Division of Arts 
and Sciences. 

Scott grew up on a farm near Columbia, South Carolina, that had no running 
water or electricity. Although there were 15 children in the family, her parents placed 
great emphasis on education. She graduated from high school at 16 and, although 
she did not have any particular ambition to be a scientist, had a good capacity for 
learning and did particularly well in her science courses. Influenced by her biology 
teacher, she decided to major in biology at Livingstone College, but also completed 
the courses for a teaching certificate. She then taught in a high school that, although 
it was relatively new, was segregated and not well-funded; for instance, there was no 
scientific equipment available in the laboratory. 

After becoming a college instructor and administrator, she remained concerned 
about the quality of science teaching in middle and junior high schools, and found 
that many students arrived at college or university with little knowledge of the sci- 
ences and frequently had the attitude that all science courses were too hard. She 
developed summer science project workshops for middle school students (now 
operating as the Juanita S. Scott Middle School Summer Enrichment Program 
[MSSEP]), and worked with elementary and high school teachers under a National 
Science Foundation grant to develop math, science, and technology curricula, and 
improve the quality of instruction at each level by assuring that teachers under- 
stand the basic scientific concepts. For several years, she was involved with 
directing research, teaching biology, and conducting in-service training classes 
for teachers. 



844 | Seddon, Margaret Rhea 



Further Resources 



Benedict College. "Juanita Simons Scott, Ed.D." http://www.benedict.edu/news/ 
accomplishments/bc-news-faculty n staff accomplishments-juanita simons scott 
-20070515.html. 



Seddon, Margaret Rhea 

b. 1947 

Physician, Astronaut 

Education: B.A., physiology, University of California, Berkeley, 1970; M.D., 
University of Tennessee, 1973 

Professional Experience: general surgery resident; medical doctor with a spe- 
cialty in medical nutrition; astronaut program, National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA), 1978-1997; Assistant Chief Medical Officer, Vanderbilt 
University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, 1997-2007; patient safety 
expert, Lifewing Partners LLC, 2007- 

Margaret Rhea Seddon is a physician and retired astronaut who flew on three 
space shuttle flights. She was one of the six women who were first selected 
for the NASA astronaut program in 1978. She was the first woman to complete 
her training in 1979, but when plans for the first shuttle program were near com- 
pletion, she learned she was pregnant and was unable to begin the training pro- 
gram; it was Sally Ride who became the first woman astronaut in space in 1983. 
Seddon was assigned to later missions as a payload specialist, launch-and-rescue 
helicopter physician, technical assistant to the director of flight-crew operations, 
and member of the Aerospace Medical Advisory Committee. While at NASA, 
she also worked part-time, when possible, as an emergency-room physician. All 
together, she logged more than 700 hours in space on three different missions 
(STS 51-D Discovery [1985], STS-40 Columbia [1991], and STS-58 Columbia 
[1993]); on these missions, she conducted experiments on the effects of gravity 
and on the effects of space flight on the cardiovascular, metabolic, musculoskeletal, 
and other systems. She retired from NASA in 1997. 

After leaving NASA, Seddon became Assistant Chief Medical Officer at 
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in Tennessee. She was terminated 
from Vanderbilt in 2007 and subsequently filed a (still-pending) gender- 
discrimination lawsuit, claiming that VUMC "has not made a concerted effort . . . 
to recruit, encourage and attract high-level female physicians to key clinical 



Sedlak, Bonnie Joy | 845 

leadership positions." Seddon also claims she did not receive supplemental pay as 
a faculty member, as did male colleagues in the same position. Seddon currently 
works with Lifewing Partners LLC, which provides patient-safety training to hos- 
pitals. Her work has been profiled in mainstream newspapers and magazines, and 
her research published in medical journals such as the Journal of the American 
College of Surgeons and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 

A recipient of many NASA and scientific awards, Seddon was named a Laurel 
Legend for her lifetime contributions to aviation by Aviation Week and Space 
Technology magazine in 2004, and in 2005, she was inducted into the Tennessee 
Aviation Hall of Fame. 

Further Resources 

Kevles, Bettyann H. 2003. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. New York: 
Basic Books. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Margaret Rhea Seddon (M.D.)." http:// 
www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/seddon.html. 

Edgemon, Erin. 2008. "Ex-Astronaut Files Suit against Vanderbilt Medical Center." 
Murfreesboro Post. (19 August 2008). http://www.murfreesboropost.com/news.php 
?viewStory= 12539. 



Sedlak, Bonnie Joy 

b. 1943 

Cell Biologist, Developmental Biologist 

Education: B.A., Northwestern University, 1965; M.A., Case Western Reserve 
University, 1968; Ph.D., biology, Northwestern University, 1974 

Professional Experience: instructor, biology, Northwestern University, 1971-1972; 
research associate, biochemistry, Rush Medical College, 1974-1975; assistant 
professor, biology, Smith College, 1975-1977; assistant professor, biology, State 
University of New York, Purchase, 1977-1981; associate research scientist, Uni- 
versity of California, Irvine, 1981-1985; sales representative, North American 
Science Associates, Irvine, 1986-1987; program manager, Microbics Corporation, 
1987-1988; sensor analyst, Fritzsche, Pambianchi Associates, 1988-1990; bio- 
technology consultant, 1990-1991; business development and licensing manager, 
Becton Dickinson Advanced Cellular Biology, 1991-1992; licensing officer for 
technical transfer, University of California, Alameda, 1992-1994; independent 
consultant, 1994- 



846 | Seibert, Florence Barbara 

Bonnie Sedlak is a cell biologist whose early research focused on using the elec- 
tron microscope to study cellular aspects of development and endocrine control 
in insects. She left research and teaching to work in industry as a business develop- 
ment and licensing manager and biotechnology consultant. Her clients have 
included healthcare research companies as well as universities and industry 
involved in medical and technical engineering. She received a doctorate in biology 
in 1974 and, after teaching and conducting research at several universities, 
accepted a position as a sales representative for North American Science Associ- 
ates. She eventually worked in several locations as a licensing manager, oversee- 
ing the patent process for research and negotiating license agreements with 
companies, government agencies, and other universities in order to move research 
findings to marketable products. 

Sedlak is a member of the American Society for Cell Biology, American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science, Society for Developmental Biology, and 
Electron Microscopy Society of America. 



Seibert, Florence Barbara 

1897 1991 
Biochemist 

Education: A.B., Goucher College, 1918; Ph.D., physiological chemistry, Yale 
University, 1923 

Professional Experience: chemist, Hammersley Paper Mill, 1918-1920; instruc- 
tor, pathology, University of Chicago, and assistant, Sprague Memorial Institute, 
1924-1928, assistant professor, biochemistry, 1928-1932; assistant to associate 
professor, Henry Phipps Institute, University of Pennsylvania, 1932-1955, professor, 
1955-1959; director, cancer research laboratory, Mound Park Hospital Foundation, 
1964-1966 

Concurrent Positions: Guggenheim fellow, Sweden, 1937-1938; visiting lec- 
turer, various schools, 1946-1948 

Florence Seibert was a biochemist who purified the tuberculin PPD that is used 
worldwide in skin tests to detect tuberculosis, or TB. Her research interests also 
included intravenous therapy and blood transfusions, and the isolation of specific 
bacteria to give some immunity in cancer. After receiving her undergraduate 
degree from Goucher College, she originally considered medical school, but a 
professor helped her get a job as a chemist for a paper mill, possibly due to the 



Seibert, Florence Barbara | 847 




shortage of male chemists during 
World War I. She returned to school 
to continue her graduate studies at 
Yale, where she received her doctorate 
in 1923. At Yale, her main break- 
through was development of a distil- 
lation method for removal of bacteria 
that could contaminate protein solu- 
tions used in blood transfusions. Previ- 
ously, persons receiving such medical 
interventions were at high risk of 
infections and fevers due to bacteria. 
She held a postdoctoral fellowship at 
the University of Chicago that led to 
an instructorship in pathology, then a 
faculty position in biochemistry. At 
Chicago, she developed her method 
for purifying the proteins used in the 
TB test, which not only protected 
patients, but provided better diagnostic 
results. She was also affiliated with the 
Sprague Memorial Institute, and her 

work was supported with funds from the National Tuberculosis Association (now 
the American Lung Association). Her method was later adopted as the standard 
by the World Health Organization. 

In 1932, Seibert followed her mentor and collaborator and accepted a faculty 
position in biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1937, she spent a 
year conducting research at the University of Upsala in Sweden, under a presti- 
gious Guggenheim fellowship. Despite her continued achievements in improving 
the existing tuberculin skin test, she did not advance to full professor until 1955. 
Even after her formal retirement in 1959, she continued her research and volunteer 
activities on behalf of cancer research. In 1968, she published an autobiography, 
Pebbles on the Hill of a Scientist. She lived most of her life with her sister, Mabel, 
who served as her longtime research assistant. 

Seibert was the author or co-author of dozens of scientific papers and articles. 
She was the recipient of five honorary degrees, as well as the Trudeau Medal from 
the National Tuberculosis Association (1938), the Garvan Medal of the American 
Chemical Society (1942), the Gimbal Award (1945), the Scott Award (1947), and 
the John Eliot Memorial Award of the American Association of Blood Banks 



Biochemist Florence Seibert, ca. 1948. She 
developed the protein substance used for the 
tuberculosis skin test. (National Library of 
Medicine) 



848 | Semple, Ellen Churchill 

(1962). She was also a member of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science. In 1990, she was inducted in the National Women's Hall of Fame. 



Semple, Ellen Churchill 

1863 1932 
Geographer 

Education: A.B., Vassar College, 1882, A.M., 1891; University of Leipzig, 1891- 
1892, 1895 

Professional Experience: founder and teacher, Semple Collegiate School, 1893— 
1895; lecturer, geography, University of Chicago, 1906-1920 (intermittently); 
lecturer, anthropogeography Clark University, 1921-1923, professor, 1923-1932 

Concurrent Positions: lecturer, Oxford University, 1912, 1922; Wellesley 
College, 1914-1915; University of Colorado, 1916; Columbia University, 1918 

Ellen Semple was recognized by her contemporaries as one of the outstanding geog- 
raphers of her time. After attending the University of Leipzig, she and her sister 
opened a private school in which she taught history. She combined this experience 
with her interest in geography in her book, American History and Its Geographic 
Conditions (1903). The publication of this work resulted in invitations to teach in 
the new department of geography at the University of Chicago. Her second book, 
Influences of Geographic Environment, on the Basis of Ratzel's System of 
Anthropo-Geography (1911), was viewed as one of the most scholarly books on 
geography at that time. A third book, published shortly before her death, was The 
Geography of the Mediterranean Region: Its Relation to Ancient History (1931). 

After Semple received her undergraduate degree from Vassar in 1882, she 
returned home to teach in a private school. She opened her own school in 1893 
after returning from Europe. Throughout her career, she rode into the backcountry 
of Kentucky to study the influence of geographic isolation on the life of the people 
there. Her research papers received favorable reviews. She taught off and on at the 
University of Chicago and also lectured at Oxford University, Wellesley College, 
the University of Colorado, and Columbia University. In 1921, she obtained a 
tenure-track faculty appointment at the new graduate department of geography at 
Clark University and was quickly promoted to professor. Semple received the 
Cullum Medal of the American Geographical Society (1914) and the Gold Medal 
of the Geographic Society of Chicago (1932). She received an honorary degree 
from the University of Kentucky in 1923, and in 1921, she was the first woman 



Shalala, Donna Edna | 849 

to be elected president of the Association of American Geographers. She also was 
a member of the American Geographical Society. 



Shalala, Donna Edna 



b. 1941 

Political Scientist 

Education: B.A., Western College, 1962; M.S., Syracuse University, 1968, Ph.D., 
political science, 1970 

Professional Experience: volunteer (Iran), Peace Corps, 1962-1964; graduate 
research fellow, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse 
University, 1966-1968; lecturer, social science and assistant to dean, 1968— 
1970; assistant professor, political 
science, Bernard M. Baruch Col- 
lege, City University of New York, 
1970-1972; associate professor and 
chair, Program in Politics and Edu- 
cation, Teachers College, Columbia 
University, 1972-1979; Assistant 
Secretary for Policy Development 
and Research, Housing and Urban 
Development (HUD), Washington, 
D.C., 1977-1980; professor, politi- 
cal science and president, Hunter 
College, 1980-1987; professor, 
political science and chancellor, 
University of Wisconsin, Madison, 
1987-1993; Secretary, U.S. Depart- 
ment of Health and Human Serv- 
ices, 1993-2001; professor, political 
science and president, University of 
Miami, 2001- 




Concurrent Positions: visiting 
professor, Yale Law School, 1976; 
co-chair, Advisory Commission on 
Consumer Protection and Quality in 
the Health Care Industry, 1996- 



Political scientist Donna Shalala was 
appointed president of the University of Miami 
in 2001 , after serving as Secretary of the 
Department of Health and Human Services 
under President Bill Clinton. (U.S. Department 
of Health and Human Services) 



850 | Shalala, Donna Edna 

Donna Shalala occupied one of the most influential offices in Washington, D.C., 
as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under 
President Bill Clinton between 1993 and 2001. The agency is one of the largest 
in government and has one of the largest budgets, including funds for scientific 
research. In that capacity, she oversaw some of the most important government 
departments related to public health and policy, such as the National Institutes of 
Health, Centers for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration, Social Secu- 
rity Administration, and the Indian Health Service, among others. One of her early 
actions was to escalate the budgets for cancer prevention at the National Cancer 
Institute and the Centers for Disease Control, with a special emphasis on breast 
cancer. She was concerned that women's issues were underfunded, underdiag- 
nosed, and undertreated. Another of her goals was to shield scientific research from 
political pressure and excessive bureaucratic burdens. She also questioned the social 
values portrayed in many television programs and their effect on our society. 

Shalala is a prominent political scientist who has held a variety of successful 
positions in both government and academic settings. She held professorships at 
several universities and is past president of Hunter College and chancellor of the 
University of Wisconsin, Madison, and is currently president of the University of 
Miami. Her first political position was as assistant secretary for policy develop- 
ment and research for HUD. During the early 1970s, she wrote four books: Neigh- 
borhood Governance (1971), City and the Constitution (1972), Property Tax and 
the Voters (1973), and Decentralization Approach (1974). She has been a member 
of the Committee on Economic Development (1991-1993), a member of the board 
of directors of the Institute of International Economics (1981-1993), a member 
of the Children's Defense Fund (1980-1993), and a trustee of the Brookings Insti- 
tution (1989-1993). In 2006, she chaired the Committee on Maximizing the 
Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering, which investigated 
the absence and obstacles to women in high-level research positions in the 
sciences. In 2007, she was called upon by President George W. Bush to head a 
commission investigating allegations about conditions at Walter Reed Army 
Medical Center. Shalala received the Distinguished Service Medal of Teachers 
College, Columbia University, in 1989. She is a member of the American Political 
Science Association, American Society for Public Administration, and National 
Academy of Public Administration. 

Further Resources 

University of Miami. "President Donna E. Shalala's Biography." http://www.miami.edu/ 
index. php/about us/leadership/office of the president/president donna e shalalas 
biography/. 



Shapiro, Lucille (Cohen) | 851 



Shapiro, Lucille (Cohen) 



b. 1940 
Molecular Biologist 

Education: B.A., Brooklyn College, 1962; Ph.D., molecular biology, Albert 
Einstein College of Medicine, 1966 

Professional Experience: assistant to associate professor, molecular biology, 
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1967-1977, professor, 1977-1986; Eugene 
Higgins Professor and chair, microbiology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
Columbia University, 1986-1989; Joseph D. Grant Professor and chair, develop- 
mental biology, School of Medicine, Stanford University, 1989-; co-founder and 
director, Anacor Pharmaceuticals, 2002- 

Lucille "Lucy" Shapiro has had a distinguished career as a molecular biologist 
working on the genetics and biochemistry of the bacterial cell cycle and unicellu- 
lar differentiation. After receiving her doctorate at Albert Einstein College of 
Medicine, she continued on as an assistant professor and rose through the ranks 




Molecular biologist Lucille Shapiro. (Courtesy of the Stanford University News Service 
Library) 



852 | Shaw, Jane E. 

to full professor. She remained at Albert Einstein for 20 years before becoming 
professor and chair of microbiology at Columbia University. In 1986, she moved 
to Stanford in California, where she has served as chair and now director of the 
Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine. In 2002, she co-founded 
Anacor Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company developing new antimi- 
crobial treatments for bacterial and fungal diseases and infections. 

Shapiro's research has been published in numerous medical journals, including 
Journal of Bacteriology, Journal of Molecular Biology, Cell, Molecular Biology of 
the Cell, Trends in Genetics, and Science, and she has been a distinguished lecturer 
at a number of universities. Her expertise has been sought as a board member and 
scientific advisor in academia, government, and corporate settings, including for 
G. D. Searle Company, Massachusetts General Hospital, SmithKline Beecham, 
the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation, Whitehead Institute of the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 
the president's council of the University of California, Silicon Graphics, Inc., 
and, most recently, Gen-Probe, a medical research company in San Diego. She 
has twice served as an American Cancer Society Established Investigator and 
was a nonexecutive director of GlaxoSmithKline (2001-2006). 

Shapiro was elected a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Acad- 
emy of Sciences in 1991. She has received numerous awards, including the Alumna 
Award of Honor of Brooklyn College (1983), an Excellence in Science Award of the 
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) (1994), and 
the Selman Waksman Award of the National Academy of Sciences (2005). She is 
a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American 
Philosophical Society, and the California Council on Science and Technology 
(CCST), and a member of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular 
Biology, American Society for Microbiology, American Society for Cell Biology, 
Genetics Society of America, and New York Academy of Sciences. 

Further Resources 

Stanford University. Faculty website, http://med.stanford.edu/profiles/devbio/faculty/ 
Lucille Shapiro/. 

Anacor Pharmaceuticals, http://www.anacor.com/. 



Shaw, Jane E. 

b. 1939 

Physiologist, Clinical Pharmacologist 

Education: B.S., University of Birmingham, England, 1961, Ph.D., physiology, 1964 



Shaw, Jane E. | 853 

Professional Experience: staff scientist, Worcester Foundation for Experimental 
Biology, 1964-1970; senior scientist, Alza Research, 1970-1972, principal scien- 
tist, 1972-; president, Alza Research Division, and chair of the board, Alza Ltd., 
1985, executive vice president, Alza Corporation, 1985-1987, president and chief 
operating officer, 1987-1994; founder and consultant, Stable Network, 1994-; 
chair and chief executive officer, Aerogen, Inc. (now Nektar Therapeutics), 
1998-2005; chairman of the board, Intel, 2009- 

Concurrent Positions: director and committee chair, McKesson Corporation, 
1992-; nonexecutive chairman and committee chair, Intel Corporation, 1993-; 
director, OfficeMax, 1994-2006; director, Talima Therapeutics, Inc. 

Jane Shaw is renowned for research that led to the development of transdermal 
drug patches, such as those used for motion sickness. Her research includes 
elucidation of the physiological role of the prostaglandins, mechanism of action 
of analeptics, mechanism of gastric secretion, and physiology and pharmacology 
of the skin. As a graduate student at the University of Birmingham, England, 
she worked with Peter Ramwell identifying prostaglandins. After graduation, she 
and several other members of the research team followed Ramwell to the 
Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology in Massachusetts, part of 
the much-publicized brain drain in England in the 1960s. 

In 1970, she was invited to join Alza Corporation, a private company that manu- 
factures pharmaceutical products and conducts commercial research and develop- 
ment on drug-delivery systems for human and veterinary use. Shaw holds several 
patents for technology that allows a patient to absorb a prescription drug through 
the skin from a bandage-like patch. Transdermal therapeutic systems for drug 
delivery are advantageous in chronic conditions such as hypertension because 
patients may forget to take medication when they have no symptoms. They are 
also advantageous when medications have to be given very frequently. Beginning 
as senior scientist, she moved quickly through the ranks to become president of 
the research division, executive vice president of Alza Corporation and board chair 
of the parent company, Alza Ltd., and then president and chief operating officer 
until 1994. She next founded her own biopharmaceutical firm, Stable Network, 
and served as a consultant. Between 1998 and her retirement in 2005, she served 
as chief executive officer at Aerogen, Inc. (now Nektar Therapeutics), a firm that 
develops drug-delivery devices for respiratory ailments. Shaw personally holds 
several patents in this area of research. 

Shaw has consulted for numerous pharmaceutical research companies and has 
been a savvy businesswoman as well, serving on the boards of corporations such 
as OfficeMax and, most recently, chair at computer semiconductor manufacturer, 
Intel. She has published more than 100 professional articles and received an 



854 | Shaw, Mary M. 

honorary doctorate from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1992. She is a member 
of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York 
Academy of Sciences, American Physical Society, American Society of Clinical 
Pharmacology and Therapeutics, American Association of Pharmaceutical Scien- 
tists, and American Pharmaceutical Association. 



Shaw, Mary M. 



b. 1943 
Computer Scientist 

Education: B.A., mathematics, Rice University, 1965; Ph.D., computer science, 
Carnegie-Mellon University, 1971 

Professional Experience: systems programmer and researcher (part-time), Rice 
University Computer Project, 1962-1968; assistant professor, computer science, 
Carnegie-Mellon University, 1972-1977, senior research computer scientist, 
1977-1982, associate professor, 1982-1986, chief scientist, Software Engineering 

Institute, 1984-1987, professor, 
1986-, Alan J. Pedis Professor of 
Computer Science, 1995— 

Concurrent Positions: member, 
Human Computer Interaction Insti- 
tute, Carnegie-Mellon University, 
1994-, fellow, Center for Innovation 
and Learning, 1997-1998, member 
scientist, Institute for Software 
Research, 1999-, co-director, Sloan 
Software Industry Center, 2001-2006 

Mary Shaw is a renowned expert in 
computer software and a leading 
proponent of developing software 
engineering as a discipline. Her 
research includes software architec- 
ture, programming language design, 
abstraction techniques for advanced 
programming, software engineering, 
and computer-science education. 




Computer scientist Mary Shaw. (Courtesy of 
the Carnegie Mellon University) 



Shaw, Mary M. | 855 

She has made major contributions to the analysis of computer algorithms as well 
as to abstraction techniques for advanced programming methodologies, pro- 
gramming language architecture, evaluation methods for software, performance 
and reliability of software, and software engineering. She developed computer 
programs called "abstract data types" as a method for organizing the data and 
computations used by a program so that related information is grouped together, 
and she created a programming language called "Aphard" that implemented 
those abstract data types. She thus made programs more user-friendly for the sci- 
entists who are using them to manipulate their research data. 

Shaw grew up during the Cold War era of scientific and technological advances, 
and her father, a civil engineer and government economist, encouraged her inter- 
ests in science and math. As a high school student, she participated in an after- 
school program that included a visit to an International Business Machines 
(IBM) facility and introduction to an early IBM computer program. For several 
summers during high school, Shaw worked at the Research Analysis Corporation 
of the Johns Hopkins University Operation Research Office, which gave her the 
opportunity to explore fields outside the normal school curriculum. Although there 
were no courses in computer science when she attended Rice University, she found 
a small group called the Rice Computer Project that had built a computer, the Rice 
I, under the direction of an electrical engineering faculty. Shaw joined the group 
and worked on a programming language, writing subroutines and studying how 
to make an operating system run more rapidly. She received her undergraduate 
degree in mathematics at Rice and went on to study computer science at Carnegie 
Mellon in Pennsylvania. After receiving her doctorate in 1971, she joined the faculty 
as the first female member of the Computer Science Department. 

Shaw has been instrumental in developing innovative undergraduate and gradu- 
ate computer-science curricula and degree programs. She was one of the early 
scientists to see the need for software engineering as a separate discipline. She 
even helped develop a curriculum for IBM to offer its own employees and founded 
the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon. She has contributed to 
several books and published hundreds of scientific papers and reports. 

For her contributions to software and systems development and education, 
Shaw has received the Warnier Prize (1993), the Stevens Award (2005), the Soft- 
ware Engineering Institute Award of Excellence (2006), and the Nancy Mead 
Award for Excellence in Software Engineering Education (2010). She is a fellow 
of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute for Electrical 
and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science (AAAS), and a member of the New York Academy of Sciences 
and the International Federation of Information Processing Societies (IFIPS). 



856 | Sherman, Patsy O'Connell 

Further Resources 

Carnegie Mellon University. Faculty website, http://spoke.compose.cs.cmu.edu/shaweb/. 



Sherman, Patsy O'Connell 

1930 2008 
Chemist 

Education: B.A., Gustavus Adolphus College, 1952 

Professional Experience: chemical researcher, Minnesota Mining and Manufac- 
turing (3M), 1952-1992 

Patsy Sherman was a chemist who, along with colleague Sam Smith, invented 
Scotchgard Fabric Protector, a moisture and stain repellent, while employed at 
3M in the 1950s. The discovery of the substance was largely by accident, when 
someone in the lab spilled a new latex material onto a shoe and Sherman discov- 
ered it could not be washed off. She began to think of new possible applications 
for such a waterproof material, along with her supervisor, Smith, and in 1955, 
Sherman and Smith introduced Scotchgard, a protective coating for fabrics and 
other materials. Sherman began working for 3M immediately after graduating 
from college and remained there for 40 years, until her retirement in 1992. She rose 
through the ranks from research specialist to manager of the chemical resources divi- 
sion to head of technical development, and held several patents for fluorochemical 
polymers and processes. 

The Scotchgard product made 3M a household name and earned the company 
millions of dollars, but in 2002 it was announced that 3M would remove Scotch- 
gard from the market over environmental concerns. The property that made its 
chemical makeup attractive as a fabric protector, its insolvency or inability to be 
broken down, also made it potentially dangerous. Although tests of potential tox- 
icity to humans and to the water supply remain inconclusive, elevated levels of 
perfluorochemicals have been found in the blood of company employees as well 
as in studies of certain animal species. In light of this research, 3M chose to exer- 
cise what they called "responsible environmental management" in phasing out the 
current chemical process used to create Scotchgard products. The product is still 
available as the company experiments with alternative formulas, and government 
organizations will continue to monitor the potential environmental and health 
effects of perfluorochemicals. 

Sherman was committed to science education and was often an invited speaker to 
serve as a role model for young students. She received the Joseph M. Biedenbach 



Shields, Lora Mangum | 857 

Distinguished Service Award of the American Society for Engineering Education 
in 1991. In 2001, she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, one 
of only a handful of women to be acknowledged, and in 2002, she was one of 37 
inventors who appeared at a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the U.S. Patent 
and Trademark Office. She was a longtime member of the American Chemical 
Society. 



Shields, Lora Mangum 

1912 1996 
Biologist 

Education: B.S., biology, University of New Mexico, 1940, M.S., 1942; Ph.D., 
botany, University of Iowa, 1947 

Professional Experience: associate professor, biology, New Mexico Highlands 
University, 1947-1954, professor and department head, 1954-1978, director, 
Environmental Health Division, 1971-1978; researcher and visiting professor, 
Navajo Community College, Shiprock, New Mexico, 1978-retirement 

Lora Shields was been recognized for her research on the effects of nuclear bomb 
testing on Southwestern plants and vegetation, and the human health hazards from 
mining uranium. She was the first Native American (Navajo) to receive a doctorate 
in botany. She studied at the University of New Mexico, and after receiving her 
Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, she returned to New Mexico as associate pro- 
fessor of biology at New Mexico Highlands University. She was promoted to full 
professor and department head in 1954, and named director of the Environmental 
Health Division in 1971. A few years later, she took a position as appointed 
researcher and visiting professor at Navajo Community College. By the 1970s, the 
U.S. government was mining uranium almost exclusively from Southwestern 
Native American lands, and Shields was committed to examining the health and 
environmental impact of this development. Her research focused on nuclear 
effects on vegetation, birth anomalies in the Navajo uranium district among miners 
and other inhabitants, effects of radiation exposure on plants, and streptococcal 
disease among the Navajo Indian population. Her work was supported by grants 
from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, March of 
Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, and Minority Biomedical Research Support, 
among others. She also received research grants from some of the agencies that 
recently declassified data regarding the effects of nuclear testing on humans, such 
as the Atomic Energy Commission, and from pharmaceutical companies. 



858 | Shipman, Pat 

Dedicated to science education at all levels, Shields was involved throughout 
her career with the New Mexico Academy of Science (NMAS) as secretary- 
treasurer (1951-1953), president (1954), and recipient of the NMAS Distin- 
guished Scientist Award (1965); she also served as state representative to the 
National Association of Academies of Science (1960-1984) and became president 
of the NAAS ( 1 976). For many years, she was editor of the New Mexico Journal of 
Science. She was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science and the Ecological Society of America. 



Shipman, Pat 

b. 1949 
Paleoanthropologist 

Education: B.A., Smith College, 1970; M.A., New York University, 1974, Ph.D., 
anthropology, 1977 

Professional Experience: visiting lecturer, anthropology, Jersey City State College, 
1974; adjunct instructor, Fordham University, 1975; editor and research associate, 
American Institutes for Research, 1976-1978; associate research scientist, Depart- 
ment of Earth and Planetary Sciences (joint appointment, Department of Cell 
Biology and Anatomy), Johns Hopkins University, 1978-1981, assistant professor, 
cell biology and anatomy, 1981-1986, assistant dean, Academic Affairs, School of 
Medicine, 1985-1990, associate professor, 1986-1995; independent author, 1990- 

Concurrent Positions: editor, Anthroquest, 1990-1992; adjunct professor, 
biological anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, 1995- 

Pat Shipman is a paleoanthropologist who spent many years in Kenya as a research 
scientist, excavating paleontological and archaeological sites, and examining fos- 
sils stored there. Her research focused on trying to deduce the environmental con- 
text in which our earliest ancestors evolved and what their lifestyles and 
adaptations were like. She is particularly interested in the history of science and 
how scientific information is used. She is the co-author of The Neandertals: 
Changing the Image of Mankind (1993), which focuses on how the interpretations 
of these finds have fluctuated through the gradual accumulation of information on 
both the anatomical characteristics and the geographical distribution of the 
remains. The central theme is how scientific opinion on the Neandertals has tended 
to shift between two extreme positions: the people who see them as being in the 
main course of human evolution, and those who see them as representing a side- 
line of human population. 



Shockley, Dolores Cooper | 859 

Shipman's next book, The Evolution of Racism: Human Differences and the 
Use and Abuse of Science (1994), traces the attempts of scientists from the mid- 
nineteenth century to the present to grapple with the issues of race, from evolution, 
to eugenics, to intelligence testing and debates about immigration. In Taking 
Wing: Archaeopteryx and the Evolution of Bird Flight (1998), she draws on 
diverse scientific fields to give a comprehensive analysis of the ideas that explain 
how the adaptations needed for animal flight came about. Since leaving a full- 
time academic position in 1995, Shipman has been committed to bringing scien- 
tific information and debates to the general public. She has published on numerous 
scientific topics in popular science magazines and appeared on several television 
documentaries, such as "In Search of Human Origins" in 1997. In addition to her 
numerous articles, she has authored or co-authored more than 10 books on scien- 
tists and the history of the science, the most recent including The Man Who Found 
the Missing Link: Eugene Dubois' Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin Right (2001), 
To the Heart of the Nile: Lady Florence Baker and the Exploration of Central 
Africa (2004), and The Ape in the Tree: An Intellectual and Natural History of 
Proconsul (with Alan Walker, 2005). 

In 2005, the Center for Research into the Anthropological Foundations of 
Technology (CRAFT) and the Stone Age Institute at Indiana University acknowl- 
edged Shipman for her "lifetime contributions to paleoanthropology and 
taphonomy." She is a member of the American Association of Physical Anthropol- 
ogists, Society for American Archaeology, American Society of Mammalogists, 
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, and American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science. 

Further Resources 

Pennsylvania State University. Faculty website, http://www.anthro.psu.edu/faculty staff/ 
shipman. shtml. 



Shockley, Dolores Cooper 

b. 1930 
Pharmacologist 

Education: B.S., pharmacy, Xavier University, Louisiana, 1951; M.S., pharmacology, 
Purdue University, 1953, Ph.D., pharmacology, 1955 

Professional Experience: assistant, pharmacology, Purdue University, 1951-1953; 
assistant professor, pharmacology, Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tennessee, 
1957-1967, associate professor, 1967- 



860 | Shoemaker, Carolyn (Spellmann) 

Concurrent Positions: Fulbright fellowship, University of Copenhagen, 1955— 
1956; visiting assistant professor, Albert Einstein Medical College, 1959-1962 

Dolores Shockley is known for her research in pharmacology, which is the science 
dealing with research on the preparation, uses, and especially the effects of drugs. 
Her research interests are the consequences of drug action on stress, the effects of 
hormones on connective tissue, the relationship between drugs and nutrition, and 
the measurement of nonnarcotic drugs. When she entered undergraduate school, 
she planned to become a pharmacist and operate her own drugstore, but during 
college, her interest shifted to research. She was the first African American woman 
to earn a doctorate in pharmacology in the United States and the first black woman 
to earn any doctorate from Purdue. After completing postdoctoral research at the 
University of Copenhagen, Shockley returned to the United States as an assistant 
professor at Meharry Medical College, a historically black medical school in 
Nashville, Tennessee. At first, she was uncertain that she had made a wise choice 
because some of the men thought she was just working there temporarily, but she 
soon proved she was there to stay and became a respected member of the faculty. 
She was promoted to associate professor in 1967, and later served as chair of 
the departments of microbiology and of the graduate program in pharmacology, 
the first African American woman to chair a department of pharmacology in the 
United States. 

Shockley 's awards and honors include the Lederle faculty award (1963-1966), 
and she was named Distinguished Alumni at the Purdue University School of 
Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (2009). She is a member of the American 
Pharmaceutical Association and the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science. Vanderbilt University School of Medicine designated the Dolores C. 
Shockley Lectureship and Mentoring Award in her honor. 

Further Resources 

Jordan, Diann. 2006. Sisters in Science: Conversations with Black Women Scientists on 
Race, Gender and Their Passion for Science. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University 
Press. 



Shoemaker, Carolyn (Spellmann) 

b. 1929 

Planetary Astronomer 

Education: B.A., Chico State College, 1949, M.A., history and political science, 
1950 



Shoemaker, Carolyn (Spellmann) | 861 




Astronomer Carolyn Shoemaker has 
discovered more comets and asteroids than 
any living astronomer. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Professional Experience: visiting 
scientist, astrogeology, U.S. Geo- 
logical Survey (USGS), Flagstaff, 
Arizona, 1980-; research professor, 
astronomy, Northern Arizona Uni- 
versity, 1989-; staff member, Lowell 
Observatory, Flagstaff, 1993— 

Concurrent Positions: research 
assistant, California Institute of Tech- 
nology (CalTech), 1981-1985; guest 
observer, Mt. Palomar Observatory, 
1982-1994 

Carolyn Shoemaker has discovered 
more than 30 comets and 800 aste- 
roids, more than any living astrono- 
mer. She first became known to the 
general public when the periodic 
comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (named for 
Carolyn and husband, Gene Shoe- 
maker, and their colleague David 

Levy) impacted on Jupiter in July 1994, and she was interviewed on television pro- 
grams. However, she was already renowned in the scientific community because of 
the number of comets she had identified. Shoemaker uses the 1 8-inch Schmidt tele- 
scope at Mt. Palomar, ultra-fine-grain film, and a stereomicroscope. She worked 
with her husband, founder of the USGS Center for Astrogeology in Flagstaff, 
Arizona, in all of the discoveries except one, but he created the search program for 
comets and Earth-crossing asteroids that they used. Another area in which she has 
worked is in identifying Earth-approaching asteroids. For two weeks each month, 
during the dark of the moon, search teams gather at Mt. Palomar in California to 
track asteroids and meteorites that are close enough to impact the Earth. Such 
objects regularly fall to Earth throughout the world, and a large one could cause 
severe damage. Shoemaker has identified a record 500 asteroids, including 41 
Earth-approachers. 

Carolyn Shoemaker came to her scientific research later in life. Her husband was a 
world expert on impact craters, both on Earth and on other planets, and he trained the 
astronauts who landed on the moon in the basics of geology. Carolyn taught school, 
but after their own children were grown, she started accompanying her husband as 
an unpaid field assistant on his studies of craters on the Earth and then helped with 
his work surveying the moon. She got a position reviewing films of the night sky at 



862 | Shotwell, Odette Louise 

CalTech and soon became expert in identifying the tiny dark smudges on the films. 
She discovered her first comet in 1983, at the age of 54, without a degree in astronomy. 
Shoemaker has received numerous honors, including a National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration (NASA) Exceptional Achievement Medal (1996), 
Woman of Distinction Award of the National Association for Women in Education 
(1996), and Distinguished Alumna of California State University, Chico (1996). 
With her husband Gene (who died in 1997 while on a research trip to Australia) 
she has been the co-recipient of the Rittenhouse Medal (1988) and the James Craig 
Watson Medal (1998); in 1995, the two were also named Scientists of the Year. 
She is the author of the report on Shoemaker-Levy 9 in the USGS Yearbook 
(1994), and her work has been featured in the media, such as on public television 
programs. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a 
member of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. She received an honorary 
doctorate from Northern Arizona University in 1990. 

Further Resources 

U.S. Geological Survey. "Carolyn Shoemaker." http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/About/ 
People/CarolynShoemaker/. 



Shotwell, Odette Louise 

1922 1998 
Organic Chemist 

Education: B.S., chemistry, Montana State University, 1944; M.S., University of 
Illinois, 1946, Ph.D., organic chemistry, 1948 

Professional Experience: teaching assistant, inorganic chemistry, University of 
Illinois, 1944-1948; research chemist, Northern Regional Research Laboratory, 
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 1948-1977, research leader, mycotoxin 
analysis and chemical research, 1975-1989 

Concurrent Positions: consultant, Bureau of Veterinary Medicine, Food and 
Drug Administration, 1981-1986; consultant, Canadian Health and Welfare 
Department, 1983-1989; consultant and collaborator, USDA 

Odette Shotwell was a chemist who made significant contributions to environmen- 
tal science, and was recognized for her work in developing a cancer-producing 
toxin from molds. She held three patents, and her work led to or contributed to 
the development of several new antibiotics. Her research included synthetic 



Shreeve, Jean'ne Marie | 863 

organic chemistry; the chemistry of natural products, including isolation, purifica- 
tion, and characterization; microbial insecticides; and mycotoxins. Her own father 
was a research entomologist and, in one instance, she conducted research on the 
chemistry of Japanese beetles as part of a government effort to stop the spread of 
the pests. Shotwell suffered from polio as a child and was confined to a wheelchair 
for most of her life. Still, she left home in Colorado to study chemistry at Montana 
State College (now University of Montana). She went on to pursue graduate stud- 
ies at the University of Illinois and, after receiving her doctorate, joined the 
Northern Regional Research Laboratory of the USDA in Peoria, Illinois, in 1948. 
She was promoted to research leader in mycotoxin analysis and chemical research 
in 1975 and research leader in mycotoxin research in 1985, retiring from the 
agency (now known as the Northern Center for Agricultural Utilization Research) 
in 1989. Before and even after retirement, she consulted for the USDA and other 
government agencies in both the United States and Canada. 

Among the awards Shotwell received were the Outstanding Woman Alumna of 
the Year from the city of Bozeman, Montana (1961), Outstanding Handicapped 
Federal Employee Award (1969), and Harvey W. Wiley Award of the American 
Oil Chemical Society (1982). She was elected a fellow of the Association of Offi- 
cial Analytical Chemists, and was a member of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, American Chemical Society, and American Association 
of Cereal Chemists. 



Shreeve, Jean'ne Marie 

b. 1933 
Inorganic Chemist 

Education: B.A., University of Montana, 1953; M.S., analytical chemistry, Uni- 
versity of Minnesota, 1956; Ph.D., inorganic chemistry, University of Washington, 
1961 

Professional Experience: teaching assistant, chemistry, University of Minnesota, 
1953-1955; assistant, University of Washington, 1957-1961; assistant professor, 
chemistry, University of Idaho, Moscow, 1961-1965, associate professor, 1965— 
1967, professor, 1967-1973, acting chair, Department of Chemistry, 1969-1970 
and 1973, head of department and professor, 1973-1987, vice provost of research 
and graduate studies and professor, chemistry, 1987— 

Jean 'ne Shreeve is internationally known and nationally recognized for her contri- 
butions to the understanding of synthetic fluorine chemistry. Her research includes 



864 | Shreeve, Jean'ne Marie 




synthesis of inorganic and organic 
fluorine-containing compounds. The 
major emphasis of her research has 
been the synthesis, characterization, 
and reactions of fluorine compounds 
that contain nitrogen, sulfur, and 
phosphorus. She and her students 
made a significant find when they dis- 
covered the compound perfluorourea, 
which is an oxidizer ingredient. She 
has also developed new synthetic 
routes to several important com- 
pounds, including chlorodifluoro- 
amine and difluoradiazine. These 
compounds are used in synthesizing 
rocket oxidizers, but preparation by 
previously known techniques was hard 
to accomplish. 

At the time she started her appoint- 
ment at the University of Idaho, the 
chemistry department was poorly 
equipped to support research. However, the state had just designated the campus 
at Moscow as Idaho's research university and had given it permission to grant doc- 
toral degrees; because of her prominence in research, she was able to contribute to 
the growth of the chemistry department and its curriculum. She advanced rapidly 
through the ranks to full professor, head of the department, and then vice provost 
for research and graduate studies. She has devoted her life to educating other 
chemists, and she has drawn many exceptional students into graduate studies. 
Her own interest in chemistry developed when she was an undergraduate at the 
University of Montana because of an exceptional teacher. 

Shreeve's work as a fluorine chemist earned her the 1972 Garvan Medal of the 
American Chemical Society (ACS) for outstanding achievements by American 
women chemists. The honor cited her contributions to the fundamental under- 
standing of the behavior of inorganic fluorine compounds and to the synthesis of 
important new fluorochemicals. She has served on numerous committees in the 
ACS and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and she 
has received numerous awards, including the Distinguished Alumni Award, 
University of Montana (1970); Outstanding Achievement Award, University of 
Minnesota (1975); Senior U.S. Scientist Award, Alexander Von Humboldt 
Foundation (1978); Fluorine Award of the ACS (1978); Excellence in Teaching 



Inorganic chemist Jean'ne Marie Shreeve 
(Courtesy of the University of Idaho) 



Simmonds, Sofia | 865 

Award, Chemical Manufacturers Association (1980); and an honorary doctorate 
from the University of Montana (1982). She began serving on the board of Gover- 
nors of Argonne National Laboratory in 1992. She is a fellow of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American 
Chemical Society and American Institute of Chemists. 

Further Resources 

University of Idaho. Faculty website, http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~jshreeve/. 



Simmonds, Sofia 

1917 2007 
Biochemist 

Education: B.A., Barnard College, 1938; Ph.D., biochemistry, Cornell University, 
1942 

Professional Experience: assistant biochemist, medical college, Cornell Univer- 
sity, 1941-1942, research associate, 1942-1945; instructor, physiological chemis- 
try, School of Medicine, Yale University, 1945-1946, microbiologist, 1946-1949, 
assistant to associate professor, biochemistry and microbiology, 1949-1962, bio- 
chemist, 1962-1969, molecular biophysicist and biochemist, 1969-1975, professor; 
1976-1988, lecturer and dean of undergraduate studies, 1990-1991 

Sofia Simmonds has been recognized for her research on bacteria amino acid 
metabolism, in particular of the E. coli bacteria. She spent years in administrative 
posts at Yale's medical school, some of which continued after her retirement. 
After receiving her undergraduate degree from Barnard (the women's college of 
Columbia University) in 1938, she attended Cornell University, where she received 
her doctorate in biochemistry in 1942. She continued working there as a research 
associate until 1945 when she accepted an appointment as instructor of physiologi- 
cal chemistry in the school of medicine at Yale; she rose through the ranks at Yale, 
becoming a full professor in 1976. During her tenure there, she also served as asso- 
ciate dean and then dean of undergraduate studies, a position she continued even 
after formal retirement in 1988. 

Simmonds's husband, Joseph S. Fruton, was also a biochemistry professor at 
Yale, and together they published General Biochemistry (1953), the first compre- 
hensive textbook in the field. Their work has been reissued in several editions 
and has been translated into Japanese and several European languages. In 2005, 
the couple established the Joseph S. and Sofia S. Fruton Teaching and Research 



866 | Simon, Dorothy Martin 

Fund for the History of Science at Yale. After more than 70 years of marriage, the 
couple died within days of each other in July 2007. 

Simmonds received the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society in 
1969. She was also a member of the American Society of Biological Chemists. 

Further Resources 

"In Memoriam: Biochemists Joseph Fruton and Sofia Simmonds." Yale Bulletin & 
Calendar. 36(2). (14 September 2007). http://www.yale.edu/opa/arc-ybc/v36.n2/ 
story22.html. 



Simon, Dorothy Martin 

b. 1919 
Physical Chemist 

Education: A.B., chemistry, Southwest Missouri State College, 1940; Ph.D., 
physical chemistry, University of Illinois, 1945 

Professional Experience: research chemist, E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Com- 
pany, 1945-1946; chemist, Clinton Laboratory, 1947; associate chemist, Argonne 
National Laboratory, 1948-1949; aeronautical research scientist, Lewis Labora- 
tory, National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, 1949-1953, assistant chief, 
chemical branch, 1954-1955; Rockefeller fellow, Cambridge University, 1953- 
1954; group leader in combustion, Magnolia Petroleum Company, 1955-1956; 
principal scientist and technical assistant to president, research and advanced 
development, Avco Corporation, 1956-1962, director of corporate research, 
1962-1964, vice president, defense and industrial products, 1964-1968, corporate 
vice president and director of research, 1968-1985; founder, Simon Associates 
consulting firm 

Dorothy Simon is a chemist who spent most of her career as a distinguished 
researcher in the aerospace industry. Her research interests included combustion, 
aerothermochemistry, and research management and strategic planning. After 
receiving her doctorate from the University of Illinois in 1945, where she com- 
pleted some of the earliest work on radioactive fallout, she went to work as a 
research chemist for a variety of corporations and government agencies, including 
E. I. du Pont de Nemours, Clinton Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, the 
National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (the predecessor of the National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration [NASA]), and Magnolia Petroleum Com- 
pany. In 1953, she received a prestigious Rockefeller Foundation fellowship to 



Simpson, Joanne Malkus (Gerould) | 867 

conduct research at key laboratories in England, France, and The Netherlands; 
upon returning to the United States, she spent the remainder of her career in 
research and administrative positions at Avco Corporation; in 1968, she was 
named vice president of research, the company's first female corporate officer. 
At Avco, she emerged as an international expert in the field of combustion and 
high-temperature composite materials for aircraft and missile systems. 

Her father was head of the chemistry department at Southwest Missouri State 
College (now Missouri State University), where she received her undergraduate 
degree in 1940 and where she later established the Dr. Robert W. Martin Research 
Fellowship for chemistry majors in her father's honor. The university recognizes 
her as the first student to graduate with a perfect 4.0 grade point average. She 
has received two honorary doctorates, from Worcester Polytechnic Institute 
(1971) and Lehigh University (1978). Over the course of her career, she has served 
on prestigious national and international committees, including the NASA Space 
Systems and Technology Advisory Committee and the President's Committee on 
the National Medal of Science (1978-1981). She has also served on the boards 
of major corporations and was a trustee for two universities. She received the 
Rockefeller Public Service Award (1953) and the Society of Women Engineers 
Achievement Award (1966), and was named by Business Week magazine as one 
of the top 100 women in corporate America (1976). She was elected a fellow of 
the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the American Institute 
of Chemists, and was a member of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science, the American Chemical Society, and the Combustion Institute. 



Simpson, Joanne Malkus (Gerould) 

1923-2010 
Meteorologist 

Education: B.S., University of Chicago, 1943, M.S., 1945, Ph.D., meteorology, 
1949 

Professional Experience: instructor, meteorology, New York University, 
1943-1944; instructor, meteorology, University of Chicago, 1944-1945; instruc- 
tor, physics and meteorology, Illinois Institute of Technology, 1946-1949, assis- 
tant professor, 1949-1951; research meteorologist, Woods Hole Oceanographic 
Institution, 1951-1960; professor, meteorology, University of California, Los 
Angeles, 1960-1965; head, experimental branch, Atmospheric Physics and Chem- 
istry Laboratory, Environmental Science Service Administration, 1965-1971; 



868 | Simpson, Joanne Malkus (Gerould) 

director, experimental meteorology laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration (NOAA), Department of Commerce, 1971-1974; professor, envi- 
ronmental science and member, Center of Advanced Studies, University of 
Virginia, 1974-1976, W. W. Corcoran Professor, 1976-1981; head, Severe Storms 
Branch, Goddard Space Flight Center, National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA), 1979-1988, chief scientist, meteorology and earth sci- 
ences, 1988-1992, science director, 1992-1998 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct professor, University of Miami, 1971-1974; 
project scientist, tropical rainfall measuring mission, Goddard Space Flight 
Center, 1986-; member, board of directors, Atmospheric Sciences and Climatol- 
ogy of National Research Council (NRC) and National Academy of Sciences 
(NAS), 1990-; chief scientist, Simpson Weather Associates, 1974-1979 

Joanne Simpson was the first woman in the world to receive a doctorate in meteor- 
ology, and she had a distinguished career as a meteorologist in academia, 
government, and private business. She started college just at the beginning of 
World War II, and seized the opportunity to enter the meteorology training pro- 
gram on the University of Chicago campus. Meteorology is the science that deals 
with the atmosphere and its phenomena, including weather and climate, and after 
nine months of training, she and the other women in the program trained weather 
forecasters for the military services. At the end of the war, the women were 
expected to return to their families or get married, and some faculty members 
were openly hostile to women students who planned to continue their educations. 
Simpson had difficulty finding a faculty supervisor but eventually worked with a 
professor studying clouds and tropical meteorology, the subject of her later book, 
Cloud Structure and Distributions over the Tropical Pacific Ocean (1965). 
Without a fellowship, she had to work part-time to support herself and obtained 
a position teaching physics and meteorology at the Illinois Institute of Technology 
while completing the coursework for her doctorate. 

Between subsequent academic appointments, Simpson held high-level posi- 
tions with government research institutions, such as director of an experimental 
meteorology laboratory at Coral Gables, Florida, for NOAA, and, later, head of 
the severe storms division of NASA. She devised and developed a new concept 
of cloud-seeding experiments aimed at modifying the dynamics of cumulus 
clouds. When she was a faculty member in the Environmental Sciences Depart- 
ment of the University of Virginia, she and her husband, Robert Simpson, formed 
a private meteorology consulting service, Simpson Weather Associates. She was 
for many years the lead project scientist for NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring 
Mission (TRMM). 



Singer, Maxine (Frank) | 869 

Simpson was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering 
in 1988. She received an honorary doctorate from the State University of 
New York, Albany (1991). Among her numerous honors are the Meisinger Award 
of the American Meteorological Society (1962) and the highest award of the 
American Meteorological Society, the Rossby Research Medal (1983). Other awards 
include the Silver Medal (1967) and Gold Medal (1972) of the Department of Com- 
merce, the V. J. Schaefer Award of the Weather Modification Association (1979), the 
Exceptional Science Achievement Medal of NASA (1982), and the International 
Meteorological Organization Price (2002). She was a fellow of the American 
Meteorological Society (AMS) and served as the first female president of the AMS 
in 1989. She was a member of the American Geophysical Union and the Ocean 
Society, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Further Resources 

Weier, John. "Joanne Simpson (1923 2010)." Earth Observatory. NASA. (23 April 2004, 
updated 2010). http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Simpson/simpson.php. 

Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, Cooperative Institute for Research in 
Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder. 2002. "Women in the 
Atmospheric Sciences Astounding Progress since World War II: Personal Viewpoint 
of Joanne Simpson in 2002." WeatherZine. 34. (June 2002). http://sciencepolicy 
.colorado.edu/zine/archives/34/editorial.html. 



Singer, Maxine (Frank) 

b. 1931 

Biochemist, Geneticist 

Education: B.A., Swarthmore College, 1952; Ph.D., biochemistry, Yale 
University, 1957 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, Public Health Service, National 
Institutes of Health (NIH), 1956-1958, research biochemist, National Institute of 
Arthritis, Metabolism, and Digestive Diseases, 1958-1974; chief, Nucleic Acid 
Enzymology Section, Biochemistry Lab, National Cancer Institute, 1975-1980, 
chief, Biochemistry Lab, 1980-1987, scientist emeritus; president, Carnegie Insti- 
tution of Washington, 1988-2002; chair, Board of Directors, Whitehead Institute 
for Biomedical Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 2003- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting scientist, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, 
1971; instructor, University of California, Berkeley, 1980 



870 | Singer, Maxine (Frank) 

Maxine Singer is renowned as a leading scientist in the field of human genetics. 
Her research laboratory helped to decipher the genetic code, and she is a strong 
advocate for responsible use of genetics research. During the controversy in the 
1970s over the use of recombinant DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) techniques to 
alter genetic characteristics, she advocated a cautious approach, and she helped 
develop guidelines to balance the desire for unfettered research on genetics with 
designing research programs that make medically valuable discoveries and still 
meet goals to protect the public from possible harm. She spent her early career 
conducting research at the NIH, where scientists were learning how to take DNA 
fragments from one organism in order to insert them into the living cells of 
another. This new research potentially could lead to the discovery of cures for seri- 
ous diseases, aid in the development of new crops, and otherwise benefit humanity. 
In 1972, Singer's colleague, Paul Berg of Stanford University, was the first to cre- 
ate recombinant DNA molecules. Later, he voluntarily stopped conducting studies 
involving DNA manipulation in the genes of tumor-causing viruses because some 
scientists feared that a virus with unknown properties might escape from the labo- 
ratory and spread into the general population. 

In an unprecedented action in 1973, a group of scientists composed a public 
letter to the president of the National Academy of Sciences and published it in 
Science magazine. They warned that organisms of an unpredictable nature could 
result from the new technique and suggested that the academy recommend guide- 
lines. The NIH began formulating guidelines for recombinant DNA research, and 
Singer was instrumental in preparing these guidelines. She also wrote a series of 
editorials and articles on the topic in Science over a period of about five years. 
She was a strong supporter of the first genetically engineered foods, such as "the 
Flavr Savr tomato," which reached American supermarket shelves in the 1990s. 

In 1988, she became president of the Carnegie Institution, a research organization 
that conducts high-level biological, earth science, and astronomical research. She 
retired from Carnegie in 2002 and now serves on the Board of Directors for the 
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT. She is still affiliated with and 
conducts regular research at the National Cancer Institute. Singer and Paul Berg pub- 
lished two books on genetics, both of which have received positive reviews: Genes 
and Genomes: A Changing Perspective (1990), a graduate-level textbook on 
molecular genetics, and Dealing with Genes: The Language of Heredity (1992). 
Although not a textbook, it is a summary of the mechanisms of heredity and the 
ways in which biologists study and alter the microscopic structure of organisms. 

Singer was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1979. She has been 
awarded more than 15 honorary doctorates and has been an advisor or committee 
member for many academic, governmental, and private organizations. In 1992, 
she received the National Medal of Science. Her numerous other awards include 



Sinkford, Jeanne Frances (Craig) | 871 

a Distinguished Service Medal from the U.S. Department of Health and Human 
Services (1983) and a Public Service Award from the NIH (1995). Her work 
in bringing science education to inner-city children through her "First Light" 
weekend science program and through the Carnegie Academy for Science 
Education earned her the 2007 Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy 
of Sciences. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a 
member of the American Society of Biological Chemists, American Philosophical 
Society, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2008, she 
became co-chair (with astronomer Vera Rubin and physicist Myriam Sarachik) 
of a National Academy of Sciences project to pair women scientists in the United 
States with Iraqi women scientists for mentoring and career support. 

Further Resources 

National Academy of Sciences. 2008. "International Twinning Project for Iraqi Women 
Scientists, Engineers, and Health Professionals." Committee on Human Rights. 
(March 2008). http://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/humanrights/PGA 044086. 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: loseph Henry Press. 

Carnegie Institution. Faculty website, http://www.carnegieinstitution.org/singer. 



Sinkford, Jeanne Frances (Craig) 

b. 1933 
Physiologist 

Education: B.S., Howard University, 1953, D.D.S., 1958; M.S., Northwestern 
University, 1962, Ph.D., physiology, 1963 

Professional Experience: research assistant, psychology, U.S. Department 
of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1953; instructor, College of Dentistry, Howard 
University, 1958-1960; clinical instructor, dentistry, Northwestern University, 
1963-1964; associate professor and chair, prosthodontics, Howard University, 
1964-1974, professor, 1968-1991, associate dean, College of Dentistry, 1967-1974, 
dean, 1975-1991, professor, physiology, Graduate School of Arts and Science, 
1976-1991; director, Center for Equity and Diversity, American Dental Education 
Association, 1991— 

Concurrent Positions: attending staff, Howard University Hospital; Children's 
Hospital, National Medical Center; District of Columbia General Hospital; trustee 
advisor, American Fund for Dental Health, 1975-1984 



872 | Sinkford, Jeanne Frances (Craig) 



Lucy Hobbs Taylor, First Woman Dentist 

Lucy Beaman Hobbs Taylor (1833-1910) was the first female professional dentist 
in the United States. She began her career as a schoolteacher but dreamed of 
attending medical school. Denied admission to both medical school and the dental 
college because of her sex, she studied privately with a professor from the Ohio 
College of Dental Surgery and began practicing in Cincinnati without a diploma 
in 1 861 . She gained membership in professional organizations and attended con- 
ferences before returning to the Ohio College to complete her formal education, 
finally earning her doctorate in dentistry in 1865 and paving the way for more 
women to enter the field. She later married and moved to Kansas, where she 
and her husband operated a successful joint dental practice. By the year 2003, 
women made up 1 7% of practicing dentists and more than 40% of dental students. 



Jeanne Sinkford is a physiologist known for her research on dental issues, includ- 
ing endogenous anti-inflammatory substances, chemical healing agents, gingival 
retraction agents, hereditary dental defects, oral endocrine defects, and neuromus- 
cular problems. She has the distinction of being the first black woman in the 
United States to become head of a university department of dentistry. She was 
born in Washington, D.C., and has spent most of her career at Howard University. 
She studied chemistry and psychology as an undergraduate and received her 
D.D.S. from Howard in 1958. She taught prosthodontics at the Howard dental 
school for two years before moving to Chicago, where she received a master's 
degree and then doctorate in physiology from Northwestern University. She 
returned to Howard University in 1964, where she rose through the ranks to full 
professor and, in 1975, became the first female dean of a dental college in the 
United States. 

For many years, she also continued her dental practice by serving on the staffs of 
various local hospitals. She left Howard University in 1991 and now serves as Direc- 
tor of the Center for Equity and Diversity (formerly the Office of Women and Minor- 
ities) at the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) in Washington, D.C. 
When Sinkford began her career in the 1960s, only about 2% of dentists were 
female; the field is still heavily male-dominated, with only about 17% of practicing 
dentists female, but the numbers of women in dental schools is steadily increasing. 
At the ADEA and in other areas of her professional life, Sinkford has been commit- 
ted to increasing the numbers of women and minorities in dentistry and the health 
professions in general. 

Sinkford is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National 
Academy of Sciences. She has received a number of honorary degrees and awards, 



Sitterly, Charlotte Emma Moore | 873 

including the College of Dentistry Alumni Award for Dental Education and 
Research (1969) and the Alumni Federation Outstanding Achievement Award 
(1971), both from Howard University; an Alumni Achievement Award from 
Northwestern University (1970); a Certificate of Merit from the American Pros- 
thodontic Society (1971); the Candace Award of the National Coalition of 
100 Black Women (1982); a Trailblazer Award from the National Dental Associa- 
tion (2007); and the Herbert W. Nickens Award of the Association of American 
Medical Colleges (AAMC) (2009). She is a member of the board of directors for 
the NIH and in 1974 was inducted into the International College of Dentists. She 
is a fellow of the American College of Dentists and a member of the American 
Dental Association, International Association for Dental Research, American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science, and New York Academy of Sciences. 



Sitterly, Charlotte Emma Moore 

1898 1990 

Astronomer, Astrophysicist 

Education: A.B., mathematics, Swarthmore College, 1920; Ph.D., astronomy, 
University of California, Berkeley, 1931 

Professional Experience: computer, Princeton Observatory, 1920-1925; com- 
puter, Mount Wilson Observatory, Los Angeles, 1925-1928; computer, Princeton 
University, 1928-1929, assistant spectroscopist, 1931-1936, research associate, 
1936-1945; physicist, atomic physics division, National Bureau of Standards, 
1945-1968; assistant, Office of Standard Reference Data, 1968-1970; assistant, 
Space Science Division, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, 1971-1978 

Charlotte Moore Sitterly was an astrophysicist recognized for her work on major 
projects concerning atomic spectra, atomic energy levels, and spectroscopic data 
for more than 50 years. After studying mathematics at Swarthmore College, she 
worked as a "computer" at Princeton University and at Mount Wilson Observatory 
in Los Angeles, analyzing solar images, before completing her doctorate in 
astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. She returned to Princeton as 
a research associate for several years, during which time she met and married 
physicist Bancroft W. Sitterly. She joined the National Bureau of Standards in 
1945 and spent more than 20 years there compiling standard wavelengths and 
atomic spectral tables, which are still useful reference tools. She also authored or 
co-authored eight books, including The Infrared Solar Spectrum (1947), Atomic 
Energy Levels (1949-1958), and An Ultraviolet Multiples Table (1950-1962). 



874 | Slye, Maud Caroline 

She served on numerous scientific committees, including as a member of the 
National Research Council, member of the International Astronomical Union, 
and consultant to a variety of organizations. 

Sitterly received the Annie J. Cannon Prize (1937), the Silver Medal (1951) and 
Gold Medal (1960) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the first Federal Wom- 
an's Award of the U.S. government (1961), the William F. Meggers Award of the 
Optical Society of America (1972), and the Bruce Medal of the Astronomical 
Society of the Pacific (1990). She received honorary doctorates from her alma 
mater, Swarthmore College (1962), University of Kiel in Germany (1968), and 
University of Michigan (1971). The Asteroid 2110 Moore-Sitterly is named in 
her honor. She was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society and the 
Optical Society of America, and a foreign associate of the Royal Astronomical 
Society of London. She also was a member of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science and the American Astronomical Society. 



Slye, Maud Caroline 

1879 1954 

Pathologist 

Education: A.B., Brown University, 1899; University of Chicago, 1906, 1908-1911 

Professional Experience: professor, psychology and pedagogy, Rhode Island State 
Normal School, 1899-1905; staff member, Sprague Memorial Institute, 1911-1944, 
instructor, pathology, University of Chicago, 1919-1922, assistant professor, 
1922-1926, associate professor and director, Cancer Laboratory, 1926-1944 

Maud Slye was a pioneer in the study of the inheritance of cancer in mice and how 
it relates to human cancers. The popular press called her the "American Curie" for 
her contributions. Her theories on cancer later were proven to be incorrect. At first, 
she theorized that susceptibility to cancer was limited to the presence of a single 
recessive characteristic, but she later modified her ideas to agree that more than 
one gene was involved. A tireless worker, she raised and kept pedigrees on over 
150,000 mice during her career. She held a prestigious directorship, although she 
did not have a doctorate. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Brown 
University in 1899, she was appointed a professor of psychology and pedagogy 
at the Rhode Island State Normal School for seven years. She accepted an appoint- 
ment as member of the staff at the new Sprague Memorial Institute (later affiliated 
with the University of Chicago) in 1911, retiring in 1944. During this time, she 
held a joint appointment as a faculty member in pathology at the University of 



Small, Meredith F. | 875 



Chicago, rising to the rank of associ- 
ate professor and director of the 
Cancer Laboratory in 1926. 

Slye received many honors for 
her contributions to cancer research, 
including a Gold Medal from the 
American Medical Association (1914), 
a Gold Medal from the American 
Radiological Society (1922), and the 
Ricketts Prize of the University of 
Chicago (1915). Brown University 
granted her an honorary degree in 
1937. In addition to her scientific 
papers, she wrote two books of poetry: 
Songs and Solaces (1934) and / in 
the Wind (1936). She was a member 
of the American Medical Associa- 
tion and the New York Academy of 
Sciences. 




Pathologist Maud Slye was an early cancer 
researcher. (National Library of Medicine) 



Further Resources 

McCoy, Joseph J. 1 977. The Cancer Lady: Maud Slye and Her Hereditary Studies. Nashville, 
TN: Thomas Nelson Books. 

Rader, Karen Ann. 2004. Making Mice: Standardizing Animals for American Biomedical 
Research, 1900 1955. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 



Small, Meredith F. 



Anthropologist, Primatologist 

Education: A.B., anthropology, San Diego State University, 1973; M.A., physical 
anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder, 1975;Ph.D., anthropology, 
University of California, Davis, 1980 

Professional Experience: assistant professor, anthropology, Cornell University, 
1988-1991, associate professor, 1991-1997, professor, 1997 

Meredith Small is an anthropologist and primatologist who specializes in biological 
and cultural anthropology, evolutionary biology, and human and primate behavior. 



876 | Smith, Elske (van Panhuys) 

She began her career observing both wild and captive macaques and focused on 
female sexual behavior and care of offspring. She has been a professor of anthropol- 
ogy at Cornell University since 1988 and published her first book, Female Choices: 
Sexual Behavior of Female Primates, in 1993. Female Choices was a groundbreak- 
ing and controversial look at the different sexual choices made by female primates, 
showing that females are active participants in sexual and mating relationships. 

Since the 1990s, Small has also been a prominent figure in the media with her 
articles for popular science magazines and websites on issues related to childrear- 
ing, sexuality, DNA analysis, and other issues. Her books include What's Love Got 
to Do with It? The Evolution of Human Mating (1995), the immensely popular Our 
Babies, Ourselves; How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent (1998), 
Kids: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Raise Our Children (2001), 
and The Culture of Our Discontent; Beyond the Medical Model of Mental Illness 
(2006). In each of these works, Small has examined the intersection between biol- 
ogy and culture, and looked for lessons from nonhuman primates to explain 
human behavior, especially with regard to mating and parenting. Small character- 
ized her work in Our Babies, Ourselves as a contribution to the new field of ethno- 
pediatrics, or the cross-cultural study of childhood and childrearing that combines 
the fields of anthropology, psychology, child development, and pediatrics. In the 
book, Small argued that there is no right or wrong way to raise children and that 
our ideas about feeding, sleeping with, bonding with, and disciplining children 
has as much to do with culture as it does with natural instinct, and may not even 
always be what is "best" for children. In 2005, Small's efforts in bringing scientific 
research to the general public were honored with an Anthropology in Media 
Award from the American Anthropological Association. 

Further Resources 

Cornell University. Faculty website, http://falcon.arts.cornell.edu/anthro/faculty/ 
small.html. 



Smith, Elske (van Panhuys) 

b. 1929 

Astronomer, Environmental Scientist 

Education: B.S., astronomy, Radcliffe College, 1950, M.A., astronomy, 1951, 
Ph.D., astronomy, 1956 

Professional Experience: research fellow, Harvard Observatory Solar Project, 
Sacramento Peak Observatory, Sunspot, New Mexico, 1955-1962; visiting fellow, 



Smith, Elske (van Panhuys) | 877 

Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, Boulder, Colorado, 1962-1963; asso- 
ciate professor, astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, 1963-1975, as- 
sistant provost, Division of Mathematics and Physical Science and Engineering, 
1973-1978, professor, astronomy, 1975-1980, assistant vice chancellor of aca- 
demic affairs, 1978-1980; dean, College of Humanities and Science, and profes- 
sor, physics, Virginia Commonwealth University, 1980-1992, interim director, 
Center for Environmental Studies, 1992-1995, emerita professor, physics 

Concurrent Positions: research associate, Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, 
Arizona, 1956-1957; consultant, Goddard Space Flight Center, National Aeronau- 
tics and Space Administration (NASA), 1963-1965; lecturer, Osher Lifetime 
Learning Institute 

Elske van Panhuys Smith is a solar physicist whose research included active 
regions on the sun, especially flares and plages; solar chromosphere; interstellar 
polarization; and solar physics. She was on the faculty at the University of Mary- 
land for more than 15 years and was dean and director of the Center for Environ- 
mental Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, an academic program she 
helped establish and for which she taught courses on Earth's atmosphere and on 
energy. In addition to her numerous scientific papers, she co-authored two books: 
Solar Flares (1963) and Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics (1973; 3rd ed., 
1992). She retired in 1995 and moved to Massachusetts, where she has been active 
in the community, and has lectured and taught continuing-education courses on 
astronomy, cosmology, archaeology, and environmental issues at the Osher Lifelong 
Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College. 

As a scientist, teacher, and administrator, Smith was concerned with factors 
preventing women from pursuing careers in the sciences. In 1977, she participated 
in a symposium at the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
national meeting, the papers for which were collected and published as Covert 
Discrimination and Women in the Sciences (1978, edited by Judith A. Ramaley). 
As an administrator at the University of Maryland, Smith gained insight into the 
factors that are involved in hiring and promoting faculty members. She inter- 
viewed a number of women scientists in both academia and government positions 
throughout the country, and uncovered deliberate as well as covert discrimination, 
including discrimination against married women. 

Smith is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
and a member of the International Astronomical Union and American Astronomical 
Society (founding member and first treasurer of Solar Physics Division). The Elske 
Smith Distinguished Lecturer Award at Virginia Commonwealth University is 
named in her honor. 



878 | Solomon, Susan 
Solomon, Susan 



b. 1956 
Atmospheric Chemist 

Education: B.S., Illinois Institute of Technology, 1977; M.S., University of 
California, Berkeley, 1979, Ph.D., chemistry, 1981 

Professional Experience: research chemist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration (NOAA), 1981— 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct instructor, University of Colorado, Boulder, 
1983-; member, committee on solar and space physics, National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration (NASA), 1983-1986, space and earth science advisory 
committee, 1985-1988; head project scientist, National Ozone Expedition to 
McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, 1986-1987 

Susan Solomon led expeditions to McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, to examine the 
"hole" in the ozone layer. Her theory was that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) could 
lead to Antarctic ozone destruction when CFCs encounter large masses of 
stratospheric clouds. CFCs are human-made gases that were widely used in 
refrigerators, air conditioners, aerosol spray cans, and the manufacture of semi- 
conductors. In 1985, British scientists reported an ozone hole in the Southern 
Hemisphere over the South Pole during the pole's spring month of October. The 
hole was located between the altitudes of about 32,000 and 74,000 feet (the strato- 
sphere), which normally shields the Earth from the sun's ultraviolet radiation. Sci- 
entists suspected the damage had been caused by CFCs but were unable to explain 
the process, but Solomon hit on the solution while attending a lecture on polar 
stratospheric clouds. She theorized that CFC derivatives react on the cloud surfa- 
ces. She volunteered to lead the otherwise all-male expedition to McMurdo Sound 
in 1986, with a follow-up trip in 1987, and her research supported the theory. Her 
explanation for the cause of the ozone hole is now generally accepted by scientists, 
and this research led many countries to pass legislation curtailing or outlawing the 
production and use of CFCs. Solomon continues to study the atmospheric chemistry 
of ozone in Antarctica as well as in the Arctic in the Northern Hemisphere. 

A project during her senior year of college turned Solomon's attention toward 
atmospheric chemistry. The project involved measuring the reaction of ethylene 
and hydroxyl radical, a process that occurs in the atmosphere of Jupiter. The 
summer before entering graduate school, she worked on a study of ozone in the 
upper atmosphere at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in 
Boulder, Colorado. At NOAA, she first worked in the Aeronomy Laboratory 
developing computer models of ozone in the upper atmosphere (aeronomy is the 



Solomon, Susan | 879 




Susan Solomon is an atmospheric scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration who helped explain the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica. (NASA) 



study of chemical and physical phenomena in the upper atmosphere). Although 
she was concentrating on theoretical studies, the McMurdo Sound expeditions pro- 
vided an opportunity to take up experimental work in measuring chlorine dioxide 
in the atmosphere. In addition to her scientific papers, she is co-author (with Guy 
Brasseur) of Aeronomy of the Middle Atmosphere: Chemistry and Physics of the 
Stratosphere and Mesosphere (1984, 2nd ed., 1986). 

Solomon was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1992. She has received several awards, including the J. B. MacElwane Award of 
the American Geophysical Union (1985) and the Gold Medal for exceptional ser- 
vice from the U.S. Department of Commerce (1989). She was named Scientist of 
the Year in 1992 by R&D Magazine. In 2000, President Clinton honored Solomon 
with a National Medal of Science, and in 2004, she received the prestigious Blue 
Planet prize for her contributions to finding "solutions to global environmental 



880 | Sommer, Anna Louise 

problems." In 2007, she took on an even more public role in the debate over global 
warming as co-leader of the United Nations and World Meteorological Organiza- 
tion's massive new report on global climate change. She is a member of the Royal 
Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, and the American 
Meteorological Society. 

Further Resources 

Morell, Virginia A. 2007. "Ahead in the Clouds." Smithsonian. 82 85. (February 2007). 
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ahead clouds.html. 



Sommer, Anna Louise 

1889 1973 
Plant Nutritionist 

Education: B.S., University of California, Berkeley, 1920, M.S., 1921, Ph.D., 
plant nutrition and chemistry, 1924 

Professional Experience: teaching fellow, botany, University of California, 
Berkeley, 1922-1924, plant nutritionist, 1924, assistant, 1924-1926; research fel- 
low, University of Minnesota, 1926-1929; associate professor, plant nutrition, 
and associate soil chemist, Alabama Polytechnic Institute (Auburn University), 
1930-1948, professor and soil chemist, 1948-1949 

Anna Sommer was one of the earliest women identified as a soil chemist, and was 
responsible for identifying the essential nature of three different trace or "micronu- 
trient" elements: copper (Cu), zinc (Z), and boron (Bu). Her research on plant nutri- 
tion and soil fertility, during what has been termed the "trace nutrient gold rush" of 
the early twentieth century, contributed to scientists' understanding that certain ele- 
ments were not only beneficial, but necessary for plant growth. She was able to test 
the effect of these elements on plant growth and reproduction by isolating them with 
purified water and salt. She published her findings in journals such as Science, Plant 
Physiology, and the Soil Science Society of America Proceedings. Her work led to the 
development of better fertilizers and other improvements in agricultural efficiency. 
Sommer received all of her degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, 
including her doctorate in 1924. She continued on at Berkeley as a plant nutritionist 
and an assistant until relocating to the University of Minnesota, where she spent 
three years as a research fellow. She then accepted a position as an associate profes- 
sor and soil chemist in the department of agronomy and soils at Alabama Polytech- 
nic Institute in Auburn, Alabama (now Auburn University), where she conducted 
her experiments on trace elements. She was the only tenured woman in that 



Spaeth, Mary Louise | 881 

department and was promoted to full professor in 1948, just one year before her 
retirement. Sommer was a member of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, the American Society of Plant Physiologists, and the Soil Science 
Society of America. 

Further Resources 

Weaver, David. 2002. "Mystery-Solving Woman: Pioneering Female Agronomist Solved 
Early Riddles of Soil Science." ASK Magazine. Alabama Agricultural Experiment 
Station, http://www.aaes.auburn.edu/comm/pubs/askmagazine/fall02/pioneering 
woman.html. 

Mcintosh, Maria S. and Steve R. Simmons. 2008. "A Century of Women in Agronomy: 
Lessons from Diverse Life Stories." Agronomy Journal. 100: S-53 S-69. http:// 
agron.scijournals.org/cgi/content/full/100/Supplement 3/S-53. 



Spaeth, Mary Louise 

b. 1938 
Physicist 

Education: B.S., physics and mathematics, Valparaiso University, 1960; M.S., 
nuclear physics, Wayne State University, 1962 

Professional Experience: technical staff member, later senior scientist and 
project manager, Hughes Aircraft Company, 1962-1974; physicist, program 
leader, Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation, Lawrence Livermore National 
Laboratory, 1975-1990, systems engineering and chief technologist, National 
Ignition Facility, 1990- 

Mary Spaeth is renowned for her work in developing the first tunable dye laser, a 
laser whose color could be changed in midstream. The term laser is an acronym 
for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation," and is the name of 
a device that produces a nearly parallel, nearly monochromatic, and coherent 
beam of light by exciting atoms to a higher energy level and causing them to radi- 
ate their energy in phase. She stumbled upon the method for the tunable dye laser 
while working on a government project at Hughes Aircraft Company in the mid- 
1960s, and the patent was thus owned by the U.S. Army. While the laser was 
developed for military uses, it also had practical consumer applications, such as 
the modern supermarket checkout lasers. 

Since 1975, Spaeth has been with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 
Berkeley, California, and is also credited with using the dye laser in isotope sepa- 
ration. The laser is now the primary source for deriving the isotopes used in 



882 | Spelke, Elizabeth 

nuclear reactors, and because different isotopes of the same element absorb light at 
different frequencies, a properly tuned dye laser can be used to separate and alter 
the isotopic composition of many elements. Originally, scientists at Livermore 
worked exclusively on refining plutonium for nuclear weaponry, but now most 
activity is centered on providing a low-cost means of enriching uranium fuel for 
light-water nuclear power reactors. One of the most promising applications of 
the tunable dye laser is as part of a guide star project that will allow ground- 
based stellar observatories to achieve a resolution comparable to that received 
through the Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched in 1990. 



Spelke, Elizabeth 

b. 1949 
Psychologist 

Education: B.A., social relations, Radcliffe College, 1971; student, Yale Univer- 
sity, 1972-1973; Ph.D., psychology, Cornell University, 1978 

Professional Experience: professor, psychology, University of Pennsylvania; 
professor, psychology, Cornell University; professor, Brain and Cognitive 
Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1996-2001; professor, 
psychology, Laboratory for Developmental Studies, Harvard, University, 2001- 

Elizabeth Spelke is a cognitive psychologist whose innovative research has 
focused on the perceptual and cognitive capacities of young infants. Her philo- 
sophical interest in the origins of knowledge led to her conclusion that even very 
young babies have innate understandings of location, physical objects, identity, 
and even numbers and quantities. Her controversial methods and findings chal- 
lenge the previously held belief that humans are born with sensory capabilities 
but no specific knowledge or capabilities for understanding abstract concepts, such 
as "object permanence." Spelke argues that her experiments have shown babies as 
young as two and a half months comprehending the physical boundaries of 
objects, and infants as young as six months distinguishing between different sets 
of numbers. She sees these capabilities as innate, as part of our evolutionary devel- 
opment, and as the foundation for acquisition of other types of knowledge, includ- 
ing language. Critics charge that she has overestimated infant mental capabilities, 
or that it is nearly impossible to distinguish between innate knowledge and learned 
experience, since babies are learning from the moment of birth. Regardless, her 
research has influenced the course of cognitive development research. 

Her research on infants also relates to her interest in the question of gender and 
cognitive development. She has concluded that there are no innate differences 



Spurlock, Jeanne | 883 

between male babies and female babies, and therefore no biological basis for dif- 
ferent aptitudes in, for example, math and science. This subject was one of conten- 
tious debate after Harvard University president Lawrence Summers made remarks 
in 2005 suggesting that there are fewer women faculty members at prestigious uni- 
versities such as Harvard because there are fewer women interested in or capable 
of higher-level math and science. Spelke, on the faculty at Harvard since 2001, 
was one of those scientists who criticized Summers's remarks, backing up the 
innate similarities between male and female with her own scientific research. 
She wrote a widely distributed review of the available research, "Sex Differences 
in Intrinsic Aptitude for Mathematics and Science: A Critical Review." She has 
collaborated and co-authored other papers with brain and cognitive researcher 
Nancy Kanwisher of MIT, and with her Harvard colleague in the Laboratory for 
Developmental Studies, Susan Carey. 

Spelke was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1999. She has 
received honorary doctorates from Umea University, Sweden (1993), Ecole 
Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, France (1999), and University of Paris-Descartes 
(2007). Her numerous other awards and honors include the Boyd McCandless 
Young Scientist Research Award (1984), a prestigious Guggenheim fellowship 
(1989), a Cattell Fellowship (1992), the MERIT Award of the National Institutes 
of Health (1993), the William James Award of the American Psychological Soci- 
ety (2000), a Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American 
Psychological Association (APA) (2000), the Ipsen Prize in Neuronal Plasticity 
(2001), and the Jean Nicod Prize (2008). She is a fellow of the Society of Experi- 
mental Psychologists, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American 
Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Further Resources 

Harvard University. Faculty website, http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~lds/index.html 
7spelke.html. 

Talbot, Margaret. 2006. "The Baby Lab: How Elizabeth Spelke Peers into the Infant 
Mind." New America Foundation. The New Yorker. (4 September 2006). http://www 
.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2006/the baby lab. 



Spurlock, Jeanne 

1921 1999 
Psychiatrist 

Education: student, Spelman College, 1940-1942, Roosevelt University, 1942- 
1943; M.D., Howard University, 1947 



884 | Spurlock, Jeanne 

Professional Experience: intern, Provident Hospital, Chicago, 1947-1948; resident, 
general psychiatry, Cook County Hospital, Chicago, 1948-1950; fellow, child 
psychiatry, Institute for Juvenile Research, Chicago, 1950-1951, staff sychiatrist, 
1951-1953; staff psychiatrist, Women's and Children's Hospital, Chicago, 1951— 
1953; Adult and Child Psychoanalytic Training, Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, 
1953-1962; director, Children's Psychosomatic Unit, Neuropsychiatric Institute, 
Chicago, 1953-1959; assistant professor, psychiatry, University of Illinois College 
of Medicine, 1953-1959; psychiatrist and chief, Child Psychiatry Clinic, Michael 
Reese Hospital, Chicago, 1960-1968; chair, Department of Psychiatry, Meharry 
Medical College, Nashville, 1968-1973; visiting scientist, National Institute 
for Mental Health, 1973-1974; Deputy Medical Director, American Psychiatric 
Association, 1974-1991 

Concurrent Positions: clinical professor, George Washington University College 
of Medicine, and Howard University, College of Medicine; private practice in 
psychiatry, 1951-1968 

Jeanne Spurlock was a noted psychiatrist who held many high-level appointments 
in hospitals and clinics as a specialist in child psychiatry. However, she changed 
the emphasis of her career in 1974, when she was appointed deputy medical direc- 
tor of the American Psychiatric Association. In that capacity, her work was pri- 
marily administrative, although she maintained a small private practice and was 
also a clinical professor at two local medical schools. She served as a lobbyist to 
policymakers to ensure funding for medical education and postgraduate education, 
particularly for minorities. She was involved in the recruitment and training efforts 
of minorities for research and was in charge of a fellowship program for minority 
psychiatric residents sponsored by the association. 

Spurlock was co-editor of Black Families in Crisis: The Middle Class (1988), in 
which she wrote about stresses in parenting and male-female relationships. She 
was also co-editor of and wrote a chapter on single mothers for Women 's Progress: 
Promises and Problems (1990), which focused on various aspects of mothering, 
including the changing face of adoption in the United States, the problems of 
working mothers, the special problems of mothers of disabled children, and homo- 
sexuality and parenting. She was co-author (with Ian A. Canino) of Culturally 
Diverse Children and Adolescents (1994), which addresses the mental-health 
needs of African American, Latino, Asian American, and Native American chil- 
dren and adolescents. In this book, the authors explained how the assessment, 
diagnostic, and treatment phases of clinical work may need to be modified for 
cultural relevancy. She was also editor and contributor for a volume on Black 
Psychiatrists and American Psychiatry, published by the American Psychiatric 
Association in 1999. 



Stadtman, Thressa Campbell | 885 

Spurlock was a member of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent 
Psychiatry, which has named two fellowships in her honor: the Jeanne Spurlock 
Research Fellowship in Drug Abuse and Addiction for Minority Medical Students 
(in conjunction with the National Institute on Drug Abuse), and the Jeanne 
Spurlock Minority Medical Student Clinical Fellowship in Child and Adolescent 
Psychiatry. The American Medical Women's Association recognized her post- 
humously with their Elizabeth Blackwell Award in 2000. 

Further Resources 

National Institutes of Health. "Dr. Jeanne Spurlock." Changing the Face of Medicine: Cel- 
ebrating America's Women Physicians. National Library of Medicine, National Insti- 
tutes of Health, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/ 
biography 306.html. 



Stadtman, Thressa Campbell 

b. 1920 
Biochemist 

Education: B.S., microbiology, Cornell University, 1940, M.S., microbiology and 
chemistry, 1942; Ph.D., microbial biochemistry, University of California, Berkeley, 1949 

Professional Experience: bacteriologist, Sealright Co., New York, 1941; graduate 
fellow, bacteriology, Agricultural Experiment Station, Cornell University, 
1941-1942, research assistant, 1942-1943; research associate, food technology, 
University of California, Berkeley, 1943-1946; research assistant, biochemistry, 
Harvard Medical School, 1949-1950; biochemist, Laboratory of Cellular Physiology 
and Metabolism, Enzyme Section, National Heart Institute (now National Heart, 
Lung, and Blood Institute), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, 
1950-1974, chief, Section on Intermediary Metabolism and Bioenergetics, 
Laboratory of Biochemistry, 1974-1988, senior executive service, chief, 1988— 

Concurrent Positions: fellow, Oxford University, England, 1954-1955; Rockef- 
eller Foundation fellow, University of Munich, Germany, 1959-1960; institute of 
biological and physical chemistry, France, 1961 

Thressa Stadtman has been recognized for her work in microbiology at the NIH 
since 1950. Her research has included amino acid intermediary metabolism, one- 
carbon metabolism, methane formation, microbial biochemistry, and selenium 
biochemistry, and her research on vitamin B l2 led to the discovery of new 
enzymes. A high school principal helped her get a New York State Regents 



886 | Stanley, Louise 

scholarship to attend Cornell, where she studied bacteriology, receiving her under- 
graduate and master's degrees in bacteriology. She remained at Cornell as a 
research assistant at the agricultural experiment station, then moved to the Univer- 
sity of California, Berkeley to pursue her doctorate. It was at Berkeley that she met 
and married colleague Earl Stadtman, as both of them were working in the food- 
technology department researching food spoilage, a major problem for the mili- 
tary in shipping food rations overseas during World War II. 

After receiving their Ph.D.s in biochemistry in 1949, the couple moved to 
Massachusetts, where Thressa was hired as a researcher at Harvard Medical 
School and Earl worked at Massachusetts General Hospital. Unable to find joint 
academic appointments, in 1950, the couple accepted positions as biochemists at 
the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. 
Unlike most universities at that time, the NIH did not have strict anti-nepotism 
rules and so, in the 1940s and 1950s as more women scientists earned doctorates, 
and as government research programs expanded in the postwar era, many scientist 
couples were hired and made names for themselves as researchers at the NIH. Earl 
Stadtman died in 2008, and Thressa remains affiliated with the NIH. 

Thressa Stadtman was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 198 1 and has 
been an invited researcher and fellow at universities in England, Germany, and France. 
Among the other honors she has received are the Hillebrand Award (1979) and Rose 
Award (1987), both of the Chemical Society of Washington, the Klaus Schwarz Medal 
of the International Union of Biorganic Chemists (1988), the L'Oreal/Helena 
Rubenstein "Tribute to a Life Achievement" Award (France, 2000), the Gabriel 
Bertrand Prize Medal (Italy, 2001), and the Oxygen Club of Greater Washington's 
Lifetime Achievement Award (2007). She served as secretary (1978-1981) of the 
American Society of Biochemistry and president (1998-2001) of the International 
Society of Vitamins and Related Biofactors, and has been a member of the American 
Chemical Society, American Society of Microbiology, British Biochemistry Society, 
Northern Germany Academy of Sciences, and Executive Women in Government. 

Further Resources 

Park, Buhm Soon. "The Stadtman Way: A Tale of Two Biochemists at NIH." National 
Institutes of Health, http://history.nih.gov/exhibits/stadtman/. 

Stanley, Louise 

1883 1954 

Chemist and Home Economist 

Education: A.B., Peabody College, 1903; B.Ed., University of Chicago, 1906; 
A.M., Columbia University, 1907; Ph.D., biochemistry, Yale University, 1911 



Stearns, Genevieve | 887 

Professional Experience: instructor, home economics, University of Missouri, 
1907-1911, professor and department chair, 1911-1923; chief, Bureau of Home 
Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 1923-1950; consultant for 
home economics, Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations, 1950-1953 

Louise Stanley was the first woman to direct a bureau in the USDA and was 
responsible for some of the earliest studies on food nutrition. After receiving her 
master's degree from Columbia University in 1907, she obtained an appointment 
as an instructor in the department of home economics at the University of 
Missouri. Her career coincided with the emergence of home economics as a pro- 
fession and academic discipline, offering more employment opportunities for 
women scientists. She earned a doctorate from Yale University and advanced 
quickly through the ranks at Missouri, to full professor and chair of the home 
economics department, but left academia for government employment. In 1923, 
Stanley became the highest-ranking woman scientist in the federal government 
when she was appointed the first chief of the Bureau of Home Economics, USDA. 
She retired from the USDA in 1950, but spent three more years as a consultant for 
the Office of Foreign Agricultural Relations. 

At the USDA, Stanley helped development four basic diet plans for families at 
different economic levels, and she authored a book, Foods, Their Selection and 
Preparation (1935). She directed the first national survey of rural housing and 
the first survey of consumer purchasing. Under her direction, the bureau also 
conducted time and motion studies of housekeeping methods and worked toward 
standardizing clothing sizes. She was the official representative of the USDA to the 
American Standards Association, and was the first woman to hold such an appoint- 
ment. She later focused on nutritional needs and public education about nutrition 
in Latin America, and became involved with the UN Conference for Food and 
Agriculture. 

Stanley received an honorary degree from the University of Missouri (1940), 
which later dedicated the home economics building in her name. She was a 
member of the American Chemical Society and the American Home Economics 
Association, which has named a scholarship fund for her. 



Stearns, Genevieve 

1892 1997 
Biochemist 

Education: B.S., Carleton College, 1912; M.S., University of Illinois, 1920; Ph.D., 
biochemistry, University of Michigan, 1928 



888 | Steitz, Joan (Argetsinger) 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, 1912-1918; assistant, chemistry, 
University of Illinois, 1918-1920; research associate, child welfare research 
station, University of Iowa, 1920-1925; assistant, biochemistry, University of 
Michigan, 1926-1927; research associate, pediatrics, University of Iowa College 
of Medicine, 1927-1930, assistant to associate professor, 1930-1943, research 
professor, pediatrics, 1943-1954, research professor, orthopedics, 1954-1958 

Genevieve Stearns was recognized for her research on the nutritional needs of 
infants, children, and pregnant and nursing women. Her main areas of research 
included vitamin and mineral requirements, metabolism, and human growth. In 
addition to her scientific publications on nutritional requirements, she was a con- 
tributing author to the book Infant Metabolism (1956). Stearns's career followed 
the pattern of many women of her generation. After receiving her undergraduate 
degree from Carleton College in 1912, she was a high school teacher until 1918. 
She returned to school to receive her master's degree from the University of Illi- 
nois in 1920, working at the child welfare research station at the University of 
Iowa until 1925. She returned to school to receive her doctorate from the Univer- 
sity of Michigan in 1928 while continuing to work in pediatrics at Iowa. She spent 
the remainder of her career at Iowa, where she rose through the ranks as a research 
professor in pediatrics and orthopedics at the University Hospitals, overseeing all 
pediatric blood and chemical work. In 1950, Stearns was selected by the UN 
World Health Organization to attend a series of seminars on metabolism in 
Europe. She traveled abroad again after her retirement, as the recipient of a presti- 
gious Fulbright fellowship to work at the Women's College of Ein Shams Univer- 
sity in Cairo, Egypt (1960-1961). 

Stearns was elected a fellow of the American Institute of Nutrition. She was a co- 
recipient of an Alumni Achievement Award from Carleton College, the Borden 
Award of the American Home Economics Association (1942) and the Borden Award 
of the American Institute of Nutrition (1946). She was a member of the American 
Society of Biological Chemists, American Chemical Society, and American Institute 
of Nutrition. 



Steitz, Joan (Argetsinger) 



b. 1941 

Biochemist, Molecular Biologist 

Education: B.S., chemistry, Antioch College, 1963; Ph.D., biochemistry and 
molecular biology, Harvard University, 1967 



Steitz, Joan (Argetsinger) | 889 




Professional Experience: postdoc- 
toral fellow, molecular biology, 
Cambridge University, 1967-1970; 
assistant professor, molecular bio- 
physics and biochemistry, Yale 
University School of Medicine, 1970- 
1974, associate professor, 1974-1978, 
professor, 1978-1992, Henry Ford II 
Professor of Molecular Biophysics 
and Biochemistry, 1992-1998, Sterling 
Professor of Molecular Biophysics and 
Biochemistry, Yale University 1998— 

Concurrent Positions: Josiah Macy 

Scholar, Max Planck Institut fiir Bio- 

physikalische Chemie, Gottingen, 

Germany, and Medical Research 

Council Laboratory of Molecular 

Biology, Cambridge, England 1976- 

1977; Fairchild Distinguished Fellow, 

California Institute of Technology, 

1984-1985; investigator, Howard 

Hughes Medical Institute, 1986-; scientific director, Jane C. Childs Fund for 

Medical Research, 1991-2002 

Joan Steitz is one of the most prominent scientists in the field of molecular genetics, 
and her research may help in the diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune diseases 
such as lupus. She discovered small nuclear ribonucleoproteins, or snRNPs, pro- 
nounced "snurps." She is working in a field that was only discovered in her lifetime. 
While in graduate school at Harvard, her thesis advisor was James D. Watson, who 
with Francis Crick had demonstrated the double-helix structure of DNA in the 
1950s, for which he won the Nobel Prize. She pursued postdoctoral studies at 
Cambridge University, where she worked with Crick on how bacterial ribosomes rec- 
ognize where to start protein synthesis on messenger RNA (mRNA). The best known 
of the snRNPs are involved in the processing of mRNA in the cell nucleus of mam- 
mals. By a process called splicing, the double-stranded DNA is first transcribed into 
single- stranded RNA; then the sections are eventually rejoined in the same order in 
which they occurred on the DNA molecule. The team discovered that some patients 
with rheumatic diseases made antibodies against their own snRNPs, which resulted 
in the development of the splicing process. When physicians determine which anti- 
bodies patients have, they have additional clues to diagnosing certain diseases. 



Biochemist and molecular biologist Joan Steitz 
has contributed to research on autoimmune 
diseases such as lupus. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



890 | Stern, Frances 

Lacking any female professors or researchers as role models, Steitz originally 
planned to attend medical school, but a summer job in the laboratory at the Univer- 
sity of Minnesota piqued her interest in research and paved the way for her 
entrance into Harvard's graduate program in biochemistry and molecular biology 
instead. Among her honors, she considers the Weizmann Woman and Science 
Award (1994) from the New York Academy of Sciences among the most gratify- 
ing because it promotes women scientists, and she strongly believes that the pres- 
ence of women scientists can be an inspiration to female students. Both she and 
her husband, Thomas Steitz, are Investigators at the Howard Hughes Medical 
Institute and hold appointments as Professors of Molecular Biophysics and 
Biochemistry at Yale University School of Medicine. 

Steitz was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1983, 
and in 1986, she was awarded the National Medal of Science. She has received six 
honorary degrees and numerous other awards, including the Eli Lilly award in 
biological chemistry (1976), U.S. Steel Foundation award in molecular biology 
(1982), the triennial Warren Prize of Massachusetts General Hospital (1989), the 
Discovery Award from the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation for bio- 
medical research (1992), the Weizmann Women in Science Award (1994), and the 
Gairdner Foundation Prize (2006). She is a fellow of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Society of Biological 
Chemists, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical 
Society, and New York Academy of Sciences. In 2005, she was elected to the Insti- 
tute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Further Resources 

Wasserman, Elga. 2002. The Door in the Dream: Conversations with Eminent Women in 
Science. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 

Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "Joan A. Steitz, Ph.D." http://www.hhmi.org/research/ 
investigators/steitzja bio. html. 

Yale University. Faculty website, http://www.mbb.yale.edu/faculty/pages/steitzj.html. 



Stern, Frances 

1873 1947 

Social Worker and Dietitian 

Education: Garland Kindergarten Training School, Boston, 1897; student, Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology, 1909-1912; student, London School of Economics 



Stern, Frances | 891 

Professional Experience: secretary and research assistant for Ellen Richards, 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); industrial health inspector, Massa- 
chusetts State Board of Labor and Industries, 1912-1915; Division of Home Con- 
servation, U.S. Food Administration; investigator, U.S. Department of 
Agriculture (USDA); American Red Cross, France, 1918-1922; founder, Boston 
Dispensary Food Clinic, 1918 

Concurrent Positions: teacher, Simmons College School of Social Work, Tufts 
College Medical School, MIT, and State Teachers College, Framingham 

Frances Stern was recognized as an early teacher of nutrition and dietetics. She 
had an interest in social reform and became interested in child nutrition due to 
her early work as a kindergarten teacher. She obtained a position as research assis- 
tant and special student of chemist Ellen Richards, founder of the American Home 
Economics Association, in New York. Stern attended home economics conferen- 
ces with Richards, which stimulated her desire for further scientific knowledge 
about the relation of food to sociological problems. She enrolled in courses in food 
chemistry and sanitation at MIT. She developed a visiting housekeeping program 
for the Boston Association for the Relief and Control of Tuberculosis and later a 
similar program for the Boston Provident Association. In 1912, she obtained a 
position as an industrial health inspector for the State Board of Labor and Indus- 
tries. During World War I, she worked as a member of the Division of Home Con- 
servation of the U.S. Food Administration and, in the USDA, as an investigator of 
the adequacy of food for the industrial worker. 

After consulting with the USDA and with the Red Cross in France during World 
War I, Stern studied economics and politics as a special student at the London 
School of Economics. She returned to Boston to establish the Boston Dispensary 
Food Clinic, which was based on her USDA research on the dietary needs and hab- 
its of the urban poor. At the clinic, she worked with immigrants on adapting their 
native foods to affordable products that were available in this country. She 
addressed the needs of her particular clients, including having her dietary charts 
and nutrition information printed in several different languages. 

Stern's clinic established an international reputation, and in 1925, she received 
funding to establish a nutrition education program to train American and foreign 
doctors, dentists, social workers, and nurses in dietetics. She taught nutrition and 
social work at various schools, such as Simmons College, Tufts College Medical 
School, MIT, and the State Teachers College at Framingham. Stern was awarded 
an honorary degree from Tufts Medical School, and the Boston Food Clinic was 
eventually renamed the Frances Stern Nutrition Center at Tufts University. 

Stern co-authored the book Food for the Worker (1917) to show the need for uni- 
fying science, social work, income, and nutrition. Her other co-authored books were 



892 | Stickel, Lucille Farrier 

Food and Your Body (1932), How to Teach Nutrition to Children (1942), and Dia- 
betic Care in Pictures (1946), and she was the sole author of Applied Dietetics 
(1936), which incorporated new information about the role of vitamins in nutrition. 
Stern was a member of the American Public Health Association, the American 
Home Economics Association, and the American Dietetic Association. 

Further Resources 

Tufts University. "Frances Stern Nutrition Center." http://nutrition.tufts.edu/ 
1 1 77953 850925/Nutrition-Page-nl2w 1 177953851896.html. 

Jewish Women's Encyclopedia. "Frances Stern: 1873 1947." http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/ 
article/stern-frances. 



Stickel, Lucille Farrier 

1915 2007 
Zoologist 

Education: B.A., Eastern Michigan University, 1936; M.S., University of Michi- 
gan, 1938, Ph.D., zoology, 1949 

Professional Experience: biologist, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, U.S. Fish 
and Wildlife Service, 1943-1947, 1961-1972, director, 1972-1982 

Lucille Stickel developed original methods for determining pesticide residue levels 
in wildlife. Her research included vertebrate population ecology and the ecology 
and pharmacotoxicology of environmental pollution. In her work in the pioneering 
field of pesticide research, she studied the significance and levels of chemical resi- 
dues in animal brain tissue and developed a method still used to determine accept- 
able levels today. In 1946, she published one of the earliest reports on the pesticide 
DDT. Wildlife toxicology research has important implications for human health as 
well, since humans can consume either the polluted water or the contaminated fish 
and wildlife. She earned a master's degree from the University of Michigan and 
joined the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center at Laurel, Maryland, as a biologist, 
in 1943. She returned to Michigan to complete her Ph.D., but then took several years 
off from her career before returning to Patuxent as a biologist in 1961. She was pro- 
moted to director in 1972, a position she held until her retirement in 1982. Her hus- 
band, William F. Stickel, was also a researcher at Patuxent, and the two collaborated 
on studies of the environmental effects of pesticides on birds and eggshell thinning, 
and on other research related to small mammal populations. In 1989, a chemistry 
and physiology lab at the Wildlife Research Center was renamed in their honor. 



Stiebeling, Hazel Katherine | 893 

Stickel received the Federal Woman's Award of the Department of the Interior 
(1968), a Distinguished Service Award of the Department of the Interior (1973), 
the Aldo Leopold Award of the Wildlife Society (1974), and the Rachel Carson 
Award of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (1998). In 
1974, she received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Eastern Michigan 
University. 

Further Resources 

Howell, Judd A. "Lucille Farrier Stickel 1915 2007." http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/what- 
snew/events/stickel/. 



Stiebeling, Hazel Katherine 

1896 1989 

Food Chemist and Nutritionist 

Education: Skidmore College; B.S., Columbia University, 1919, M.A., nutrition, 
1924, Ph.D., chemistry, 1928 

Professional Experience: school supervisor, home economics, 1915-1918; super- 
vising teacher, home economics, Kansas State Teachers College, 1919-1923; 
instructor, nutrition, Columbia University, 1924-1926; senior food economist, 
Bureau of Home Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 1930-1944, 
assistant chief, 1943-1944, chief, 1944-1954, director of research, human nutrition 
and home economics, 1954-1957, director, institute of home economics, 1957- 
1960, deputy administrator, Agricultural Research Service, 1960-1963 

Hazel Stiebeling was a nutritionist noted for her work in developing government 
dietary guidelines, including the concept of daily allowances of vitamins and miner- 
als, or Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA). During her long career at the 
USDA, her research involved the composition and nutritive values of food, energy 
metabolism, and food consumption habits of different population and income groups. 
Joining the USDA's Bureau of Home Economics shortly after it was established, she 
was promoted to assistant bureau chief in 1943 and chief in 1944. Although there 
were changes in the name of the bureau, she continued as head until 1960, when 
she was appointed deputy administrator of the Agricultural Research Service, retiring 
in 1963. Prior to joining the USDA, she had been a school supervisor in home eco- 
nomics, a supervising teacher for home economics at Kansas State, and an instructor 
in nutrition at Columbia University, where she had received all of her academic 
degrees, including a Ph.D. in chemistry in 1928. Stiebeling was part of a generation 
of women who brought scientific rigor to home economics and nutrition studies. 



894 | Stokey, Nancy 

Stiebeling became interested in domestic science and food chemistry while in 
high school and then in her courses at Skidmore College. She taught school for 
three years before enrolling at Columbia University Teachers College. She went 
on for a master's degree and taught food and nutrition courses while completing 
her doctorate in chemistry. Her early research was on the effect and content of 
vitamins in the human body, and some of her studies were published in the Journal 
of Biological Chemistry. She was particularly concerned with the ability of low- 
income families to prepare nutritious food. While working at the USDA, she pub- 
lished the first research on quantitative dietary recommendations for vitamins and 
minerals, standards that were eventually applied nationally and internationally. 

Stiebeling received the Borden Award in 1943, the Distinguished Service 
Award from the USDA in 1952, and the President's Gold Medal Award for civilian 
service in 1959. She was a member of the American Statistical Association and the 
American Home Economics Association, and a fellow of the American Institute of 
Nutrition. She received several honorary degrees. 

Further Resources 

Levine, Susan. 2008. School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America's Favorite 
Welfare Program. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 

Harper, Alfred E. 2003. "Contributions of Women Scientists in the U.S. to the Develop- 
ment of Recommended Dietary Allowances." The Journal of Nutrition. 133: 3698 
3702. (November 2003). http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/133/ll/3698. 

Stokey, Nancy 

b. 1950 
Economist 

Education: B.A., economics, University of Pennsylvania, 1972; Ph.D., economics, 
Harvard University, 1978 

Professional Experience: assistant to associate professor, Department of Mana- 
gerial Economics and Decision Sciences, Kellogg Graduate School of Manage- 
ment, Northwestern University, 1978-1983, professor, 1983-1987, Harold L. 
Stuart Professor of Managerial Economics, 1988-1990; professor, economics, 
University of Chicago, 1990-1996, Frederick Henry Prince Professor of Econom- 
ics, 1997-2004, Distinguished Service Professor, 2004- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting lecturer, economics, Harvard University, 1982; visit- 
ing professor, economics, University of Minnesota, 1983; visiting professor, econom- 
ics, University of Chicago, 1983-1984; visiting scholar, Research Department, 
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, 2000-2002 



Stokey, Nancy | 895 



Nancy Stokey is an economist who 
specializes in economic theory and 
economic development. She is par- 
ticularly interested in the effect of 
education and job training on national 
economic growth. In addition to her 
numerous articles on global aid, 
social mobility, free trade, industriali- 
zation, development, and taxation, 
she has authored or co-authored text- 
books, including Recursive Methods 
in Economic Dynamics (1989) and 
The Economics of Inaction (2008). 
After attending the University of 
Pennsylvania, she went on to receive 
her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard 
in 1978. She taught at Northwestern 
University for 12 years before mov- 
ing to the University of Chicago in 
1990, where she is a Distinguished 
Service Professor of Economics. In 
2004, she was named one of eight 
economists (and the only woman) on 

the Expert Panel of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, an international think tank 
that brings together researchers, policymakers, philanthropists, and nongovern- 
mental organizations (NGOs) to address global challenges, such as global warm- 
ing, terrorism, clean water, and development. 

Stokey was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2004. 
She is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the 
Econometric Society, and served as vice president of the American Economic 
Association (1996-1997). She received an honorary doctorate from Northwestern 
University (2005), and her research has been supported by numerous grants from 
the National Science Foundation. She has been on the editorial board of the Jour- 
nal of Political Economy, Journal of Economic Growth, Games and Economic 
Behavior, and Journal of Economic Theory. 




Economist Nancy Stokey. (Courtesy of the 
University of Chicago) 



Further Resources 

Copenhagen Consensus Center, http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com. 
University of Chicago. Faculty website, http://home.uchicago.edu/~nstokey/. 



896 | Stoll, Alice Mary 
Stoll, Alice Mary 



b. 1917 
Biophysicist 

Education: B.A., Hunter College, 1938; M.S., physiology and biophysics, Cornell 
University, 1948 

Professional Experience: assistant, allergy, metabolism, and infrared spectropho- 
tography, New York Hospital and Medical College, Cornell University, 1938-1943, 
temperature regulation, 1946-1948, physiological research associate, environmen- 
tal thermal radiation, 1948-1953; physiologist, medical research laboratory, U.S. 
Naval Air Development Center (NADC), Pennsylvania, 1953-1956, special tech- 
nical assistant, 1956-1960, head, thermal laboratory, 1960-1964, head, biophysical 
and bioastronautical division, 1964-1970, head, biophysical laboratory, crew 
systems department, 1970-1980 

Concurrent Positions: U.S. Naval Reserves, 1943-1946; consultant, Arctic Aero- 
space Medicine Laboratory, Ladd Air Force Base, Alaska, 1952-1953 

Alice Stoll was a pioneer in bioengineering with the U.S. Navy, and in particular was 
responsible for the development of fire-resistant and fire-retardant fibers and fabrics. 
Her research on the effects of heat and thermal radiation, and the biophysics of and 
engineering guidelines for thermal safety, led to the development of "Nomex" 
(manufactured by the Du Pont company), a fabric used in the uniforms worn by fire- 
fighters. She also studied the effects of rapid acceleration on the human heart. During 
the post-World War II era, the armed services were developing supersonic planes that 
made many physiological demands on crews as well as planes. Her work for the 
NADC involved assuring that crews can withstand the extremely cold temperature 
at high altitudes, the physiological stress of breaking the sound barrier at supersonic 
speeds, and the constant danger of fire in a closed environment. She personally devel- 
oped and received patents on the specific instrumentation needed for her research. 

Stoll received dual master's degrees in physiology and biophysics from Cornell 
University in 1948 and subsequently worked as a physiological research associate 
in environmental thermal radiation at the medical school. She was simultaneously 
in the Naval Reserves and worked as a consultant for other government laborato- 
ries, including the Arctic Aerospace Medicine Laboratory in Alaska. She accepted 
an appointment at the NADC as a physiologist in the medical research laboratory in 
1953. She then rose through the ranks as head of the thermal laboratory in 1960, 
and then head of the biophysical and bioastronautical division in 1964, and head 
of the biophysical laboratory in the crew systems department in 1970, formally 
retiring in 1980. 



Stroud-Lee, F. Agnes Naranjo | 897 

Stoll received the Federal Civil Service Award (1965), an Achievement Award of 
the Society ofWomen Engineers (1969), and the Paul Bert Award of the Aerospace 
Medical Association (1972). She was elected a fellow of the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science and of the Aerospace Medical Association, 
and was a charter member of the Biophysical Society. She was also a member of 
the American Physiological Society and the American Society of Mechanical 
Engineers. 



Stroud-Lee, F. Agnes Naranjo 

b. 1922 

Radiation Biologist 

Education: B.S., University of New Mexico, 1945; Ph.D., University of Chicago, 
1966 

Professional Experience: research technician, hematology, Los Alamos Scien- 
tific Laboratory, 1945-1946; associate cytologist, Argonne National Laboratory, 
1946-1969; director, Department of Tissue Culture, Pasadena Foundation for 
Medical Research, 1969-1970; senior research cytogeneticist, Scientific Data 
Analysis Section, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 1970-1975; staff cytogeneticist, 
health research division, Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, 1975-1979; indepen- 
dent consultant, radiobiology and cytogenetics 

Agnes Stroud-Lee has been recognized for her research in radiobiology and 
chromosomal abnormalities. Her work has increased scientific understanding of 
certain birth defects. Her research has included automation of chromosome analy- 
sis by computers, effects of radiation on animal tumors, effects of ionizing radia- 
tion in vitro and in vivo, and mammalian radiation biology. During her career, 
she worked at several of the major research centers in radiobiology, such as Los 
Alamos and Argonne National laboratories. Stroud-Lee is a member of the Tewa 
tribe of the Santa Clara Indian Pueblos and was the first Native American woman 
to hold a research scientist position at a national laboratory. 

After receiving her undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico in 
1945, she was employed at Los Alamos for one year before receiving an appoint- 
ment as associate cytologist at Argonne, where she worked until 1969. During this 
time, she was also working toward her Ph.D. in biology and zoology from the Uni- 
versity of Chicago, which she received in 1966. In 1969, she moved to California 
as director of the tissue culture program at the Pasadena Foundation for Medical 
Research. She then accepted an appointment at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory as 



898 | Stubbe, JoAnne 

a senior research cytogeneticist in 1970. She returned to Los Alamos in 1975 as a 
staff cytogeneticist in the health research division. In 1979, she left to consult in 
radiobiology and cytogenetics. 

Stroud-Lee has received numerous honors and awards, including the Morrison 
Prize in Natural Sciences of the New York Academy of Sciences (1955), the 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Certificate of Recogni- 
tion (1976), and a Diploma of Honor in Cytology at the First Pan-American 
Cancer Cytology Congress. She has been a member of the Radiation Research 
Society, the American Society for Cell Biology, the Biophysical Society, and the 
Tissue Culture Association. She is the subject of a children's book, Scientist from 
the Santa Clara Pueblo, Agnes Naranjo Stroud-Lee, published by the Equity Insti- 
tute (1985). She was twice married and is listed variously in the sources as Stroud, 
Stroud-Schmink, or Stroud-Lee. 



Stubbe, JoAnne 

b. 1946 
Chemist 

Education: B.S., chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, 1968; Ph.D., chemistry, 
University of California, Berkeley, 1971 

Professional Experience: postdoctoral fellow, chemistry, University of California, 
Los Angeles (UCLA), 1971-1972; assistant professor, chemistry, Williams 
College, 1972-1977; assistant professor, pharmacology, Yale University School of 
Medicine, 1977-1980; assistant professor to professor, University of Wisconsin, 
Madison, 1980-1987; professor, chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
(MIT), 1987-1992, professor, chemistry and biology, 1992- 

Concurrent Positions: National Institutes of Health (NIH) postdoctoral fellow, 
Brandeis University, 1975-1977 

JoAnne Stubbe has made notable contributions to understanding how enzymes cata- 
lyze, or cause, chemical reactions. Her research has potential applications for antitu- 
mor, antivirus, and antiparasite activity, because inhibiting these enzymes interferes 
with the biosynthesis of DNA and cell growth. She held a prestigious postdoctoral 
appointment at UCLA, and was later an NIH fellow at Brandeis University. After 
having appointments at the Yale University School of Medicine and the University 
of Wisconsin, Madison, she moved to MIT as professor of chemistry and was 
appointed a distinguished professor of both chemistry and biology in 1992. 



Stubbe, JoAnne | 899 




Chemist JoAnne Stubbe is presented with the National Medal of Science by President 
Barack Obama, 2009. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Stubbe was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1992, and received the National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical 
Sciences (2008) and a National Medal of Science (2009). She received a career devel- 
opment award from the NIH and the Pfizer Award in enzyme chemistry from the 
American Chemical Society (1986), given each year to a young scientist (under 40) 
for outstanding work in the field. She has also received the ICI-Stuart Pharma- 
ceutical Award for excellence in chemistry (1989), a teaching award from MIT 
(1990), the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (1993), and the F. A. Cotton Medal 



900 | Sudarkasa, Niara 

for Excellence in Chemical Research (1998). She is a member of the American 
Chemical Society, American Society of Biological Chemists, Protein Society, 
and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Further Resources 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Faculty website, http://web.mit.edu/chemistry/ 
www/faculty /stubbe. html. 



Sudarkasa, Niara 

b. 1938 
Anthropologist 

Education: student, Fisk University, 1953-1956; B.A., anthropology and English, 
Oberlin College, 1957; M.A., anthropology, Columbia University, 1959, Ph.D., 
anthropology, 1964 

Professional Experience: assistant professor, anthropology, New York Univer- 
sity, 1964-1967; assistant professor, anthropology, and research associate, Center 
for Research in Economic Development, University of Michigan, 1967-1970, 
associate professor, 1970-1976, professor, 1976-1986, director, Center for Afro- 
American and African Studies, 1981-1984, associate vice president, Academic 
Affairs, 1984-1986; president, Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, 1987-1998 

Concurrent Positions: visiting scholar, Florida Atlantic University; Distin- 
guished Scholar-in-Residence, African-American Research Library and Cultural 
Center, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 

Niara Sudarkasa is renowned as an authority in the fields of African women, espe- 
cially Yoruba women traders, West African migration, and the African American 
and African family. She has also researched higher-education policies for black 
Americans and other minorities, and she is an advocate for minority access to 
education at the university level. Born Gloria Marshall, Sudarkasa was her first 
husband's name, and she adopted the African name Niara (an adaptation of a 
Swahili word for "a woman of high purpose") as a result of her studies of the 
African continent in the 1970s. She studied Yoruba culture and language for her 
doctoral work, and in 2001, she was honored with the title of "Chief in the Ife king- 
dom of the Yoruba of Nigeria, the first African American to hold the title. Sudarkasa 
has applied her study of West African culture to the African American family struc- 
ture, with an emphasis on the role of black women within the family and society. 
Her published works include Where Women Work: A Study of Yoruba Women in 



Sullivan, Kathryn D. | 901 

the Marketplace and in the Home (1973), Exploring the African-American Experi- 
ence (1995), and The Strength of Our Mothers: African and African-American 
Women and Families (1996). 

At the age of only 14, she won a Ford Foundation Early Entrant Scholarship to 
Fisk University. In her junior year, she went to Oberlin College as an exchange stu- 
dent and decided to stay there to receive her undergraduate degree. After complet- 
ing her undergraduate degree at age 18, she went to Columbia University for 
graduate study, receiving another Ford Foundation Foreign fellowship to study in 
Nigeria and at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. 
She also spent two years at the University of Chicago as a fellow with a Carnegie 
Foundation project on a comparative study of new nations. She began her aca- 
demic career at New York University and then spent 20 years at the University 
of Michigan. She directed the Center for Afro- American and African Studies and 
was a research scientist at the Center for Research in Economic Development. 
She became politically active while she was at Michigan, advocating on behalf 
of the students for a black studies program and for increasing the number of black 
and minority students in the university. She then spent a decade serving as the first 
female president of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, one of the oldest black 
colleges in the United States. In 2000, she returned to her native Ft. Lauderdale 
as Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Florida Atlantic University, where she 
helped establish an African- American Research Library and Cultural Center. 

Sudarkasa is a member of the American Ethnological Society, American 
Anthropological Association, African Studies Association, American Association 
for Higher Education, and Council on Foreign Relations. She has been awarded 
more than a dozen honorary degrees from institutions such as Fisk University, 
Oberlin College, Sojourner-Douglass College, Franklin and Marshall College, 
Susquehanna University, the University of Nigeria, and Fort Haiti University in 
South Africa. 



Sullivan, Kathryn D. 

b. 1951 

Geologist, Astronaut 

Education: B.S., earth sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1973; Ph.D., 
geology, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, 1978 

Professional Experience: staff member, National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA), 1978, astronaut, 1979-1993; chief scientist, National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 1992-1996; president and chief 



902 | Sullivan, Kathryn D. 




Astronaut Kathryn Sullivan aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, 1984. (NASA) 



executive officer, Center for Science and Industry (COSI), Columbus, Ohio, 1996— 
2005; director, Battelle Center for Mathematics and Science Education Policy, Ohio 
State University, 2005- 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct professor, Rice University, 1984-1992; captain, 
U.S. Naval Reserve; volunteer science advisor, COSI, 2005- 

Kathryn D. Sullivan was one of the first women trained in the astronaut program in 
1978, and she was the first American woman to perform a space walk. The first six 
women were selected for a training program in scientific, engineering, and medi- 
cal duties, but none was to be trained in piloting the space shuttle. However, most 
of the women in the program took flying lessons anyway so they would be pre- 
pared to land the shuttle in an emergency. Sullivan passed her training tests and 
became an astronaut in 1979. Her shuttle assignments included software develop- 
ment, lead chase photography of launches and landings, and orbiter and cargo test- 
ing. She was a member of the spacesuit monitoring and extravehicular activity 
(EVA) crew, and served as capsule communicator in Mission Control for numer- 
ous shuttle missions. Her first space mission was as a mission specialist on STS 
41-G in 1984; Sally Ride was also a member of the crew. Sullivan was the first 
woman to perform an EVA, with orbiter commander David Leetsma, and the two 



Sullivan, Kathryn D. | 903 

demonstrated the feasibility of in-flight satellite refueling. On her second mission, 
STS-31 in 1990, she was a mission specialist when the crew deployed the Hubble 
Space Telescope (the telescope proved to have a defective mirror, and several 
years later, another shuttle crew installed a new mirror). On her third mission, 
STS-45 in 1992, she was a mission specialist and payload commander. Overall, 
she logged over 500 hours in space in her career as an astronaut. 

Prior to completing a doctorate in geology, Sullivan had participated in several 
oceanographic expeditions under the auspices of the U.S. Geological Survey and 
the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She resigned from the astronaut corps 
in 1992 and was selected by President George H. W. Bush to be chief scientist of 
NOAA, replacing oceanographer Sylvia Earle in that position. Always looking for 
new challenges in her career, Sullivan resigned from NOAA in 1995 to become 
director of COSI in Columbus, Ohio. In 2005, she became the director of the new 
Battelle Center for Mathematics and Science Education Policy at the John Glenn 
School of Public Affairs, Ohio State University. She remains affiliated with COSI 
as a science advisor. 

Sullivan has served on various committees and government commissions 
related to marine science and ecosystems. She was appointed by President Ronald 
Reagan to the National Commission on Space in 1985 and participated in prepar- 
ing guidelines for U.S. space exploration. In 2004, she was appointed to the 
National Science Board. She also served on the Pew Oceans Commission, which 
issued a 2003 report entitled "America's Living Oceans: Charting a Course for 
Sea Change," urging reform in ocean wildlife protection policy. 

Sullivan has received a number of awards, including the NASA Exceptional 
Service Medal (1988 and 1991), National Air and Space Museum Trophy 
(1985), NASA Space Flight Medals (1984 and 1990), Haley Space Flight Award 
of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (1991), Space Achieve- 
ment Award of the American Aeronautic Society (1991), NASA Outstanding 
Leadership Medal (1992), Public Service Award of the National Science Board 
(2003), Astronaut Hall of Fame (2004), and Aviation Week & Space Technology'?, 
Aerospace Legend Award (2005). She is a member of the American Institute of 
Aeronautics and Astronautics, Geological Society of America, American Geo- 
physical Union, Society of Women Geographers, Explorers Club, Association of 
Space Explorers, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Further Resources 

Kevles, Bettyann H. 2003. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. New York: 
Basic Books. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Kathryn D. Sullivan (Ph.D.)." http:// 
www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/sullivan-kd.html. 



904 | Sweeney, (Eleanor) Beatrice Marcy 

Sweeney, (Eleanor) Beatrice Marcy 



1914 1989 
Botanist 

Education: A.B., Smith College, 1936; Ph.D., biology, Radcliffe College, 1942 

Professional Experience: laboratory assistant, endocrinology, Mayo Clinic, 1942; 
fellow, University of Minnesota, 1942-1943; junior research biologist, Scripps 
Institution of Oceanography, California, 1947-1955, assistant research biologist, 
1955-1960, associate research biologist, 1960-1961; research staff biologist, Yale 
University, 1961-1962, lecturer, biology, 1962-1967; lecturer, biology, University 
of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), 1967-1969, associate professor, 1969-1971, 
professor, 1971-1981, associate provost, College of Creative Studies, 1978-1981 

Beatrice Sweeney was recognized for her research on circadian rhythms (or biological 
clocks) in plants, and their effect on plant processes such as bioluminescence, 
photosynthesis, and cell division. In addition to hundreds of scientific papers, 
she also published a book, Rhythmic Phenomena in Plants (1969; 2nd ed., 1987). 
She completed her doctoral research in biology at Radcliffe and in 1947 moved to 
the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California. She spent six years as a 
research biologist and lecturer at Yale University before returning to California as a 
professor at UCSB, where she spent the remainder of her career. Even after formally 
retiring in 1981, Sweeney remained active as a researcher, reviewer, and visiting 
lecturer. She was lecturing at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massa- 
chusetts, when she suffered a stroke and passed away in the summer of 1989. 

Sweeney began her scientific studies as an undergraduate botany student at 
Smith College. She was greatly influenced by her female teachers at Smith, but 
dismayed that, unlike male professors, most of the career women at that time (in 
the early 1930s) were not married and did not have families. She resolved to find 
her own way to balance family life with a scientific career and, throughout her 
years as a professor and administrator (including as an advisor for the UCSB 
Women's Studies Program), mentored female students on not giving up on their 
career plans. Sweeney was herself a powerful role model, as she was the mother 
of four children. 

Sweeney's work was recognized by the Botanical Society of America, which 
awarded her the Darbaker Award in 1983. She was president of the Western Sec- 
tion of the American Society for Plant Physiology (1977-1978), the American 
Institute for Biological Sciences (1979-1980), the American Society for Photo- 
biology (1979), the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
(1980), and the Phycological Society of America (1986), and was also a member 



Sweeney, (Eleanor) Beatrice Marcy | 905 

of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American 
Society of Plant Physiologists, the Society of General Physiologists, and the Society 
for the Study of Biological Rhythms. She was awarded honorary doctorates from 
Umea University in Sweden (1985) and from Knox College in Illinois (1986). 
UCSB established the Beatrice M. Sweeney Memorial Fund in her name. 

Further Resources 

University of California. "Eleanor Beatrice March Sweeney, Biological Sciences: Santa 
Barbara." http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docld=hb4p30063r&doc.view=frames 
&chunk.id=div00063&toc.depth=l&toc.id=. 



T 



Talbot, Mignon 



1869 1950 
Geologist 

Education: A.B., Ohio State University, 1892; Ph.D., Yale University, 1904 

Professional Experience: high school teacher, physical geography, Columbus, 
Ohio, 1896-1902; instructor, geology, Mount Holyoke College, 1904-1905, asso- 
ciate professor and chair, 1905-1908, professor and chair, 1908-1935, professor 
and chair, geography, 1928-1935 

Mignon Talbot was among the first women to enter the field of geology and pale- 
ontology, and she made an important discovery of a rare dinosaur skeleton, 
Podokesaurus holyokensis, found near Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. 
She spent her entire career at Mount Holyoke, where she headed the geology 
department and helped build a renowned program there in the early 1900s. Talbot 
grew up in Iowa, studied geology at Ohio State University, and then traveled 
abroad before returning to Ohio to teach physical geography to high school stu- 
dents. She did some graduate work and summer research at Ohio State, Harvard, 
and Cornell Universities before settling at Yale, where she received a Ph.D. in 
1904. She joined the geology faculty at Mount Holyoke that same year and, three 
years later, became head of the department. 

In addition to her teaching and research, she built a world-class fossil and min- 
eral collection and science library at Mount Holyoke. In 1910, while on an expedi- 
tion with her sister, Ellen (a Mount Holyoke philosophy professor), Talbot 
discovered the most complete dinosaur skeleton to date found in the Northeast; 
the rare find of a 45-foot-long, 150-million-year-old dinosaur was subsequently 
reported in the American Journal of Science (June 1911). A cast of the skeleton 
was made and kept at Yale University, but the original fossil was lost in a fire at 
Mount Holyoke's science hall in 1917. Besides the loss of the fossil, Talbot had 
to restock the collections of books as well as specimens, rocks, and minerals from 
scratch. She took her female students on numerous field trips to conduct this work 
over the next several years, building an even more extensive collection than 
before. In 1928, she traveled throughout Europe on a sabbatical, collecting 



907 



908 | Taussig, Helen Brooke 

materials for use in her teaching. Upon her return, she was made chair and profes- 
sor of the joint program in geology and geography. 

In 1909, Mignon Talbot became the first woman elected to the Paleontological 
Society (1909); she was elected vice president of the Society in 1926. She was a 
fellow of the Geological Society of America and a member of the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science. 

Further Resources 

"Lost Dinosaur." 1937. In Frances Lester Warner, On A New England Campus. Boston, 
MA: Houghton Mifflin. 



Taussig, Helen Brooke 



1898 1986 

Cardiologist, Endocrinologist 

Education: Radcliffe College, 1917-1919; A.B., University of California, 1921; 

M.D., lohns Hopkins University, 
1927 

Professional Experience: fellow, 
medicine, lohns Hopkins Hospital, 
1927-1928, intern, pediatrics, 1928- 
1930; physician in charge, cardiac 
clinic, Harriet Lane Home, 1930- 
1963; associate professor, pediatrics, 
Johns Hopkins University, 1946- 
1959, professor, 1959-1963 

Helen Taussig originated the idea for 
the "blue-baby" operation, first tried 
in 1945 as the Blalock-Taussig 
procedure, which involves treating 
babies with congenital malformations 
of the heart within the first few days 
after birth. After she received her 
M.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1927, 
and completed her internship, she 
spent her entire career as physician in 
charge of the cardiac clinic at the 




\ 



In 1945, physician Helen Taussig developed 
a surgical technique for treating "blue baby" 
syndrome in newborn babies with heart 
defects. (Library of Congress) 



Taussky-Todd, Olga | 909 

Harriet Lane Home and as a member of the faculty of Johns Hopkins Medical 
School from 1946 until retiring in 1963. In 1962, she was the first physician to alert 
the United States to the dangers of thalidomide, a medicine routinely given to preg- 
nant women to control nausea that was later found to cause deformities in the limbs 
of numerous newborns. She was also the first to demonstrate that changes in the 
heart and lungs could be diagnosed by X-ray and fluoroscope. Her colleague, 
Dr. Blalock, was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1946, the year 
after the two introduced the Blalock- Taussig procedure; however, Helen Taussig 
was not elected to the National Academy of Sciences until 1973. 

In addition to many scientific papers, Taussig was the author of Congenital 
Malformations of the Heart (1947, rev. 1960). She was elected a master of the 
American College of Physicians and was the first woman president of the American 
Heart Association (1965). She also was a member of the American Pediatric Soci- 
ety and the Society for Pediatric Research. In recognition for her achievements, she 
received 20 honorary degrees plus numerous awards, including the Lasker Award 
(1954), the Gold Heart Award (1963), and the Medal of Freedom (1964). 



Taussky-Todd, Olga 

1906 1995 
Mathematician 

Education: Ph.D., mathematics, University of Vienna, 1930; Bryn Mawr College, 
1934-1935; M.A., Cambridge University, 1937 

Professional Experience: assistant, University of Gottingen, 1931-1932; assistant, 
University of Vienna, 1932-1934; lecturer, University of London, 1937-1943; sci- 
entific officer, Ministry of Aircraft Production, England, 1943-1946; researcher, 
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1946-1947; mathematician, 
National Bureau of Standards, 1947-1957; research associate, California Institute 
of Technology (CalTech), 1957-1971, professor, 1971-1977 

Concurrent Positions: member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Univer- 
sity, 1948; visiting faculty, Courant Institute for Mathematical Sciences, New York 
University, 1955; Fulbright visiting professor, University of Vienna, 1965 

Olga Taussky-Todd was known for her work in algebraic number theory and matrix 
theory, which she helped popularize. Born in Austria-Hungary, she enrolled in the 
University of Vienna, where she first majored in chemistry but quickly dropped that 
study to concentrate on mathematics, graduating in 1930. She received an 



910 | Taylor, Kathleen Christine 

appointment as an assistant at the University of Gottingen, where she edited several 
volumes on number theory. She received a fellowship to study at Bryn Mawr in 
Pennsylvania and then at Girton College in Cambridge, England. She taught briefly 
at the University of London, where she met fellow mathematician John "Jack" 
Todd, and the two were married in 1938. During World War II, she worked for a 
government agency in England and then moved to the United States again, where 
they both worked at the National Bureau of Standards. In 1957, the couple was 
recruited to CalTech, where he was a professor and she was a research associate; 
she was promoted to professor in 1971, the first female full professor at CalTech. 
During her tenure there, she mentored many graduate students in matrix theory 
before retiring in 1977. The couple collaborated for more than 50 years, and she 
authored or co-authored more than 300 papers. She was founding editor of the jour- 
nal, Linear Algebra and Its Applications, and served as editor of Linear and Multi- 
linear Algebra, Journal of Number Theory, and Advances in Mathematics. 

Taussky-Todd was named a "Woman of the Year" in 1964 by the Los Angeles 
Times. She received the Ford Prize of the Mathematical Association of America 
(1970) and the Gold Cross of Honor for Science and Art from the Austrian 
government (1978). She was elected a fellow of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science and was a member of the American Mathematical Society. 
She was also elected to the Austrian Academy of Sciences (1975) and the Bavarian 
Academy of Sciences (1985). She received an honorary Golden Doctorate from the 
University of Vienna (1980) and an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the 
University of Southern California (1988). In 1990, CalTech established the Olga 
Taussky-John Todd Lecture Program. 

Further Resources 

Luchins, Edith H. and Mary Ann McLoughlin. "In Memoriam: Olga Taussky-Todd." Noti- 
ces of the American Mathematical Society. 43(8): 838 847. (August 1996). http:// 
www.ams.org/notices/199608/taussky.pdf. 

Case, Bettye Anne and Anne M. Leggett. 2005. Complexities: Women in Mathematics. 
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 



Taylor, Kathleen Christine 

b. 1942 

Chemical Engineer 

Education: B.A., chemistry, Douglass College (Rutgers University), 1964; Ph.D., 
physical chemistry, Northwestern University, 1968 



Taylor, Kathleen Christine | 911 

Professional Experience: fellow, University of Edinburgh, 1968-1970; associate 
senior research chemist, General Motors (GM) Corporation, 1970-1974, senior 
research chemist, 1974-1975, assistant head, Physical Chemistry Department, 
1975-1983, head, Environmental Sciences Department, Research Laboratories, 
1983-1985, head, Physics and Physical Chemistry Department, 1985-, chief sci- 
entist, GM of Canada, 2000-, director, Materials and Processes Laboratories, 
GM Research and Planning (retired) 

Concurrent Positions: chair, Center for Automotive Materials and Manufactur- 
ing, Canada, 2002-2003 

Kathleen Taylor is an expert on catalytic converters for automobiles, and her 
research includes surface chemistry, heterogeneous catalysis, and catalytic control 
of automobile exhaust emissions. The U.S. Congress passed the Clean Air Act in 
1970, demanding that automobile manufacturers begin to significantly reduce auto 
exhaust emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides. That 
same year, Taylor began working for GM, where her early research led to the 
development of the catalytic converter, introduced in new vehicles by the mid- 
1970s. Her group was interested in understanding the catalytic conversion of nitro- 
gen oxides in automobile exhaust, and she published a book on the topic, Automo- 
bile Catalytic Converters (1984). She spent more than 30 years at GM in a variety 
of research and administrative positions involving the development of catalysis, 
surface chemistry, surface coatings, corrosion, combustion, batteries, fuel cells, 
and chemical processes. 

Taylor published dozens of scientific papers on her research, a significant number 
for a corporate scientist. Even after formally retiring, Taylor remains committed and 
active on issues related to energy efficiency, reduction of greenhouse gases, and new 
fuel technologies. She has served on numerous government and industry commit- 
tees, including the Department of Energy (DOE) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technical 
Advisory Committee, DOE Council on Materials Science and Engineering, DOE 
Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee, Advisory Committee for Columbia 
University Center for Electron Transport in Molecular Nanostructures, and National 
Academies Board on Energy and Environmental Systems. 

Taylor was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 
1995. She is the recipient of the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society 
(1989) and was nominated by the National Women's History Project as one of 
their "Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet" (2009). She has been a 
member of the North American Catalysis Society, Materials Research Society 
(president, 1987), Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences, and Indian National Academy of Engineering (elected 
2006), and a fellow of SAE International. 



912 | Tesoro, Giuliana (Cavaglieri) 

Further Resources 

"Kathleen C. Taylor." http://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/docs/bio taylor.doc. 

Tesoro, Giuliana (Cavaglieri) 

1921 2002 
Polymer Chemist 

Education: Ph.D., organic chemistry, Yale University, 1943 

Professional Experience: research chemist, Calco Chemical Company, 1943-1944; 
research chemist, Onyx Oil and Chemical Company, 1944-1946, head, organic 
synthesis department, 1946-1955, assistant director of research, 1955-1957, associ- 
ate director, 1957-1958; assistant director of organic research, central research labo- 
ratory, J. P. Stevens & Company, Inc., 1958-1968; senior chemist, Textile Research 
Institute, 1968-1969; senior chemist, Burlington Industries, Inc., 1969-1971, 
director, chemical research, 1971-1972; research professor, Polytechnic Institute, 
1982-1996 

Concurrent Positions: visiting professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
1972-1976, adjunct professor and senior research scientist, 1976-1982; member, 
committee on military personnel supplies, National Research Council, 1979- 
1982, committee on toxic combustion products, 1984-1989 

Giuliana Tesoro was an internationally recognized expert on the science and tech- 
nology of polymers. Her research involved synthesis of pharmaceuticals, textile 
chemicals, and chemical modification of fibers, and she made important contribu- 
tions to developments in polymer flammability and flame retardants in her work 
with several textile companies. After receiving her doctorate in 1943, she worked 
summers for Calco Chemical Company before accepting a position as research 
chemist at Onyx Oil and Chemical Company in 1944. She was promoted to head 
of the organic synthesis department in 1946, assistant director of research in 
1955, and associate director in 1957. She was appointed assistant director of 
organic research for J. P. Stevens & Company, then moved to the Textile Research 
Institute for two years. She accepted a position as senior chemist at Burlington 
Industries in 1969 and was appointed director of chemical research in 1971. She 
was appointed research professor at Polytechnic Institute in 1982. 

Tesoro was a member of several committees of the National Academy of Sci- 
ences and the National Research Council concerning toxic materials and fire 
safety. She was president of the Fiber Society in 1974, and has been a member 
of the American Chemical Society, the American Association of Textile Chemists 



Tharp, Marie | 913 

and Colorists, the American Institute of Chemists, and the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science. 

Tharp, Marie 

1920 2006 
Geologist 

Education: B.A., Ohio University, 1943; MA., geology, University of Michigan, 
1945; B.S., mathematics, University of Tulsa, 1948 

Professional Experience: junior geologist, U.S. Geological Survey, 1944; geolo- 
gist, Stanolind Oil & Gas Company, Oklahoma, 1945-1948; assistant, Lamont- 
Doherty Geological Observatory, Columbia University, 1949-1952, research 
geologist, 1952-1960, research scientist, 1961-1963, research associate, 1963— 
1968; oceanographer, U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office, 1968-1983; owner and 
consultant, Marie Tharp Maps, 1983-2006 

Marie Tharp was a geologist who pioneered charting the ocean floor at a time 
when little was known about undersea geology. The detailed maps she prepared 
indicated features that helped other scientists understand the structure and evolu- 
tion of the bottom of the ocean. Of particular importance was her discovery of 
the valley that divides the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which convinced other geolo- 
gists that the ocean floor was being created at these ridges in various parts of the 
world and spreading outward. The confirmation of "seafloor spreading" led to 
the eventual acceptance of the theory of continental drift, or "plate tectonics." 

Although a few studies of the Mid- Atlantic Ridge had been done by the 1920s, 
scientists had not fully explored the seafloor until an earthquake near the Great 
Banks in the Atlantic Ocean in 1929 broke the transatlantic cables and there was 
a need to anticipate future earthquakes before laying new cables. Working with 
geologist Bruce C. Heezen at the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory in the 
1950s, Tharp began preparing a "physiographic" diagram of the Atlantic Ocean 
floor. The resulting maps show how the floor would look if all the water were 
drained away, and her first map showed a deep valley dividing the crest of newly 
formed rocks making up the ridge. At the time, most scientists believed that the 
Earth was a shrinking globe, cooling and contracting from its initial hot birth, 
and that continental drift was impossible. For many years, Tharp herself was not 
able to participate in recording ocean-floor soundings because women were not 
permitted on U.S. Navy ships. Beginning in the late 1960s, she went on several 
research cruises and, in 1977, Heezen and Tharp published the World Ocean Floor 
Panorama, based on all available geological and geophysical data as well as more 



914 | Thomas, Martha Jane (Bergin) 

than 5 million miles of ocean-floor soundings. They received the Hubbard Medal 
of the National Geographic Society in 1978, and their work was chronicled in 
the book by John Noble Wilford, The Mapmakers, first published in 1981. 

Tharp retired from the observatory and from her later appointment with the 
U.S. Navy in 1983 and began doing independent oceanography consulting and 
writing articles about Heezen's life and work. She received the Lamont-Doherty 
Heritage Award in 2001, and her former institute has established a fellowship in 
her name to support women in the sciences. Until her death in 2006, she operated 
a map-distribution business, Marie Tharp Maps, which still sells prints of her 
ocean floor map. 

Further Resources 

Marie Tharp Maps, http://www.marietharp.com. 

Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "Marie Tharp, Pioneering 
Mapmaker of the Ocean Floor." http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news/2006/ 
08 23 06.htm. 

Wilford, John Noble. 2001. The Mapmakers. 2nd ed. New York: Random House. 



Thomas, Martha Jane (Bergin) 

1926 2006 

Analytical Chemist, Physical Chemist 

Education: B.A., chemistry, Radcliffe College, 1945; M.A., Boston University, 
1950, Ph.D., chemistry, 1952; M.B.A., Northeastern University, 1981 

Professional Experience: senior engineer, chemical laboratory, General Telephone 
and Electronics Corporation (GTE), 1945-1959, group leader, lamp material engi- 
neering laboratories, Lighting Products Division, 1959-1966, section head, chemical 
and phosphor laboratory, Sylvania Lighting Center, 1966-1972, manager, technical 
assistance laboratories, Lighting Products, 1972-1981, technical director, technical 
service laboratories, 1981-1983, director, technical quality control, 1983-1990 

Concurrent Positions: instructor, chemistry, Boston University, 1952-1970; 
adjunct professor, chemistry, University of Rhode Island, 1974-1993 

Martha Thomas is renowned for her work in phosphor chemistry at Sylvania 
Lighting/GTE. Her research includes phosphors, photoconductors, ion exchange 
membranes, complex ions, and instrumental analysis. Phosphors are the powdery 
substances used to coat the inside of fluorescent lighting tubes, and her inventions 
included developing the phosphors that made possible Sylvania's natural-daylight 



Thompson, Laura Maud | 915 

fluorescent lamps and made mercury lamps 10% brighter. She holds more than 20 
patents, including her first for a method of etching the fine tungsten coils that were 
designed to improve telephone switchboard lights. She went on to establish 
two pilot plants for the preparation of phosphors — pilot plants are experimental 
industrial setups in which processes or techniques planned for use in full-scale 
operations are tested in advance. She also developed a natural white phosphor that 
allowed fluorescent lamps to impart daylight hues and a phosphor that increased the 
brightness of mercury lamps. 

Thomas studied chemistry at Radcliffe, intending to enter medical school, but 
instead accepted a job at Sylvania (later GTE), where she remained for 45 years. 
She attended graduate school at Boston University part-time while working and 
received her doctorate in 1952. She returned to school again in 1980 to obtain a 
master's degree in business administration so she could handle her new responsibil- 
ities at GTE as a manager. In 1983, she was the first woman to be made a director in 
her division, and she was one of the few women then working in phosphor chemis- 
try. Although she had a heavy schedule as a researcher, manager, and mother of 
four, she also taught evening chemistry classes at Boston University and then 
served as an adjunct professor of chemistry at the University of Rhode Island. 

In 1991, Thomas was named New England Inventor of the Year by Boston's 
Museum of Science, the Inventors Association of New England, and the Boston 
Patent Law Association. She also received the National Achievement Award of 
the Society of Women Engineers (1965) and the Gold Plate of the American Acad- 
emy of Achievement (1966), and was the first woman to receive the New England 
Award of the Engineering Societies of New England. She was a fellow of the 
American Institute of Chemists and a member of the American Chemical Society, 
Electrochemical Society, and Society of Women Engineers. 



Thompson, Laura Maud 

1905 2000 
Anthropologist 

Education: B.A., Mills College, 1927; Ph.D., anthropology, University of California, 
Berkeley, 1933 

Professional Experience: assistant ethnologist, Bishop Museum, Honolulu, 
1929-1934; social scientist, U.S. Navy, Guam, 1938-1940; social scientist, Com- 
munity Survey of Education, Territory of Hawaii, 1940-1941; coordinator, Indian 
education research project, U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, 1941-1947; research 
associate, Institute for Ethnic Affairs, 1946-1954; professor, anthropology, City 



916 I Thornton, Kathryn (Cordell) 

College of New York, 1954-1956; visiting professor, University of North Carolina, 
1957-1958; visiting professor, North Carolina State College, 1958-1960; dis- 
tinguished visiting professor, anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, 1961; 
professor, anthropology, University of Southern Illinois, 1961-1962; professor, 
anthropology, San Francisco State College, 1962-1963; consulting anthropologist 

Laura Thompson was recognized for her research on Native Americans. Her 
research has included comparative interdisciplinary research in small commun- 
ities, especially among Native Americans and Lower Saxons of West Germany; 
human ecology; and ecosystem approach toward population control. 

She conducted field research in Fiji, Germany, Guam, Hawaii, Iceland, and the 
United States with the Papago, Navajo, Zuni, Sioux, and Hopi people. She also con- 
sulted for the Hutterite communities in Pennsylvania in tracing their early history in 
Germany before they immigrated to the United States. After receiving her doctorate 
from Berkeley in 1933, she held numerous faculty and visiting positions, including 
at City College of New York, the University of Southern Illinois, and San Francisco 
State College. She regularly consulted for educational and government agencies, 
including the U.S. National Indian Institute in Mexico, the U.S. Office of Indian 
Affairs, and the Hutterite Socialization Project at Pennsylvania State University. 

Thompson was a prolific writer as well, publishing numerous scientific papers 
and books, including Archaeology of the Mariana Islands (1932), Fijian Frontier 
(1940), Guam and Its People (1940), The Hopi Way (1944; co-author), Guam 
and Its People (1947), Culture in Crisis: A Study of the Hopi Indians (1950), Per- 
sonality and Government (1951), Toward a Science of Mankind (1961), and The 
Secret of Culture (1969). She held her last formal academic appointment in 
1963, but continued to work as a consulting anthropologist, invited speaker, and 
author after that date. She received grants from the Viking Fund, a Wenner-Gren 
fellowship to study in New York and Iceland, and Rockefeller Foundation grants 
in 1951 and 1952. She was the founder of the Society for Applied Anthropology, 
and was elected a fellow of the American Anthropological Association, New York 
Academy of Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and 
Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania. 



Thornton, Kathryn (Cordell) 

b. 1952 

Physicist, Astronaut 

Education: B.S., physics, Auburn University, 1974; M.S., physics, University of 
Virginia, 1977, Ph.D., physics, 1979 



Thornton, Kathryn (Cordell) | 917 

Professional Experience: NATO fellow, Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Phys- 
ics, Germany, 1979-1980; physicist, U.S. Army Foreign Science and Technical 
Center, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1980-1984; staff member, National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration (NASA), 1984, astronaut, 1985-1996; professor and 
associate dean, School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Virginia, 
1997- 



Kathryn Thornton is a physicist who joined the NASA astronaut training program in 
1984 and was involved in four shuttle missions: STS-33 (1989), STS-49 (1992), 
STS-61 (1993), and STS-73 (1995). She was a mission specialist aboard the space 
shuttle Discovery in November 1989. Her second mission was in 1992 aboard the 
space shuttle Endeavour on its maiden flight, and her third was again on the Endeav- 
our in 1993, which was a Hubble Space Telescope servicing and repair mission. 
Her last flight was aboard the space shuttle Columbia in 1995, and the mis- 
sion included conducting scientific experiments on the SpaceLab module. The 
Columbia flight was a unique experience for Thornton, who had a starring role in 
footage that was used on the television 
show Home Improvement, the first 
entertainment footage shot in space. 
In the scene, Thornton was taped using 
a screwdriver in the gravity-free envi- 
ronment. Her technical assignments 
have included flight software verifica- 
tion in the Shuttle Avionics Integration 
Laboratory, serving as a team member 
of the Vehicle Integration Test Team 
at Kennedy Space Center, and serving 
as a spacecraft communicator. 

Like the other women astronauts 
who entered the NASA program since 
the late 1970s, she has a solid scien- 
tific background, with a doctorate in 
physics and a postdoctoral appoint- 
ment at the Max Planck Institute 
for Nuclear Physics in Germany. Fol- 
lowing that appointment, she was a 
physicist with the U.S. Army science 

and technology center before joining . . , . . ,, _. , .. 

bJ j & Astronaut Kathryn Thornton preparing for the 

NASA. She retired from NASA in launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia, 1995. 
1996 and remains committed to (NASA) 




918 I Tilden, Josephine Elizabeth 

science education and to encouraging women in science and technology, including 
space flight. At the University of Virginia, she has been a faculty member and 
director of the Center for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education. She 
has also been a leading voice urging the U.S. Congress to support a manned mis- 
sion to Mars. 

Thornton received a NASA Distinguished Service Medal. She is a member of 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American 
Physical Society. 

Further Resources 

Kevles, Bettyann H. 2003. Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space. New York: 
Basic Books. 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Kathryn C. Thornton (Ph.D.)." http:// 
www.j sc .nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/thornt-k.html. 

"University of Virginia's Kathryn Thornton Urges Congress to Back Manned Space 
Exploration to Mars . . . and Beyond." UVA Today. (3 April 2008). http://www 
. Virginia. edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=4748. 



Tilden, Josephine Elizabeth 

1869 1957 
Botanist 

Education: B.S., University of Minnesota, 1895, M.S., 1897 

Professional Experience: instructor, botany, University of Minnesota, 1 
1902, assistant professor, 1902-1910, professor, 1910-1937 

Josephine Tilden was an expert on algae and phycology of the Pacific Ocean. She 
was ahead of her time in realizing the ecological and economic importance of algae 
as a marine life food source and spoke often on problems of ocean pollution, con- 
servation, and industrial uses of algae. Her primary area of research was the Pacific 
Rim, and she conducted research on the shores of Japan, Australia, New Zealand, 
Hawaii, and the South Pacific islands, often accompanied by her elderly mother. 
She was also a specialist in local freshwater algae, and her book, Minnesota Algae 
(1910), remained a widely used technical reference for many decades. Her later 
work, The Algae and Their Life Relations (1935-1937), was the first effort by an 
American scientist to summarize the known characteristics of these important 
marine and freshwater plants. 

Tilden spent her entire career in the Department of Botany at the University of 
Minnesota, where she was the first woman scientist on the faculty. In 1900, she 



Tilghman, Shirley M. | 919 

discovered an area of algae, seaweed, and tide pools along a desolate stretch of 
Canadian coastline, and subsequently used her own money, and donated land, to 
establish the Minnesota Seaside Station for research on Vancouver Island. Tilden 
was the subdirector and, along with her mother and the chair of the Minnesota bot- 
any department, hosted 25 to 30 professors, students, and lecturers every summer 
to conduct research on algae, lichen, animals, and the natural environment. The 
station operated between 1900 and 1906, when the University of Minnesota chose 
not to continue the program. Throughout her career, Tilden was at odds with the 
university over funding for her expeditions, as it was unusual for a Midwestern 
university to dedicate resources to ocean research. She retired in 1937 and took 
300 boxes of her own algae specimens with her to Florida, which were later 
returned to the University of Minnesota after her death. Tilden had built an impres- 
sive collection of algae samples from around the world and drawn numerous 
students to the botany program; 10 years after her death, however, there was no 
longer a program in marine algae studies at Minnesota. 

Born in Davenport, Iowa, Tilden received her undergraduate degree from the 
University of Minnesota in 1895 and her master's degree in 1897. She was 
appointed instructor in botany at the school in 1898 and promoted to assistant 
professor in 1902. Her promotion to full professor in 1910, even though she did 
not hold a doctorate, was an indication of the recognition she had received for 
her research and teaching. She was a delegate to the First Pan-Pacific Scientific 
Congress of 1920 and attended succeeding congresses in 1923 and 1926. She 
was a member of the American Society for the Advancement of Science, the 
American Society of Naturalists, the American Geographical Society, the Botani- 
cal Society of America, and the Torrey Botanical Club. 

Further Resources 

Brady, Tim. 2008. "Of Algae and Acrimony." University of Minnesota Alumni Associa- 
tion. (11 January 2008). http://www.minnesotaalumni.Org/s/1118/content.aspx7sid 
= 1 1 18&gid=l&pgid=1077&sparam=algae&scontid=0. 



Tilghman, Shirley M. 

b. 1946 
Molecular Biologist 

Education: B.Sc, chemistry, Queen's University, Ontario, 1968; Ph.D., 
biochemistry, Temple University, Pennsylvania, 1975 

Professional Experience: teacher, Sierra Leone, West Africa, 1968-1970; post- 
doctoral fellow, National Institutes of Health (NIH), 1975-1978; assistant 



920 | Tilghman, Shirley M. 



professor, Fels Research Institute, Temple University School of Medicine, 1978-1979; 
adjunct associate professor, human genetics and biochemistry and biophysics, Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, 1980-1986; Howard A. Prior Professor of Life Sciences, Prince- 
ton University, 1986-2001, professor, molecular biology, 1986-, president, Princeton 
University, 2001- 

Concurrent Positions: independent investigator, Institute for Cancer Research, 
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, 1979-1986; investigator, Howard Hughes 
Medical Institute, 1988-2001; founding director, Lewis-Sigler Institute for Inte- 
grative Genomics, Princeton University, 1998-2003 

Shirley Tilghman is a molecular biologist and in 2001 became the first female 
president of Princeton University in New Jersey. Tilghman specialized in mamma- 
lian developmental genetics and was on the faculty at Princeton for 15 years 
before assuming the presidency. She was a founding member of the council on 
the Human Genome Project, a project for mapping all human DNA. Born and 
educated in Canada, she received her undergraduate degree in chemistry from 

Queen's University in Kingston, 
Ontario. She went on to earn a doctor- 
ate in biochemistry from Temple Uni- 
versity in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
and held a postdoctoral fellowship 
with the NIH, where she was involved 
in the first efforts to clone mamma- 
lian genes. She was then an investiga- 
tor for the Institute for Cancer 
Research in Philadelphia and taught 
at the University of Pennsylvania 
before joining the life sciences fac- 
ulty at Princeton in 1986. In 1998, 
she founded and became director of 
the interdisciplinary Institute of Inte- 
grative Genomics at Princeton. 
During this time, she simultaneously 
held an affiliation as an investigator 
at Howard Hughes Medical Institute. 
Tilghman has served on numerous 
committees and advisory councils 

Molecular biologist Shirley Tilghman became for both academic and government 
the first female president of Princeton organizations, and has been commit- 

University in 2001. (AP/Wide World Photos) ted to science education and to 




Tinsley, Beatrice Muriel (Hill) | 921 

careers for women in the sciences. She served as chair of Princeton's Council on 
Science and Technology for seven years (1993-2000). 

Tilghman was elected a foreign associate to the National Academy of Sciences 
(1996) and a member of the Institute of Medicine (1995), and served on the 
National Research Council's Commission on Life Sciences (1993-2001). She is 
a fellow of the American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences, New York Academy of Sciences, and Royal Society of London, and a 
member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 
American Society for Cell Biology, and Society for Developmental Biology. In 
addition to 25 honorary degrees from universities in the United States, Canada, 
and England, she is the recipient of a Basic Science Award of the Society for the 
Advancement of Women's Health Research (1997), the Mellon Prize from the 
University of Pittsburgh (2000), the L'Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science Award 
(2002), a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Developmental Biol- 
ogy (2003), the Radcliffe Institute Medal (2004), a Genetics Society of America 
Medal for outstanding contributions to the field (2007), and numerous other 
awards and honors. 

Further Resources 

Princeton University. "Office of the President." http://www.princeton.edu/president/. 



Tinsley, Beatrice Muriel (Hill) 

1941 1981 
Astronomer 

Education: B.Sc, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, 1961, M.Sc, physics, 
1963; Ph.D., astronomy, University of Texas, Austin, 1967 

Professional Experience: fellow, University of Texas, Austin, 1967-1968; visit- 
ing scientist, physics, University of Texas, Dallas, 1969-1973, assistant professor, 
astronomy, 1973-1974; associate professor, astronomy, Yale University, 1975- 
1978, professor, 1978-1981 

Beatrice Tinsley was the first person to make a realistic, computer-generated 
model of how the color and brightness of a galaxy change as the stars that make 
up the galaxy are born, grow old, and die. Before her research, astronomers treated 
galaxies as static, unchanging objects. Since galaxies are the milestones that 
astronomers use to measure the universe as a whole, her evolutionary models of 
galaxies have had a profound impact on cosmology, the branch of astronomy that 



922 | Tolbert, Margaret Ellen (Mayo) 

deals with the general structure and evolution of the universe. In developing her 
models of galaxies while working on her doctoral dissertation, she added up the 
colors and luminosities of the evolving stars to find the total color and luminosity 
of the entire galaxy as it developed. Her models demonstrated how the results of 
work in many other areas of astronomy could be synthesized into models of the 
evolution of galaxies far more accurately than any previous models, and she was 
largely responsible for establishing the photometric evolution of galaxies as a field 
of study in astronomy. 

Despite her short life, she had an extremely prolific and successful career, 
although she encountered many obstacles as a female scientist. A native of New 
Zealand, Tinsley studied physics at Canterbury University, and although she was 
interested in astronomy and cosmology as an undergraduate, there were no facili- 
ties available for her to write a master's thesis on the subject. She moved to the 
United States and received her doctorate at the University of Texas, only to find 
there were no job opportunities for her as an astronomer in Dallas, where she lived 
with her husband, fellow physicist Brian Tinsley, and their two adopted children. 
She obtained a position as a visiting scientist at the newly formed University of 
Texas, Dallas and received part-time National Science Foundation funding. She 
conducted research at Mt. Wilson, Lick, and Mt. Palomar observatories in Califor- 
nia, and at the University of Maryland and Cambridge University. After she and 
her husband divorced, she took a tenure-track faculty position at Yale. In 1978, 
the same year she was promoted as the first female full professor of astronomy at 
Yale, she learned that a lesion on her leg was malignant skin cancer. The cancer 
later spread to her vital organs, and she died in 1981 at only 40 years old. 

Among the several awards Tinsley received was the Annie Jump Cannon prize 
in 1974, named for the Harvard astronomer who specialized in stellar spectra. 
Tinsley herself is commemorated by a biennial prize awarded by the American 
Astronomical Society for exceptionally creative or innovative research and by a 
visiting professorship of astronomy at the University of Texas, Austin. She was a 
member of the American Astronomical Society, Royal Astronomical Society, 
and International Astronomical Union. 



Tolbert, Margaret Ellen (Mayo) 

b. 1943 
Biochemist 

Education: B.S., chemistry, Tuskegee University, 1967; M.S., analytical chemis- 
try, Wayne State University, 1968; Ph.D., biochemistry, Brown University, 1974 



Tolbert, Margaret Ellen (Mayo) | 923 

Professional Experience: research technician, biochemistry, Tuskegee University, 
1969, instructor, mathematics, 1969-1970; instructor, science and mathematics, 
Opportunities Industrialization Center, Providence, Rhode Island, 1971-1972; assis- 
tant professor, chemistry, Tuskegee University, 1973-1976; associate professor, 
pharmaceutical chemistry, and associate dean, School of Pharmacy, Florida A&M 
University, 1977-1979; professor, chemistry, and director, Research and Develop- 
ment, Carver Research Foundation, Tuskegee University, 1979-1988; budgets and 
control analyst, and senior planner, British Petroleum (BP) America Research 
Center, 1988-1990; director, Research Improvement in Minority Institutions (RIMI) 
Program, National Science Foundation, 1990-1993; director, educational programs, 
Argonne National Laboratory, University of Chicago, 1994-1996; director, New 
Brunswick Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, 1996-2002; senior advisor, 
Office of Integrative Activities, National Science Foundation, 2002- 

Concurrent Positions: instructor, chemistry, summer Transitional Program, 
Brown University, 1973; visiting associate professor, medical sciences, Brown 
University, 1979; consulting scientist, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 1994 

Margaret Tolbert has moved successfully from a distinguished research career to 
academia to science administration in the corporate and government realms. She 
had already established herself as a noted researcher on the biochemistry of the liver 
when she changed her career plans in the late 1980s and became an administrator 
and dean for the Carver Research Foundation, and then took a number of positions 
in government and industry. In 1990, the National Science Foundation recruited 
her as program director for the RIMI Program. In 1994, she worked with the Howard 
Hughes Medical Institute to establish international research programs in Eastern 
Europe. Dr. Tolbert was the first African American and the first female to serve as 
Director of the U.S. Department of Energy's New Brunswick facility at Argonne 
National Laboratories, which brings together researchers in nuclear science. 

Tolbert's high school teachers arranged for her to take advanced placement 
courses in mathematics and science, and she enrolled in Tuskegee University. 
Her initial goal was to study medicine, but she switched to chemistry for both 
financial and research reasons. She also had the opportunity for summer intern- 
ships at Central State College in North Carolina and at Argonne National Labora- 
tories in Illinois, where she was a member of a team that was studying the various 
chemical combinations made by uranium. In her later, high-level positions at 
Argonne, she remained committed to creating high school and post-high school 
programs and opportunities in science education such as she received. 

After graduating from Tuskegee in 1967, she went on to Wayne State University 
in Detroit, Michigan, where she earned a master's degree in analytical chemistry 
in 1968. She returned as a researcher and mathematics instructor at Tuskegee 



924 | Townsend, Marjorie Rhodes 

before being recruited to the doctoral program at Brown University in Rhode 
Island. While at Brown, she received financial aid from the Southern Fellowship 
Fund to research biochemical reactions in liver cells. She also taught basic science 
to nurses and mathematics to welders in night school in Providence, Rhode Island, 
where adults sought to upgrade their employment skills. In her later positions 
representing research institutes and government agencies, she has traveled widely 
for her research and educational mission to increase international communication 
among scientists and educators in different countries, and to increase the numbers 
of women and minorities in science, work she continues as a Senior Advisor for 
the National Science Foundation. 

Among her numerous awards and honors, Tolbert has received a Certificate of 
Distinguished Service from the Federal Reserve System (1987), the Secretary of 
Energy Pride Award for Community Service (1998), a Chicago-Tuskegee Alumni 
Club President's Merit Award (1999), Performance Awards from the Chicago 
Operations Office of the U.S. Department of Energy (1997-2001), the Women of 
Color in Government and Defense Technology Award in Managerial Leadership 
(2001), and a Performance Award from the National Science Foundation (2005). 
In 2007, she received the Dr. George Washington Carver Distinguished Service 
Award of Tuskegee University. She is a fellow of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Chemical Society, 
New York Academy of Sciences, Institute of Nuclear Materials Management, 
and Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. 

Further Resources 

National Science Foundation. "Dr. Margaret E. M. Tolbert, Senior Advisor." http:// 
www.nsf.gov/od/oia/staff/tolbert.jsp. 



Townsend, Marjorie Rhodes 

b. 1930 

Aerospace Engineer, Electronics Engineer 

Education: B.S., electrical engineering, George Washington University, 1951 

Professional Experience: aide, physical science, National Bureau of Standards, 
1948-1951; electronics engineer, basic and applied sonar research, Naval 
Research Laboratory, 1951-1959; section head, design and development of elec- 
tronic instruments, Goddard Space Flight Center, National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA), 1959-1965, technical assistant to chief of systems 



Townsend, Marjorie Rhodes | 925 

division, 1965-1966, project manager, small astronomical satellites, 1966-1975, 
project manager, applied explorer mission, 1975-1976, manager, preliminary sys- 
tems design group of advanced systems design, 1976-1980; consultant, 1980- 
1990; director, Space Systems Engineering BDM International, 1990-1993; con- 
sultant, 1993- 

Marjorie Townsend is renowned for her work in launching the first astronomical 
satellites in the Small Astronomy Satellite (SAS) program for NASA in the 
1970s. She co-invented (and received a patent for) a digital telemetry system, 
and her research includes advanced space and ground systems design for a large 
variety of missions in space and terrestrial applications and in the space sciences, 
new applications for the use of the space shuttle, and improvements in the data 
system design of space stations. During her years with NASA, she was the only 
woman to work as a project manager for a satellite program, and as such, she 
was responsible for the origination, design, construction, and testing of the satel- 
lites, as well as for the actual launches of the instruments. 

Townsend was the first woman to earn an engineering degree from George 
Washington University. She joined NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in 
1959, the year after the agency was established. She had been conducting sonar 
research at the Naval Research Laboratory by developing frequency multiplication 
systems, an analog logic computer, and new submarine detection and classification 
techniques; at NASA, her first assignment was to design a ground system for the 
forerunner of meteorological satellites. In 1966, she was placed in charge of the 
SAS program, a joint U.S.-Italian project, and she created quite a controversy 
when she persuaded NASA administrators to use a launch site owned and operated 
by the Italian government. Her research indicated that the launch site in the Indian 
Ocean off the coast of Kenya was the best site because it was located in an area 
where the satellite could be placed in an equatorial orbit, thereby missing the radi- 
ation belt and avoiding a significant amount of background noise. The data 
received from SAS revolutionized the study of x-ray-emitting stars. 

Townsend left NASA in 1980 and has continued to work and consult on space 
systems and satellite programs. She has received numerous awards, including the 
Exceptional Service Medal (1971), Knight of the Italian Republic Order from 
Italy (1972), Federal Woman's Award from the U.S. Government (1973), George 
Washington University Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award (1976), and 
NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal (1980). She is a fellow of the American 
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of the Institute of Electrical and 
Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and a member of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, American Geophysical Union, and Society of 
Women Engineers. 



926 | Treisman, Anne 



Further Resources 



'Marjorie Rhodes Townsend." 2009. Interview for Online Journal of Space Communica- 
tion. 15. (Spring 2009). http://satjournal.tcom.ohiou.edu/issuel5/townsend.html. 



Treisman, Anne 

b. 1935 
Psychologist 

Education: B.A., psychology, Cambridge University, England, 1957; D.Phil., 
Oxford University, 1962 

Professional Experience: research assistant, experimental psychology, University 
of Oxford, 1961-1963; staff member, M. R. C. Psycholinguistics Research Unit, 
1963-1966; visiting research scientist, Behavioral Sciences Department, Bell 
Telephone Laboratories, New Jersey, 1966-1967; university lecturer, psychology, 
Oxford University, 1968-1978; professor, psychology, University of British 
Columbia, 1978-1986; professor, psychology, University of California, Berkeley, 
1986-1994; professor, psychology, Princeton University, 1993-, James S. McDon- 
nell Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, 1995— 

Concurrent Positions: lecturer, Trinity College, Oxford University, 1961-1977, 
Somerville College, 1962-1966, St. Anne's College, 1964-1967, fellow, St. 
Anne's College, 1967-1978; fellow, Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sci- 
ences, Stanford University, 1977-1978; fellow, Canadian Institute for Advanced 
Research, 1984-1986; visiting scholar, Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 
1991-1992 

Anne Treisman is a research psychologist who has created models for testing vis- 
ual perception and analyzing how the brain combines visual and auditory input 
in selective attention and memory. Her research combines, and has implications 
for, work in cognitive psychology, neuropsychology, and neuroscience. Treisman 
developed a Feature Integration Theory (FIT) to explain how human vision pro- 
cesses color, shape, size, light, motion, and other input by creating and combining 
separate "feature maps" that correspond to different areas of the brain. She studied 
patients with behavioral differences, such as attention problems, or with brain 
damage, to see how their brains combined the various visual stimuli (a process 
called the "binding problem") to make sense of the whole. Her research revealed 
that there are neurological as well as behavioral or learned explanations for atten- 
tion, memory, and perception. 



Treisman, Anne | 927 




Research psychologist Anne Treisman with her husband, Daniel Kahneman, in 2002. 
Treisman created models for testing visual perception, and analyzes other brain processes, 
such as attention and memory. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Treisman holds dual citizenship in the United States and Britain. She was 
elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1994 as a foreign associate, 
but later became a regular member as a U.S. citizen. Among her awards are the 
Spearman Medal of the British Psychological Society for experimental research 
(1963), Howard Crosby Warren Medal of the Society of Experimental Psycholo- 
gists (1990), Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psycho- 
logical Association (1990), and Golden Brain award of the Minerva Foundation 
(1996), and she was named a William James Fellow of the American Psychological 
Society (2002). She was elected to the Society of Experimental Psychologists, 
Royal Society of London, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a 
member of the Psychonomic Society, Association for Research in Vision and 
Ophthalmology, and Cognitive Neuroscience Society. She was awarded an honor- 
ary doctorate from the University of British Columbia (2004) and was named an 
Honorary Professor in the Institute of Psychology by the Chinese Academy of 
Sciences (2004). Her husband, Daniel Kahneman, is also a psychologist and won 
the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002. 



928 | Turkle, Sherry 



Further Resources 



Princeton University. Faculty/laboratory website, http://weblamp.princeton.edu/~psych/ 
psychology /research/treisman/index.php. 



Turkle, Sherry 

b. 1948 

Psychologist, Sociologist 

Education: B.A., social studies, Harvard University, 1970, M.A., 1973, Ph.D., 
sociology and psychology, 1976 

Professional Experience: clinical intern, psychology, University Health Services, 
Harvard University, 1974-1975; assistant professor, sociology, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology (MIT), 1976-1980, associate professor, 1980-1989, pro- 
fessor, 1991- 

Concurrent Positions: licensed clinical psychologist, Commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts, 1978-; founder and director, MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, 
2001- 

Sherry Turkle is a psychologist and sociologist who has done pioneering research 
on how humans interact with computers and computer programs, and how com- 
puters shape our very identities. Her work on robots and computers began before 
the age of the Internet, but the intrusion of computers into nearly every aspect of 
our lives has raised even more questions about the boundaries between computers 
and humans, and between real life and virtual reality. She has written on computer 
games, online and digital pets, and Internet chat rooms, and is considered by some 
to be an anthropologist or ethnographer of computer culture. A licensed clinical 
psychologist, she has been professor of sociology, technology, and science studies 
at MIT since 1976, and in 2001 founded an Initiative on Technology and Self 
research center. Her work has made her a high-profile media figure on the psychol- 
ogy of computer users, and she has been interviewed for popular magazines and 
television and radio shows. 

Turkle entered Radcliffe College in 1965, but dropped out and moved to Paris 
after her mother died. She returned to Harvard to complete her degrees, earning a 
bachelor's and a master's, and, in 1976, her doctorate in sociology and psychology 
on the influence of Freud's psychoanalytic theory in France, the subject of her first 
book, Psychoanalytic Politics (1978). She became interested in computers and 
computer users when she accepted a position as an assistant professor of sociology 



Tyson, Laura (D'Andrea) | 929 

at MIT. She noticed students using computer language in their everyday conversa- 
tions, even when talking about their emotions, speaking of "debugging their rela- 
tionships" or excusing verbal slips as "information processing errors." In her 
second book, The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit (1984; rev. ed., 
2005), she theorized that the computer is not just a tool, but an evocative object 
with which one can have intense, almost intimate, relations. 

For her third book, Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet (1995), 
she interviewed more than 1,000 people, 300 of them children. The use of com- 
puters had increased dramatically, and she expressed her concern about the con- 
cept of computer literacy defined as teaching computer skills, but not necessarily 
critical thinking. She also warned about the abuses of online identities. She is not 
against the idea of having multiple identities, but warned of adults assuming false 
identities in order to prey on children. Other books were compiled from seminars 
and lectures from the Initiative on Technology and Self, including Evocative 
Objects: Things We Think With (2007), Falling for Science: Objects in Mind 
(2008), The Inner History of Devices (2008), and Simulation and Its Discontents 
(2009). New issues on which she has written articles and lectured include cell- 
phone use and the effect of an ever-present availability of friends through texting, 
chatting, and online access, especially among teenagers. 

Turkle has been honored by numerous magazines and organizations as an 
innovator and voice of the computer age. She was named Woman of the Year by 
Ms. Magazine (1984), one of the Computer 200 innovators for the Association of 
Computing Machinery's Fiftieth Anniversary celebration (1997), one of Time 
magazine's Innovators of the Internet (2000), and one of the Top Ten Wired 
Women by ABC News (2002). She is a member of the American Psychological 
Association and the American Sociological Association, and a fellow of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science, Boston Psychoanalytic 
Society and Institute, and World Economic Forum. 

Further Resources 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Faculty website, http://www.mit.edu/~sturkle/. 



Tyson, Laura (D'Andrea) 

b. 1947 
Economist 

Education: B.A., economics, Smith College, 1969; Ph.D., economics, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, 1974. 



930 | Tyson, Laura (D'Andrea) 



Professional Experience: staff economist, World Bank, 1974; assistant professor, 
economics, Princeton University, 1974-1977; assistant to associate professor, eco- 
nomics, University of California, Berkeley, 1977-1988, professor, 1988-2001, 
professor, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, 1990- 
2001, dean, 1998-2001; dean, London Business School, 2002-2006; professor, 
Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, 2007-2008, S. K. 
and Angela Chan Professor of Global Management, 2008- 

Concurrent Positions: Director of Research, Berkeley Roundtable on the 
International Economy, University of California, Berkeley, 1988-1992; director, Insti- 
tute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 1990-1992; chair, 
President's Council of Economic Advisors, 1993-1995; chair, National Economic 
Council, 1995-1996; principal, Law and Economics Consulting Group, 1997-2001 

Laura Tyson is an economist renowned as an authority and advisor on global 
economic issues, global markets and trade, healthcare reform, government defi- 
cits, and the high-tech industry. She has served as economic advisor to two presi- 
dents and has been the dean of two 
prestigious business schools. As the 
first female chair of the National 
Economic Council (NEC) under 
President Clinton in the 1990s, and 
as a member of President Obama's 
Economic Advisory Panel to address 
the national economic crisis in 2009, 
she has been one of the most influen- 
tial economists in the nation. In 
1992, she published a book that 
examined the American trade im- 
balance problem in depth, Who's 
Bashing Whom: Trade Conflict in 
High Technology Industries, in which 
she advocated aggressive action 
against foreign traders who close 
their markets to imports by blocking 
U.S. markets to the foreign traders. 
She is known for her ability to explain 
In the 1 990s, economist Laura Tyson served complex economic concepts in an 
as chair of President Bill Clinton's Council of , , ., 

r- _. a~i ■ „j u (1 l m t - i understandable and interesting way, 

Economic Advisors and chair of the National 6 ■" 

Economic Council. (Hulton Archive/Getty whether in the classroom, at a 

Images) conference, or in the media. 




Tyson, Laura (D'Andrea) | 93 I 

As an undergraduate at Smith College in the 1960s, she planned to major in 
mathematics and psychology but changed her major to economics after taking an 
introductory course in that field. In her graduate program at the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, she became more interested in the practical applications 
of economic theory rather than the technical and statistical aspects of economics. 
After receiving her doctorate, she taught at Princeton before accepting a position 
at the University of California, Berkeley in 1977. She has been affiliated with the 
Haas School of Business at Berkeley since 1990, and served as dean of the school 
for three years before becoming the first female dean of the London School of 
Business, where she founded the Centre for Women in Business. She spent four 
years in London before returning to teach at Berkeley. In addition to her academic 
work and government advisory positions, she has consulted with numerous policy 
organizations, such as the Brookings Institution and the Center for American 
Progress, and sat on the boards of companies such as Morgan Stanley, AT&T, 
and Eastman Kodak, among others. 

In addition to numerous reports and dozens of newspaper editorials, Tyson has 
published several other books dealing with international competition, trade, pro- 
ductivity, and politics. She is a member of the American Economic Association 
and the Association for Comparative Economic Studies, and a fellow of the 
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has been awarded honorary degrees 
from Smith College and from American University. 

Further Resources 

University of California, Berkeley. Faculty website, http://www2.haas.berkeley.edu/ 
Faculty/tyson laura.aspx. 



u 



Uhlenbeck, Karen (Keskulla) 



b. 1942 
Mathematician 

Education: B.A., University of Michigan, 1964; M.A., mathematics, Brandeis 
University, 1966, Ph.D., mathematics, 1968 

Professional Experience: instructor, mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology (MIT), 1968-1969; lecturer, University of California, Berkeley, 
1969-1971; assistant professor, mathematics, University of Illinois, Champaign- 
Urbana, 1971-1976; associate professor, University of Illinois, Chicago, 1977- 
1983; professor, mathematics, University of Chicago, 1983-1988; professor and 
chair, mathematics, University of Texas, Austin, 1988— 

Concurrent Positions: visiting associate professor, Northwestern University, 
1976; chancellor's visiting professor, University of California, Berkeley, 1979; 
Albert Einstein fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, 1979- 
1980; visiting member, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley, 
1982; visiting professor, Harvard University, 1983; visiting professor, Max Planck 
Institute for Mathematics, Bonn, 1985; visiting professor, University of California, 
San Diego, 1986; visitor, Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques, Bures-Sur- 
Yvette, France, 1987; visiting professor, mathematics, University of Texas, Austin, 
1988; visitor, Mathematics Research Centre, Warwick University, England, 1992; 
member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 1995, distinguished visiting 
professor, 1997-1998 

Karen Uhlenbeck is renowned for mathematical research on calculus of variations, 
global analysis, and gauge theories. Her work has had applications in theoretical 
physics and has contributed to current research on instantons, which are models 
for the behavior of surfaces in four dimensions. Mathematicians are looking at 
imaginary spaces that have been constructed by scientists who are examining other 
problems. For example, physicists who were studying quantum mechanics had pre- 
dicted the existence of particle-like elements known as instantons. Uhlenbeck and 
other researchers built a model for understanding the behavior of instanton surfaces 



933 



934 | Uhlenbeck, Karen (Keskulla) 

in three and four dimensions. She is the co-author of the books Instantons and 
4-Manifold Topology (1984) and Geometry and Quantum Field Theory (1995). 

Uhlenbeck had planned to major in physics at the University of Michigan, but 
switched to mathematics. After graduating, she spent a year at New York Univer- 
sity's Courant Institute; she then married and moved to Boston, where her husband 
was attending Harvard. She received a National Science Foundation graduate fel- 
lowship to work at Brandeis University; after receiving her Ph.D., she taught at 
MIT for a year, then moved to the University of California, Berkeley as a lecturer 
in mathematics. In 1971, Uhlenbeck and her husband both obtained positions at 
the University of Illinois. In 1988, she joined the faculty at the University of Texas, 
Austin, where she began a mentoring program for women in mathematics. 
Throughout her career, she has held a number of fellowships and visiting professor- 
ships at institutions in both the United States and abroad. In 1990, she traveled to 
Japan as only the second woman to present the keynote lecture at the International 
Congress of Mathematics. 

Uhlenbeck was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1986 and received a National Medal of Science in 2000. She has received several 
honorary doctorates and numerous fellowships and awards, including a five-year 
MacArthur Fellowship (1983), Alumna of the Year from the University of Michigan 
(1984), Alumni Achievement Award from Brandeis University (1988), Common- 
wealth Award for Science and Invention of PNC Bank Corporation (1995), and 
Steele Prize of the American Mathematical Society (2007). She was named one of 
America's 100 most important women in 1988 by Ladies' Home Journal. She is a 
member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Mathematical Association 
of America, Association for Women in Mathematics, National Association of Math- 
ematicians, and American Mathematical Society. 

Further Resources 

Henrion, Claudia. 1997. Women in Mathematics: The Addition of Difference. Bloomington: 
Indiana University Press. 

University of Texas. Faculty website, http://www.ma.utexas.edu/users/uhlen/. 



V 



Van Rensselaer, Martha 



1864 1932 
Home Economist 

Education: Chamberlain Institute, 1884; A.B., Cornell University, 1909 

Professional Experience: public school teacher, 1884-1893; school commissioner, 
Cattaraugus County, New York, 1893-1899; head, extension program for farm wives, 
Cornell University, 1900-1903, instructor, home economics, 1903-1907, co-director, 
School of Home Economics, 1907-1925, professor, 1911-1932, co-director, 
New York State College of Home Economics, 1925-1932 

Martha Van Rensselaer taught some of the first accredited home economics 
courses in the country at Cornell University in the early 1900s. Her early career 
followed the pattern of many educated women of her generation in that she first 
taught in various public and private schools. It was while serving as a country 
school commissioner in New York State that she became interested in the educa- 
tion of farm women and created a program, through Cornell, to provide reading 
and other classes to rural women. In its first few years, the program attracted 
thousands of women, and Van Rensselaer began offering other courses in home 
economics through the agricultural college. In 1907, a separate School of Home 
Economics was formed, with Van Rensselaer and Flora Rose as co-directors. 
After completing her own undergraduate degree program in 1909, Van Rensselaer 
became a professor in the home economics degree program. Along with Rose and 
another colleague, she co-authored A Manual of Home-Making, published in 1919. 
In 1925, their popular program was upgraded to a separate school, the New York 
State College of Home Economics. 

In addition to her academic research, teaching, and administrative duties, Van 
Rensselaer served in a variety of government positions, including as a staff 
member of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and special service for 
the American Relief Commission during World War I, and, later, as assistant 
director of the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection under 
President Hoover. She was also active in professional organizations, serving as 
president of the American Home Economics Association (1914-1916), home- 
making editor of the journal Delineator (1920-1926), and assistant director of 



935 



936 | Van Straten, Florence Wilhemina 




Home economist, Martha Van Rensselaer. 
(Courtesy of Cornell University) 



the White House Conference on 
Child Health and Protection (1930). 
She was chair of the home economics 
section of the Association of Land- 
Grant Colleges and Universities in 
1928 and 1929. She was a member 
of the American Association of 
University Women committee to 
welcome physicist Marie Curie on 
her visit to New York City in 1921. 
In 2004, Van Rensselaer was post- 
humously inducted into the National 
4-H Hall of Fame. 

Further Resources 

Cornell University. "Martha Van Rensse- 
laer." http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/ 
homeEc/bios/marthavanrensselaer.html. 



Van Straten, Florence Wilhemina 



1913 1992 
Meteorologist 

Education: B.S., New York University, 1933, M.S., 1937, Ph.D., chemistry, 1939 

Professional Experience: assistant instructor, chemistry, New York University, 
1933-1942; aerology engineer, U.S. Department of the Navy, 1946-1948, head, 
technical requirements section, Naval Weather Service, 1948-1962; consultant 
and writer 

Concurrent Positions: U.S. Naval Reserve, 1942-1946 

Florence Van Straten was a meteorologist whose research focused on metal-gas 
catalysis, the upper atmosphere, and atmospheric physics. She taught at New York 
University as an assistant instructor in chemistry while completing her 
doctorate in chemistry from that university in 1939. She continued teaching there 
until she joined the U.S. Navy's Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Serv- 
ices (WAVES) and launched her career in meteorology, the study of the physical 
processes that combine to produce weather. While she was in the WAVES during 



Vaughan, Martha | 937 

World War II, she received a Certified Meteorologists diploma, which provided 
her entry into what had been solely a male profession. The science of meteorology 
really did not develop until World War II, when there was a need for accurate 
information to deploy troops and supplies all over the world. She was in the first 
group of 25 WAVES selected for training to overcome the shortage of available 
male meteorologists; 22 of these women completed the course. Her responsibility 
as a meteorologist, or aerology engineer, was to advise commanders of the Pacific 
Fleet on weather conditions for planning strategy. She also developed safety tech- 
niques using sonar and radar, and contributed other innovations to the field. 

Van Straten continued working for the Naval Weather Service as a civilian until 
1962, forecasting weather for the launching of long-range missiles. One study she 
initiated was to investigate the pattern of radioactive fallout in case of an atomic 
attack on the United States. She received the Navy's Meritorious Civilian Service 
Award in 1956 after 10 years of civilian service. After she left her civilian job with 
the Navy, she turned to consulting and writing. She was a member of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Meteorological Soci- 
ety, and the American Geophysical Union. 

Further Resources 

Williams, Kathleen Broome. 2001. Improbable Warriors: Women Scientists and the US 
Navy in World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. 



Vaughan, Martha 



b. 1926 
Biochemist 

Education: Ph.B., University of Chicago, 1944; M.D., Yale University, 1949 

Professional Experience: intern, New Haven Hospital, Yale, 1950-1951; 
research fellow, University of Pennsylvania, 1951-1952; National Research 
Council fellow, cellular physiology, National Heart Institute, 1952-1954, member 
of research staff, 1954-1968, head, Metabolism Section, National Heart and Lung 
Institute, 1968-1974, acting chief, molecular disease, 1974-1976, chief, cell 
metabolism laboratory, 1974-1994, deputy chief, pulmonary critical care branch, 
1994-; principal investigator 

Concurrent Positions: senior assistant surgeon to medical director, U.S. Public 
Health Service, 1954-1989 



938 | Vennesland, Birgit 

Martha Vaughan is renowned for her research at the National Institutes of Health 
(NIH) on the mechanism of hormone action. She has worked for the same institute 
during her long career with the NIH, but the name has changed from National 
Heart Institute, to National Heart and Lung Institute, to National Heart, Lung, 
and Blood Institute. She and her husband, Jack Orloff, were among the several 
scientist couples hired by the NIH in the post-World War II era. Serving on the 
research staff, she was appointed head of the Metabolism Section in 1968, acting 
chief of the molecular disease branch in 1974, chief of the cell metabolism labora- 
tory in 1974, and deputy chief of the pulmonary and critical care medical branch in 
1994. She also was senior assistant surgeon to the medical director of the U.S. 
Public Health Service from 1954 to 1989. She is a co-editor of the book ADP- 
Ribosylating Toxins and G Proteins: Insights into Signal Transduction (1990), 
published by the American Society for Microbiology, and has written many scien- 
tific papers. 

Vaughan was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences 
in 1985. She has received numerous awards, including the Harvey Society 
Lecturer award (1982); the G. Burroughs Mider Lecturer award, National 
Institutes of Health (1979); and the Meritorious Service Medal (1974), 
Distinguished Service Medal (1979), Command Officer Award (1982), and 
Superior Service Award (1993), all of the U.S. Public Health Service. She is a 
member of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 
American Society of Clinical Investigation, Association of American Physicians, 
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Society of Biological 
Chemists. 



Vennesland, Birgit 

1913 2001 

Enzymologist, Plant Biologist 

Education: B.S., biochemistry, University of Chicago, 1934, Ph.D., biochemistry, 
1938 

Professional Experience: assistant biochemist, University of Chicago, 1938-1939; 
research fellow, Harvard University medical school, 1939-1941; instructor, Univer- 
sity of Chicago, 1941-1944, assistant to associate professor, 1944-1957, professor, 
1957-1968; director, Max Planck Institute of Cell Biology, 1968-1970, director, 
Vennesland Research Institute, Max Planck Society, 1970-1981 



Villa-Komaroff, Lydia | 939 

Concurrent Positions: civilian consultant, Office of Scientific Research and 
Development, 1944; adjunct professor, biochemistry and biophysics, University 
of Hawaii, 1987- 

Birgit Vennesland was a biochemist and plant biologist whose research focused on 
carboxylation reactions in animals and plants, mechanisms of hydrogen transfer in 
pyridine nucleotide dehydrogenases, and the enzymology and mechanism of plant 
photosynthesis. She was one of the first chemists to use radioactive carbon 1 1 to 
study carbohydrate metabolism. She served on several study teams for the National 
Science Foundation and the Public Health Service. After receiving her doctorate in 
biochemistry from the University of Chicago in 1938, she received a fellowship to 
study in Paris, but World War II interfered with those plans, and she went to Harvard 
University medical school instead. After working as a research fellow at Harvard for 
two years, she returned to Chicago as an instructor in 1941 and rose through the 
ranks to full professor by 1957. She left Chicago in 1968 for a position at another 
prestigious institute in Germany, being appointed a director at the Max Planck Insti- 
tute of Cell Biology in 1968 and then, in 1970, director of another institute of the 
Max Planck Society that became known as the Vennesland Research Institute. She 
retired in 1981 and moved to Hawaii with her twin sister, a retired medical doctor. 
She remained affiliated as an adjunct professor at the University of Hawaii. 

Vennesland received the Hales Award of the American Society of Plant Physiol- 
ogists (1950) and the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society (1964), as 
well as an honorary degree from Mount Holyoke College (1960). She was elected 
a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences and the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science, and was a member of the American Chemical 
Society, American Society of Biological Chemists, and American Society of Plant 
Physiologists. 

Further Resources 

Conn, Eric E. and Larry P. Solomonson. "Birgit Vennesland." Women Pioneers in Plant 
Biology. American Society of Plant Biologists. http://www.aspb.org/committees/ 
women/pioneers.cfm#Birgit%20Vennesland. 



Villa-Komaroff, Lydia 

b. 1947 

Molecular Biologist, Neurobiologist 

Education: B.A., biology, Goucher College, 1970; Ph.D., cell biology, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, 1975 



940 | Villa-Komaroff, Lydia 

Professional Experience: research fellow, biology, Harvard University, 1975- 
1978; assistant professor, molecular genetics and microbiology, University of 
Massachusetts Medical Center, 1978-1982, associate professor, 1982-1985; 
senior research associate, Division of Neuroscience, Children's Hospital, Boston, 
1985-1996, acting head, 1988-1994, associate director, 1995; associate professor, 
neuropathology (genetics), Harvard Medical School, 1985-1988, associate profes- 
sor, neurology (neuroscience and genetics), 1988-1996; associate vice president, 
Research, Northwestern University, 1996-1997, vice president, 1998-2002, and 
professor, neurology, Northwestern University, 1996-2002; vice president of 
research and chief operating officer, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 2003-2005; chief scientific officer, 
Cytonome, Inc., 2005-, chief executive officer, 2006- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting postdoctoral fellow, Cold Spring Harbor Laborato- 
ries, 1976-1977; director, Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Mental Retardation 
Research Center, Children's Hospital, Boston, 1985-1996, associate director, 
1987-1994, director, Transgenic Mouse Facility, 1990-1994 

Lydia Villa-Komaroff is renowned for her theory of brain development. Her 
research includes growth factors in brain development, structure and function of 
insulin-like growth factors in brain development, and the structure and function 
of genes expressed in central and peripheral nervous systems. Her particular focus 
is the flow of information in the cell from DNA to RNA to protein. She has held a 
variety of research and teaching positions at Harvard University, the University of 
Massachusetts, Northwestern University, and MIT. In 2005, she became Chief 
Scientific Officer of Cytonome, Inc., a Boston-based biotechnology company that 
sells a device for cell sorting. 

Both of Villa-Komaroff 's parents were the first in their respective families to 
attend college, and she became one of the first generation of Mexican Americans 
to receive a doctorate in this country. She became interested in a scientific career 
after taking part in a National Science Foundation summer program during high 
school. She began her undergraduate studies at the University of Washington in 
Seattle, but transferred to Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, to follow her 
husband's job. She received her degree in biology and gained experience working 
for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) during the summers. She went on to 
graduate school at MIT, receiving her Ph.D. in cell biology in 1975. During her post- 
doctoral work at Harvard, she first worked on making proteins in bacteria. In 1976, a 
national controversy arose over recombinant DNA technology. Some people feared 
that taking the genes from one organism, such as a human, and putting them into 
bacteria, might somehow create a supergerm or a new disease. The Cambridge city 



Vitetta, Ellen Shapiro | 941 

council temporarily banned certain experiments, and the Harvard research team 
had to move to a laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island for a year. 
Villa-Komaroff ' s research team was the first to produce insulin from bacteria, a 
patented process that is now responsible for most insulin used by diabetics. 

Villa-Komaroff has received several honorary degrees, and has been recognized 
with numerous awards and honors, including the Hispanic Engineer National 
Achievement Award (1992), the first Catalyst Award from the Science Club for 
Girls (2008), and MOSFs (Museum of Science and Industry) National Hispanic 
Scientist of the Year (2008). She was a member of the mammalian genetics study 
section of the NIH (1982-1984) and member of the Neurological Disease Program 
Project Review Committee (1989-1994). She is a member of the American Society 
for Microbiology, American Society of Hematology, American Society of Cell 
Biology, American Association for the Advancement of Science, International 
Society for Cellular Therapy, American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplan- 
tation, Society for Neuroscience, and Association for Women in Science, and is a 
founding member of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native 
Americans in Science (SACNAS). She has served on the National Academy of 
Sciences Committee on Women in Science and the National Research Council 
Committee on Underrepresented Groups. 

Further Resources 

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. "Lydia Villa-Komaroff among 100 Most 
Influential Hispanics in America." (16 October 2003). http://www.wi.mit.edu/news/ 
archives/2003/wi 1016.html. 



Vitetta, Ellen Shapiro 

b. ca. 1 942 

Microbiologist, Immunologist 

Education: B.A., Connecticut College, 1964; M.S., New York University, 1966, 
Ph.D., immunology, and M.D., 1968 

Professional Experience: research assistant, biology, New York University, 1964- 
1968; postdoctoral fellow, New York University School of Medicine, 1968-1970, 
assistant research scientist, 1970-1971, assistant professor, microbiology, and 
associate research scientist, Department of Medicine, 1971-1974; associate pro- 
fessor, microbiology, University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center, 1974- 
1976, professor, 1976-, director, Cancer Immunobiology Center, 1988- 



942 | Vitetta, Ellen Shapiro 

Concurrent Positions: member, Medical Research Council, Cambridge, England, 
1986 

Ellen S. Vitetta is a renowned microbiologist whose most recent research has led to 
the development of a vaccine against ricin, a highly toxic compound made from 
castor beans that could be used as a biological weapon. After receiving her 
master's, doctorate, and M.D. degrees from New York University, she conducted 
research in the Medical School and Department of Medicine at that university 
for more than 10 years. She then moved to the University of Texas Southwestern 
Medical Center, where, in addition to being director of the Cancer Immunobiology 
Center, she holds the S. S. Patigan Distinguished Chair in Cancer Immunobiology. 
Her work in immunotoxicology also has implications for the treatment of cancer 
and of AIDS. In the late 1990s, she and her research team first discovered that a 
specific form of antibodies, chemically altered with ricin, could kill cancer cells. 
They applied their findings to target HIV cells as well and then to a vaccine against 
ricin known as RiVax. One of Vitetta's former students, Linda Buck, went on to 
win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. 

Vitetta has received a merit grant award from the National Institutes of Health 
(NIH) every year since 1987. She is a member of many distinguished committees 
and commissions, including the science board of the Ludwig Institute, the Task 
Force on Immunology of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, 
the science advisory board of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the 
National Cancer Institute's Cancer Treatment Board, and is a consultant for phar- 
maceutical and biotech companies such as Eli Lilly, Abbott, and Genetics Insti- 
tute. She has also served on the editorial boards of numerous journals in the field. 

Vitetta was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1994 
and the Institute of Medicine in 2006. She is a recipient of the Taittinger Breast 
Cancer Research Award from the Komen Foundation (1983), NIH Merit Award 
(1987), Pierce Immunotoxin Award (1988), Women's Excellence in Science Award 
from the Federation of American Societies in Experimental Biology (FASEB) 
(1991), Abbott Award of the American Society of Microbiologists (1992), Rosenthal 
Award (1995) and Charlotte Friend Award (2002), both of the American Association 
of Cancer Research, and Mentoring Award (2002) and Lifetime Achievement Award 
(2007) of the American Association of Immunologists. In 1994, she served as 
president of the American Association of Immunologists, and in 2006, she was 
elected to the Texas Women's Hall of Fame. 

Further Resources 

University of Texas. Faculty website, http://www8.utsouthwestern.edu/findfac/ 
professional/0,2356, 17609,00.html. 



w 



Waelsch, Salome Gluecksohn 



1907 2007 
Geneticist 

Education: Ph.D., zoology, University of Freiburg, 1932 

Professional Experience: assistant, department of experimental cell research, Uni- 
versity of Berlin, 1932-1933; research associate and lecturer, zoology, Columbia 
University, 1936-1953, lecturer, College of Physicians and Surgeons, 1953-1955; 
associate professor to professor, anatomy, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 
1955-1963, professor, molecular genetics, 1958-1978 

Salome Waelsch was a mammalian geneticist whose research on the role of genes in 
normal and abnormal cell differentiation and on genetically controlled congenital 
abnormalities helped establish the field of developmental genetics. Her research 
focused on genetic mutations of mice spines and tails, and she later researched the 
hereditary nature of blood cells and chromosomal defects that affect liver function. 
After receiving her doctorate from the University of Freiburg in 1932, she worked 
briefly at the University of Berlin before fleeing to the United States in 1933. She 
and her husband (a Freiburg-trained biochemist who also obtained a position at 
Columbia in New York) were among the many Jewish scientists and academics 
forced to leave Nazi Germany. Salome did not have a job for three years but finally 
accepted an initially nonpaying research-associate position at Columbia University 
in 1936, where she also lectured in zoology. Waelsch joined the faculty of Albert 
Einstein College of Medicine in 1955, where she taught anatomy and molecular 
genetics for more than 20 years. She also served as chair of the genetics department 
between 1963 and 1976. Although she formally retired in 1978, she remained active 
in her research well into her eighties and nineties. 

Waelsch was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 
1979 and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1993. She was awarded 
the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal of the Genetics Society of America and the first 
Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Cancer Society. In 1982, Freiburg 
University awarded her an honorary degree, which she was hesitant to accept 
due to the circumstances that led her to have to leave Germany 50 years earlier. 
She was a fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the American Academy 



943 



944 | Walbot, Virginia Elizabeth 

of Arts and Sciences, New York Academy of Science, American Association of 
Anatomists, Genetics Society of America, Society for Developmental Biology, 
and American Society of Zoologists. 

Further Resources 

Solter, Davor. 2008. "In Memoriam: Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch (1907 2007)." Devel- 
opmental Cell. 14(1): 22 24. (January 2008). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science 
? ob=ArticleURL& udi=B6WW3-4RKDVWC-7& user=10& rdoc=l& fmt=& orig 
=search& sort=d& docanchor=&view=c& acct=C000050221& version=l& urlVersion 
=0& Userid=10&md5=a49e98dbcfl507db2038cc06a0ca4ac6. 



Walbot, Virginia Elizabeth 

b. 1945 

Biologist, Plant Geneticist 

Education: B.A., biology, Stanford University, 1967; M.Phil., biology, Yale 
University, 1969, Ph.D., biology, 1972 

Professional Experience: National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow, bio- 
chemistry, University of Georgia, 1972-1975; assistant to associate professor, 
biology, Washington University, St. Louis, 1975-1980; associate professor to 
professor, biological sciences, Stanford University, 1981— 

Concurrent Positions: Guggenheim fellow and visiting scientist, C.S.I.R.O., 

Australia, 1987; adjunct associate professor, agronomy, University of Missouri, 
1979-1990 

Virginia Walbot is a plant geneticist whose research focus is corn genetics. Her 
research combines interests in plant molecular biology and development, genetics, 
and botany. She and other scientists have found corn to be the ideal organism for study- 
ing fundamental questions about genetics and development. The plant geneticist 
Barbara McClintock received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983 
for her fundamental research on corn, and Walbot was able to confer with her while 
McClintock was still active in research in the late 1970s, and worked with her in her lab- 
oratory at Cold Spring Harbor. Transposable genetic elements, or mobile DNA, discov- 
ered by McClintock more than 50 years ago, figure prominently in Walbot's research. 
Walbot is particularly interested in developmental timing, as plants have continu- 
ous development — that is, they are continuously making organs from scratch. For 
example, if one places a plant with dark leaves in sunlight, the dark leaves will fall 
off to be replaced by light-colored leaves to filter the sunlight. Scientists are using 



Wallace, Phyllis Ann | 945 




recombinant DNA methods to 
manipulate plant genomes to breed 
for resistance to disease, while ensur- 
ing that there is a diversity of varieties 
that have any new trait. If only a few 
genetic variants are developed, it 
means that the food sources are more 
susceptible to a new disease or envi- 
ronmental conditions that are fatal to 
that one type. While she was on the 
faculty of Washington University, she 
developed, in cooperation with a team 
of University of Missouri researchers 
and commercial corn breeders, a corn 
that is genetically incapable of losing 
its sweetness and turning starchy. In 
addition to Walbot's numerous scien- 
tific publications, she is co-author of a 
textbook, Developmental Biology 
(1986), and co-editor of The Maize 
Handbook (1993), a compendium of 
the standard procedures and protocols 
for maize research. 

Walbot has consulted on numerous scientific, government, and industry advisory 
boards. She is the recipient of the Eppley Foundation Award (1993) and a National 
Geographic Society Explorer Award (1998). She is a member of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, Botanical Society of America, Society 
for Developmental Biology, and American Society of Plant Physiologists, and a 
Corresponding Member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. 

Further Resources 

Stanford University. Faculty website. http://med.stanford.edu/profiles/Virginia Walbot/. 

Wallace, Phyllis Ann 

1920 1993 
Economist 

Education: B.A., New York University, 1943; M.A., Yale University, 1944, Ph.D., 
economics, 1948 



Biologist and plant geneticist, Virginia Walbot. 
(Courtesy of the Stanford University News 
Service Library) 



946 | Wallace, Phyllis Ann 

Professional Experience: economist and statistician, National Bureau of Eco- 
nomic Research, 1948-1952; associate professor, economics, Atlanta University, 
1953-1957; senior economist, U.S. government, 1957-1965; chief of technical 
studies, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 1966-1969; vice 
president for research, Metropolitan Applied Research Center, New York City, 
1969-1972; visiting professor, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Insti- 
tute of Technology (MIT), 1972-1975, professor, 1975-1986 

Concurrent Positions: lecturer, City College of New York, 1948-1951 

Phyllis Wallace was a pioneer in research on the economics of racial and sexual 
discrimination in the workplace. She was the first black woman to receive a doc- 
torate in economics from Yale University and the first black woman on the faculty 
to be tenured at MIT. She was also the first African American and first woman 
president of the Industrial Relations Research Association. Early in her career, 
she concentrated her research on issues dealing with international trade. She had 
written her dissertation on commodity trade relationships, concentrating on 
international sugar agreements. She first had a non-tenure-track position at 
New York University and, at the same time, did research for the National 
Bureau of Economic Research. She then moved to Atlanta University, where she 
was an associate professor, before working as a senior economist for an unnamed 
government agency that was later revealed to be the Central Intelligence 
Agency (CIA). 

Wallace became chief of technical operations for the Equal Employment 
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) a few months after it started operations in 
1965. She worked to coordinate hearings for the EEOC about racial employment 
patterns in many industries, and her research focused on the status of African 
Americans in urban poverty neighborhoods. At the Metropolitan Applied 
Research Center, she worked on issues affecting urban youth in labor markets 
and on issues affecting young black women, which had not been explored at that 
point. After joining the faculty of MIT, Wallace consulted on a federal lawsuit 
against communications company AT&T for discrimination against women and 
minority men. She wrote about this case in her 1976 book, Equal Employment 
Opportunity and the AT&T Case. Her other books included Pathways to Work: 
Employment among Black Teenage Females (1974) and Women, Minorities and 
Employment Discrimination (1977); in 1980, she published a study on Black 
Women in the Labor Force, in which she concluded that young black women have 
the highest unemployment rate and the lowest economic status of any group. 

Even after her retirement in 1986, Wallace continued to work on issues related 
to discrimination and consulted with the Sloan School at MIT on sexual harass- 
ment issues and policies. The Sloan School established two funds for black 



Warga, Mary Elizabeth | 947 

students and scholars in her name. Wallace received numerous honorary degrees, 
and was a member of the American Economic Association and the Industrial Rela- 
tions Research Association. 

Further Resources 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Professor Phyllis A. Wallace Dies." http://web 
.mit.edu/newsoffice/ 1 993/wallace-0 113 .html. 



Warga, Mary Elizabeth 

1904 1991 
Physicist 

Education: B.S., University of Pittsburgh, 1926, M.S., 1928, Ph.D., spectroscopy, 
1937 

Professional Experience: industrial assistant, Mellon Institute for Industrial 
Research, 1928-1930, industrial fellow, 1930-1933; industrial fellow, University 
of Pittsburgh, 1934-1936, instructor to professor of physics and director of spec- 
troscopy laboratory, 1936-1962, adjunct professor, physics, 1962-1972, emeritus 

Concurrent Positions: executive secretary, Optical Society of America (OSA), 
1959-1972 

Mary Warga was a physicist whose research involved ultraviolet, visible, and 
infrared optical emission spectroscopy; optical absorption; and upper atmosphere 
spectroscopy. She worked at the Allegheny Observatory between 1926 and 1928. 
After receiving her master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1928, 
she received several fellowships before being appointed instructor of physics in 
1936. She rose through the ranks to professor of physics and director of the spec- 
troscopy laboratory after receiving her doctorate in spectroscopy in 1937. After a 
distinguished career in teaching and research, Warga served as the first executive 
secretary of the OSA, having previously served four years on the Board of 
Directors. During her first few years in this position, which was headquartered in 
Washington, D.C., she still directed the spectroscopy laboratory at the University 
of Pittsburgh, but in 1962, she reduced her teaching load to become adjunct pro- 
fessor of physics. The laser had been invented in 1960, and the field of optics 
was an exciting new area of research. In her role as executive secretary of the 
OSA during this time, Warga brought together many top scientists working in this 
field by encouraging society membership, organizing conferences, and writing a 



948 | Washburn, Margaret Floy 

monthly news column. She retired from teaching and from the OS A in 1972, 
although she remained involved in professional activities for several more years. 
Warga was named a Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania (1954) and 
Woman of the Year in Science Research (1959), and received a District Service 
Award in Applied Spectroscopy (1962). Upon her retirement, she was honored 
with a Distinguished Service Award from the OSA (1973). She was a member of 
the governing board of the American Institute of Physics beginning in 1960 and 
served as secretary of the Joint Council on Quantum Electronics. She was elected 
a fellow of the OSA, American Physics Society, Physics Society of London, and 
American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was a member of the 
U.S. and International Commission for Optics, American Association of Physics 
Teachers, American Chemical Society, and Society for Applied Spectroscopy. 

Further Resources 

Howard, John N. 2002. "An Executive Secretary for OSA." Optics & Photonics News. 13(6): 
14 15. http://www.opticsinfobase.org/abstract.cfm?URI=OPN-13-6-14. 



Washburn, Margaret Floy 

1871 1939 
Psychologist 

Education: A.B., Vassar College, 1891, A.M., 1893; Ph.D., Cornell University, 
1894 

Professional Experience: professor, psychology and ethics, Wells College, 1894- 
1900; dean, Sage College, Cornell University, 1900-1902, lecturer, psychology, 
1901-1902; assistant professor and head, psychology, University of Cincinnati, 
1902-1903; associate professor, philosophy and psychology, Vassar College, 
1903-1908, professor, psychology, 1908-1937 

Margaret Washburn was recognized in the new field of experimental psychology, 
in particular for her research on a motor theory of consciousness, or the idea that 
all thoughts and perceptions produce some type of physical reaction. She merged 
her interests in science and philosophy in her work on social consciousness, 
emotions, animal psychology, and comparative psychology. She authored or 
co-authored (with her Vassar students) hundreds of scientific papers; her most 
important books were The Animal Mind (1908) and Movement and Mental 
Imagery (1916), which presented her theory of consciousness and linked different 



Watson, Patty Jo (Andersen) | 949 

schools of psychological thought at the time. Her name was included in a study of 
50 eminent American psychologists in 1903. 

Washburn earned a bachelor's and master's degree at Vassar, then applied to the 
doctoral program in psychology at Columbia University. Columbia would not 
admit a woman in the graduate program, however, so she went to Cornell Univer- 
sity instead and received her Ph.D. in 1894. She spent six years as a professor of 
psychology and ethics at Wells College before returning to Cornell as a lecturer 
in psychology. She spent one year as an assistant professor and head of the psy- 
chology department at the University of Cincinnati before returning to her alma 
mater at Vassar College as associate professor of philosophy and psychology in 
1903; she was promoted to full professor in 1908 and remained at Vassar until 
her retirement in 1937. Between 1925 and 1935, she served as co-editor of the 
American Journal of Psychology. 

In 1931, Washburn was only the second woman (after Florence Sabin, 1925) to 
be elected to the National Academy of Sciences. She served as vice president of 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science and, in 1921, became 
president of the American Psychological Association. In 1929, she became a 
member of the Society of Experimental Psychologists, which had previously 
barred women from membership; two years later, the Society met at Vassar, a 
women's college, at Washburn's invitation. 



Watson, Patty Jo (Andersen) 

b. 1932 

Anthropologist, Archaeologist 

Education: B.A., University of Chicago, M.A., 1956, Ph.D., anthropology, 1959 

Professional Experience: field assistant, Oriental Institute Iraq-Jarmo project, 
University of Chicago, 1954-1955; National Science Foundation (NSF) fellow, Uni- 
versity of Michigan, 1957-1958; NSF fellow, University of Minnesota, 1958-1959; 
archaeologist and ethnographer, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, 1959- 
1960, research associate, archaeology, 1964, 1967; assistant to associate professor, 
anthropology, Washington University, St. Louis, 1969-1973, professor, 1973-1993, 
distinguished university professor, 1993— 

Concurrent Positions: instructor, anthropology, University of Southern California 
and Los Angeles State College, 1961; summer lecturer, anthropology, University 
of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1962-1963; project associate, anthropology curriculum 
study project, American Anthropological Association, 1965-1967 



950 | Wattleton, (Alyce) Faye 

Patty Jo Watson is a distinguished anthropologist and archaeologist who pioneered 
the field of ethnoarcheaology. Her research interests have ranged from the prehis- 
tory of Iran, to the archaeology of the Mammoth Cave area in Kentucky, to method 
and theory in shipwreck archaeology. Early in her career, she was a field assistant 
for the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, through which she 
was involved as an archaeologist and ethnographer on an Iranian prehistory 
project and directed the excavation of an ancient site in Turkey on behalf of the 
Istanbul-Chicago Joint Prehistoric Project. Her dissertation project was an investi- 
gation of early village farming in the Levant. 

Married to an avid caver, she became interested in cave archaeology in North 
America and has conducted research in Kentucky, New Mexico, and Tennessee; 
this work has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the 
Humanities and National Geographic Society. She is author of Archaeology of 
the Mammoth Cave Area (1974) and co-editor of the book, Of Caves and Shell 
Mounds (1996). She also co-authored Archaeological Explanation: The Scientific 
Method in Archaeology (1984) and co-edited The Origins of Agriculture: An 
International Perspective (1992), a collection of papers from a symposium of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science at which all of the speakers 
were experts in crop evolution or the archaeological record for early plant cultiva- 
tion. She has served on the editorial board of the journals Anthropology Today, 
American Anthropologist, and American Antiquity. 

Watson was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1988. 
She received the Fryxell Award for interdisciplinary research given by the Society for 
American Archaeology at a symposium on interdisciplinary research held in her 
honor in 1990, and in 1996 received a Distinguished Service Award of the American 
Association of Anthropology. She is a fellow of the American Anthropological Asso- 
ciation and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
Society for American Archaeology, Middle East Studies Association of North 
America, Cave Research Foundation, and the St. Louis Society, a branch of the 
Archaeological Institute of America. In 1995, she was featured in a three-part public 
television miniseries on women scientists called "Discovering Women." 



Wattleton, (Alyce) Faye 

b. 1943 
Nurse-Midwife 

Education: B.S., nursing, Ohio State University, 1964; M.S., maternal and infant 
healthcare, and certificate, nurse-midwifery, Columbia University, 1967 



Wattleton, (Alyce) Faye | 95 1 




Professional Experience: instructor, 
Miami Valley School of Nursing, 
1964-1966; assistant director, nurs- 
ing, Dayton Public Health Nursing 
Association, 1967-1970; executive 
director, Planned Parenthood Associ- 
ation of Miami Valley, Dayton, Ohio, 
1970-1978; president, Planned 
Parenthood Federation of America 
(PPFA), 1978-1992; host, syndicated 
television show, Chicago, 1992; 
president and founder, Center for 
Gender Equality, 1995; president, 
Center for the Advancement of 
Women, 1995-2010 

Faye Wattleton was the first African 
American woman to serve as 
president of the PPFA. She led the 
nation's oldest and largest voluntary 
family-planning organization in a 
crusade to guarantee every person's 
right to decide if and when to have a 
child. With a background in nursing, 

she became president of Planned Parenthood in 1978, believing that family 
planning is the best solution to a host of problems that are intensified by the high 
rate of unintended pregnancies. These problems include child abuse, teenage 
pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as poverty, hunger, and death 
and injury from unsafe abortions. She was inspired to work with Planned 
Parenthood on the local level in Dayton, Ohio, after seeing the number of girls 
and women who suffered or died from illegal or self-induced abortions. In the 
early twentieth century, Margaret Sanger founded the American birth-control 
movement and created an organization that was the forerunner of the PPFA. 
Continuing Sanger's vision of medical services as well as education and informa- 
tion, Planned Parenthood offers pregnancy diagnosis, prenatal care, infertility 
counseling, AIDS testing, and contraceptive services, as well as information 
on sexual health, not only in the United States but through international efforts 
as well. 

In the 1960s and early 1970s, some black activists criticized Planned Parent- 
hood as a white-managed agency whose mission was to reduce the black birthrate 



Faye Wattleton, a former president of Planned 
Parenthood, has been a world leader in the 
struggle to safeguard women's reproductive 
rights. (Getty Images) 



952 | Way, Katharine 

through population control. The selection of Wattleton as president expanded the 
vision and operation of Planned Parenthood. New controversies arose in the 
1980s and 1990s with an active anti-abortion movement's attacks on patients and 
clinics, and even death threats sent to Wattleton personally. The courts continued 
to address the abortion issue, and setbacks to the pro-choice movement came in 
the form of decreased funding and efforts to limit abortion rights through parental 
notification or waiting periods. Throughout her presidency, Wattleton (like her 
successors) emphasized Planned Parenthood's message of education and choice. 
She resigned as president in 1992 but remained active as a public figure through 
hosting a television show and in her work with various organizations on a range 
of women's issues. 

Wattleton has received numerous awards, including the American Humanist 
Association's Humanist of the Year (1986), Claude Pepper Humanitarian Award 
(1990), Boy Scouts of America Award (1990), Spirit of Achievement Award of 
the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University (1991), Margaret 
Sanger Award (1992), Jefferson Public Service Award (1991), and Dean's Distin- 
guished Service Award of the Columbia School of Public Health (1992). In addi- 
tion to her scientific papers, she has written a book, How to Talk to Your Child 
about Sexuality (1986), and her autobiography, Life on the Line (1996). 

Further Resources 

Faye Wattleton. http://www.fayewattleton.com/. 



Way, Katharine 

1903 1995 
Physicist 

Education: B.S., Columbia University, 1932; Ph.D., physics, University of North 
Carolina, 1938 

Professional Experience: research fellow, Bryn Mawr College, 1938-1939; 
instructor, physics, University of Tennessee, 1939-1941, assistant professor, 
1941-1942; physicist, Naval Ordnance Laboratory, 1942; physicist, Oak Ridge 
National Laboratory, 1942-1948; physicist, National Bureau of Standards, 1949- 
1953; director, nuclear data project, National Research Council (NRC), 1953— 
1963; director, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1964-1968; editor, Nuclear Data 
Tables, 1965-1973; editor, Atomic Data, 1969-1973; editor, Atomic Data and 
Nuclear Data Tables, 1973-1982; director, surgery and bioengineering, National 
Institutes of Health (NIH) study section, 1981-1985 



Weertman, Julia (Randall) | 953 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct professor, physics, Duke University, 1968-1988 

Katharine Way was a physicist whose research included nuclear fission, radiation 
shielding, and nuclear constants. One of her most notable contributions to science, 
however, was the vast project of compiling and editing the Atomic Data and 
Nuclear Data Tables, a journal of regularly updated research information for 
experimental and theoretical physicists that is now available online. Way was in 
on the ground floor of the entire project during World War II, when she was 
involved in the Manhattan Project at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, the Oak 
Ridge National Laboratory, and the National Bureau of Standards. She had been 
a research fellow at Bryn Mawr College and then on the faculty at the University 
of Tennessee. She moved to Washington, D.C., during the war and worked at vari- 
ous laboratories on nuclear physics. She worked with Eugene Wigner on what 
became known as the Way-Wigner formula on the decay of nuclear fission products; 
Wigner was later awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. 

Way's work in nuclear physics led to her concern about the ethical uses and 
threat of the atomic bomb. In 1946, she co-edited a book, One World or None: A 
Report to the Public on the Full Meaning of the Atomic Bomb, which included 
essays by top scientists of the era (including Albert Einstein) and became a New 
York Times bestseller; the book has been reprinted numerous times, most recently 
in 2007. After the war, she worked for the National Bureau of Standards and then 
as director of the nuclear data project for the NRC, where she served as editor of 
the new publications for collecting and organizing research data. She and other 
physicists began compiling the "Nuclear Data Sheets" in 1964 and, after the 
project moved to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, they published the first issue 
of the new journal. The project culminated in the combined Atomic Data 
and Nuclear Data Tables, which Way worked on from 1965 to 1982, leaving to 
accept a directorship at the NIH. During this time, she also spent 20 years as 
adjunct professor of physics at Duke University. Way was an elected fellow of 
the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science. 



Weertman, Julia (Randall) 

b. 1926 

Solid-State Physicist, Metallurgist 

Education: B.S., Carnegie Institute of Technology, 1946, M.S., 1947, D.Sc, 
physics, 1951 



954 | Weertman, Julia (Randall) 

Professional Experience: Rotary International fellow, Ecole Normale Superieure, 
University of Paris, 1951-1952; physicist, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, 
1952-1958; visiting assistant professor, Northwestern University, Illinois, 1972- 
1973, assistant to associate professor, materials science, 1973-1981, pro- 
fessor, 1982-1987, director, Material Science and Engineering Department, 
1987-1992 

Julia Weertman is renowned for her research on high-temperature metal failure 
and the nanocrystalline structures of metals. Her research includes dislocation 
theory, high-temperature fatigue, small-angle neutron scattering, and nanocrystal- 
line material. She has also contributed to the understanding of the basic character- 
istics of different materials in her research on small-angle neutron scattering. She 
received all of her degrees at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now part of 
Carnegie-Mellon University). After completing postdoctoral studies at the Ecole 
Normale Superieure, she was appointed to a position as a physicist at the U.S. 
Naval Research Laboratory. Her work there centered on ferromagnetic spin reso- 
nance and the study of the basic concepts of magnetism. She interrupted her for- 
mal research to accompany her husband to London, where he worked for the 
Naval Research Laboratory. She and her husband, Johannes Weertman, collabo- 
rated on a textbook during this period, Elementary Dislocation Theory (1964). 
When they returned to the United States, her husband accepted a position at 
Northwestern University, and she took several years off from her career to raise 
children. 

Weertman returned to research formally when she joined Northwestern in 1972 
as a visiting assistant professor, then rose through the ranks to full professor, direc- 
tor of the materials science and engineering program, and a distinguished profes- 
sorship by the time she retired in 1992. She has been an advisor to several 
government agencies, including the National Science Foundation, Department of 
Energy, National Bureau of Standard and Technology, and Argonne and Oak 
Ridge National Laboratories. 

Weertman was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering 
in 1988. In addition to her scientific papers, she has been co-author of six books. 
She was a member of the Evanston (Illinois) Environmental Control Board 
(1972-1979) and a member of the National Research Council's National Materials 
Advisory Board (1999-2005). She has received a number of awards, including the 
Creativity Award of the National Science Foundation (1981 and 1986), a Guggen- 
heim fellowship (1986), the Distinguished Engineering Educator Award of the 
Society of Women Engineers (SWE) (1989), an Achievement Award of SWE 
(1991), the Leadership Award of the Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society 
(TMS) (1996), the Von Hippie Award of Materials Research Society (2003), and 



Weisburger, Elizabeth Amy (Kreiser) | 955 

the Gold Medal of American Society for Metals (ASM) International (2005). She 
is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science and a member of the 
American Institute of Physics, American Crystallographic Association, American 
Society for Testing and Materials, Materials Research Society, and American 
Physical Society. 

Further Resources 

Northwestern University. Faculty website, http://www.matsci.northwestern.edu/faculty/ 
jrw.html. 



Weisburger, Elizabeth Amy (Kreiser) 

b. 1924 

Biochemist, Toxicologist 

Education: B.S., chemistry, Lebanon Valley College, 1944; Ph.D., organic 
chemistry, University of Cincinnati, 1947 

Professional Experience: research associate, University of Cincinnati, 1947-1949; 
postdoctoral research fellow, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of 
Health, 1949-1951, researcher, Biochemistry Laboratory, 1951-1961, Carcinogen 
Screening Section, Experimental Pathology, 1961-1973, chief, Carcinogen 
Metabolism and Toxicology, Division of Cancer Cause and Prevention, 1973— 
1981, assistant director, Chemical Carcinogenesis, Division of Cancer Etiology, 
1981-1988; consultant, 1989- 

Elizabeth Weisburger had a distinguished career as a toxicologist with the 
National Cancer Institute (NCI), where she conducted pioneering research on the 
carcinogenic effects of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food additives, and environ- 
mental pollutants. Her research has aided in providing insight at the molecular 
level of carcinogenesis, which is vital in developing methods for the treatment 
and prevention of cancer. Among the compounds that she has studied are fluo- 
renes, nitrosamines, aromatic amines, halogenated hydrocarbons, fumigants, and 
food preservatives. She has also investigated the relationship between mutagens 
and cancers, and emphasized developing improved test systems for evaluating car- 
cinogenic risk. She was among the first scientists to test some of the drugs used in 
clinical cancer chemotherapy and to point out their potential dangers. 

Weisburger was originally interested in biology as an undergraduate, but 
changed her major to chemistry, and studied mathematics and physics as well. 
During World War II, graduate assistantships in chemistry were readily available 



956 | Weisstein, Naomi 

to women because so many men were in the military service. Weisburger received 
an assistantship at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, where she began work in 
cancer research and continued working as a research associate after graduation. 
She and her husband, medical researcher John H. Weisburger, then joined the 
NCI, where they collaborated until their divorce in 1974; he later became research 
director of the American Health Foundation. Elizabeth Weisburger published 
more than 200 papers on cancer-causing chemicals, nutrition, and other topics, 
and for many years was editor of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 
She retired from the NCI in 1988 and became a consultant, including as an advisor 
on project funding for the American Institute of Cancer Research, and as a senior 
associate with Mandava Associates, a consulting firm that advises biotechnology, 
pharmaceutical, and related companies on compliance with government safety, 
environmental, and other regulations. 

Weisburger has been a member of the Chemical Substances Committee of the 
American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists since 1978. She has 
received honorary degrees from the University of Cincinnati (1981) and from 
Lebanon Valley College (1989). Her numerous awards include the Meritorious 
Service Medal (1973) and Distinguished Service Medal (1985) of the U.S. Public 
Health Service, the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society (1981), the 
Hillebrand Prize of the Chemical Society of Washington (1981), and the Herbert 
E. Stokinger Award of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial 
Hygienists (1996). She is a member of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, American Association for Cancer Research, American Chemical 
Society, Society of Toxicology, American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular 
Biology, and Royal Society of Chemistry. 



Weisstein, Naomi 

b. 1939 
Psychologist 

Education: B.A., Wellesley College, 1961; Ph.D., psychology, Harvard University, 
1964 

Professional Experience: lecturer, University of Chicago, 1965; assistant to asso- 
ciate professor, Loyola University, Chicago, 1966-1973; professor, psychology, 
State University of New York at Buffalo, 1973-emerita 

Concurrent Positions: consultant, Xerox Corporation, 1973-1974 



Weisstein, Naomi | 957 

Naomi Weisstein is an experimental psychologist known for her research in vision, 
perception, and cognition. She is also known for her activity in civil rights and 
feminist causes starting in the 1960s, first as a graduate student at Harvard and 
then as a postdoctoral lecturer at the University of Chicago. She was one of the 
first women to speak out about employment practices in academia and, specifi- 
cally, on the difficulties of women entering the scientific professions. Weisstein 
attended the Bronx High School of Science and went on to Wellesley College as 
an undergraduate, where she took for granted the dedicated female professors 
who had received degrees from first-class universities, not realizing many of them 
were teaching at a women's college because they were unable to secure positions 
at other universities. Such faculty members often had heavy teaching loads and lit- 
tle time, equipment, or funds to conduct scientific research. Weisstein went on to 
Harvard, where the department chair told first-year graduate students that women 
did not belong in graduate school and restricted women's use of lab equipment. 
She attended Yale University briefly to use their equipment and transferred her 
credits and work back to Harvard in order to receive her doctorate in psychology 
in 1964. 

Weisstein was promised a position at the University of Chicago, but about 
10 days before classes started, the department invoked an unwritten anti- 
nepotism rule to deny her a position because her husband, Jesse Lemisch, was a 
faculty member. She was hired instead as a lecturer to teach in areas outside her 
research and, after one year, was notified that her contract would not be renewed. 
She then obtained a tenure-track faculty position at Loyola University in Chicago, 
where she taught for seven years before both she and her husband relocated for 
faculty positions at the State University of New York at Buffalo. 

One of Weisstein's research interests was the discipline of psychology itself, 
and the way it describes male and female personalities differently in ways that dis- 
advantage women. She has also questioned the effectiveness of psychotherapy and 
the clinical definitions of schizophrenia, homosexuality, and even heterosexuality. 
In a landmark 1968 paper, "Psychology Constructs the Female," she argued that 
psychology provides little insight into woman's true "nature," instead defining 
women according to sexist ideas of desired social roles as wives and mothers, 
and finding them psychologically unstable when they do not fulfill those roles. 
She went on to write dozens of scientific papers, but by the early 1980s, Weisstein 
was struck with physical health problems and forced into early retirement. Although 
bedridden, she continued for some years to write, collaborate, consult, and sit on the 
editorial board of scientific journals. 

In 1970, Weisstein, along with Phyllis Chesler and others, helped found American 
Women in Psychology. She also founded the Women's Caucus of the Psychonomic 
Society (1972) and Women in Eye Research (1980), a caucus of the Association 



958 | Westcott, Cynthia 

for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. She has been a member of the Optical 
Society of America, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and 
American Psychological Association. 

Further Resources 

Lemisch, Jesse and Naomi Weisstein. 1997. "Remarks on Naomi Weisstein." http:// 
www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/CWLUMemoir/weisstein.html. 

Weisstein, Naomi. 2003. "Adventures of a Woman in Science." In Autobiographical Writ- 
ings Across the Disciplines, edited by Diane P. Freedman and Olivia Frey, 397 413. 
Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 



Westcott, Cynthia 

1898 1983 
Plant Pathologist 

Education: B.A., Wellesley College, 1920; Ph.D., plant pathology, Cornell 
University, 1932 

Professional Experience: science teacher, Northboro High School, Massachusetts, 
1920-1921; assistant in plant pathology, Cornell University, 1921-1923, instructor, 
1923-1925, research assistant, 1925-1931; assistant horticulturist, seed laboratory, 
New Jersey Experiment Station, 1931-1933; independent horticulturist, The Plant 
Doctor, New Jersey, 1931-1961; independent writer and lecturer, New York, 
1961-1983 

Concurrent Positions: plant pathologist, U.S. Department of Agriculture 
(USDA), 1943-1945 

Cynthia Westcott was a plant pathologist whose research focused on rose diseases, 
diseases of ornamental trees and flowers, and garden diseases and pests. She estab- 
lished a private practice as the "Plant Doctor" when she was unable to find a full- 
time professional position, and worked briefly for the USDA. As an independent 
plant consultant, she maintained the gardens of her wealthy customers, lectured 
at women's clubs, and published several books: The Plant Doctor: The How, 
Why and When of Disease and Insect Control in Your Garden (1937), The Garden- 
er's Bug Book (1946), Anyone Can Grow Roses (1952), Garden Enemies (1953), 
and Are You Your Garden's Worst Pest? (1961). Many of her books went through 
numerous editions, including Westcott' s Plant Disease Handbook, originally pub- 
lished in 1950 and released in a seventh edition in 2008. She also wrote an 



West-Eberhard, Mary Jane | 959 

autobiography, Plant Doctoring Is Fun (1957), and wrote articles for popular mag- 
azines and newspapers, as well as leaflets on pesticides for the Manufacturing 
Chemists Association. 

Westcott received her Ph.D. in plant pathology from Cornell University in 1932. 
She had previously taught high school science courses and spent 10 years working 
on her doctorate at Cornell, supporting herself by working as a research assistant 
and instructor. She worked in the seed laboratory at the New Jersey Experiment 
Station for three years before setting up her own business. During World War II, 
she worked as a plant pathologist for the USDA in order to earn money to obtain 
the supplies she needed for her business. 

Westcott's work was honored with a citation from the American Horticultural 
Council (1955), a Gold Medal from the American Rose Society (1960), a Gold 
Medal from the Garden Club of New Jersey, and a Garden Writers Award from 
the American Association of Nurserymen (1963). She was active in professional 
scientific and gardening organizations, and was the first president of the North 
Jersey Rose Society (1954-1956) and director of the American Rose Society 
(1954-1960), and served as committee chair for the American Rose Foundation 
and the National Council of State Garden Clubs. She was a fellow of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American 
Phytopathological Society, American Association of Economic Entomologists, 
American Entomological Society, American Horticultural Society, and Garden 
Writers Association of America, and an honorary life member of the Garden Club 
of New Jersey. 

Further Resources 

Horst, R. K. 1984. "Pioneer Leaders in Plant Pathology: Cynthia Westcott, Plant Doctor." 
Annual Review of Phytopathology. 22: 21 26. (September 1984). http://arjournals 
.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.py. 22. 090184. 00032 l?cookieSet=l 
&journalCode=phyto. 



West-Eberhard, Mary Jane 

b. 1941 
Entomologist 

Education: B.A., University of Michigan, 1963, M.S., 1964, Ph.D., zoology, 1967 

Professional Experience: teaching fellow, zoology, University of Michigan, 1963— 
1965; fellow, biology, Harvard University, 1967-1969; associate entomologist, 
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, 1973-1975, entomologist, 1975- 



960 | West-Eberhard, Mary Jane 

Concurrent Positions: staff member, biology, University of Valle, Colombia, 
1972-1978; distinguished visiting scientist, Museum of Zoology, University of 
Michigan, 1982 

Mary Jane West-Eberhard is a renowned entomologist who has studied the evo- 
lution of social behavior in insects of all types, primarily in Central and South 
America. She has published papers on insects' chemical communication, scent 
trails, social behavior, and diversity. She has theorized that evolved traits such 
as cyclic reproductive behavior, aggressiveness, and group life presumably 
reflect the genetic makeup of the individuals performing them. It seems that 
even caste determination, according to which some individuals end up as helpers 
and others as egg-laying queens, depends to some degree on heritable differ- 
ences in aggressiveness, for example, especially in relatively simple societies 
in which there is no extensive manipulation of the brood, which can overwhelm 
heritable variation. She is the co-editor of Natural History and Evolution of 
Paper-Wasps (1996), which is based on a workshop held in Italy in 1993 to cel- 
ebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Leo Pardi's original description of dominance 
hierarchies. In her chapter in the volume, she discusses how the differentiation 
of paper-wasp behavior and physiology may provide an illuminating model for 
some of the largest questions concerning the interface between development 
and evolution. 

West-Eberhard was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sci- 
ences in 1988. Her 2003 book, Developmental Plasticity and Evolution, won the 
R. R. Hawkins Award of the American Association of Publishers for Outstanding 
Professional, Reference or Scholarly Work. Soon after the book's publication, 
she was awarded the 2003 Sewall Wright Award of the American Society 
of Naturalists. In 2005, she received a prestigious international honor when 
she was elected to Italy's Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the oldest scientific 
society in the world. She has been a member of several distinguished committees 
and commissions, including the International Committee for the International 
Union for the Study of Social Insects, the Organization for Tropical Studies, and 
the advisory committee of the Monteverde Conservation League Committee on 
Human Rights of the National Academy of Sciences. She is a member of the 
American Society of Naturalists, and Society for the Study of Evolution 
(president, 1992). 

Further Resources 

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. "Mary Jane West-Eberhard." http://www.stri.org/ 
english/scientific staff/staff scientist/scientist. php?id=35. 



Westheimer, (Karola) Ruth (Siegel) | 96 1 



Westheimer, (Karola) Ruth (Siegel) 



b. 1928 
Psychologist 

Education: degree, psychology, University of Paris, Sorbonne; M.S., sociology, 
New School for Social Research, 1959; Ed.D., Columbia University, 1970 

Professional Experience: research assistant, Columbia University School of Public 
Health, 1967-1970; associate professor, Department of Sex Counseling, Lehman 
College, 1970-1977; radio talk show host, television show host, author, private 
practice in psychology, 1980-1997, independent author and lecturer, 1997- 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct professor, New York University; associate fellow, 
Calhoun College, Yale University; fellow, Butler College, Princeton University 

Ruth Westheimer is popularly known as "Dr. Ruth," a psychologist and sex thera- 
pist who has appeared on hundreds of television and radio shows, and who has 
written numerous books for the general public. She is a trained counselor and also 




American psychologist and sex therapist, Ruth Westhiemer, 2007. Dr. Ruth has appeared 
on hundreds of television and radio shows, and written numerous books for the general 
public. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



962 | Westheimer, (Karola) Ruth (Siegel) 

maintained a private practice for a number of years. She pioneered the call-in radio 
and television era of media psychology shows with her show, Sexually Speaking, 
which began in 1980. For more than 20 years, she has engaged the public on con- 
troversial subjects related to sexuality, sexual dysfunction, marriage, and relation- 
ships. She has joked that her German accent allows her, a diminutive older woman, 
to call body parts and functions by their proper name and to advise both men and 
women, and that the American public would not have accepted her if she had an 
English or American accent. Although formally retired in 1997, she still travels, 
gives talks, teaches university courses on the family and sexuality, makes televi- 
sion and documentary appearances, and maintains a website. 

Karola Ruth Siegel was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1928. When she was 
10 years old, her parents decided to flee Germany, but sent Ruth to a children's ref- 
uge in Switzerland. Her father was arrested before she left, and she presumes all of 
her family died in the concentration camps. Since the school considered her a wel- 
fare case, she was trained only as a maid. After the war, she emigrated to Palestine 
and joined Haganah, an underground movement fighting for the creation of a Jewish 
homeland. She dreamed of becoming a physician, but without family support and 
money, it was an impossible dream. She married and accompanied her first husband 
to Paris, where he studied medicine and she received a degree in psychology from 
the Sorbonne. She was divorced and remarried a Frenchman, whom she accompa- 
nied to New York in 1956 with their young daughter. After divorcing again, she 
attended evening classes for a master's degree at the New School for Social Research 
and went on for a doctorate of education from Columbia University Teachers 
College. In 1961, she married her third husband, Manfred Westheimer, and had 
another child. She had a position at Lehman College in the Department of Sex Coun- 
seling for a time and then worked for Brooklyn College and a few other schools. 

After giving a lecture to a group of New York broadcasters about the need for 
sex education programming, she was invited in 1980 to tape a 15-minute radio 
show, Sexually Speaking. She was immediately popular and went on to nationally 
and internationally syndicated newspaper columns and award-winning television 
shows such as The Dr. Ruth Show, Ask Dr. Ruth, and What's Up, Dr. Ruth?, a show 
for teens. Her career as an author began with Dr. Ruth 's Guide to Good Sex (1983). 
She went on to publish more than 30 titles, including Dr. Ruth's Guide to Safer Sex 
(1992), Dr. Ruth's Encyclopedia of Sex (1994; now available completely online), Sex 
for Dummies (1996; 3rd ed., 2006), Rekindling Romance for Dummies (2001), 
Human Sexuality: A Psychosocial Perspective (2002, co-authored with Sanford 
Lopater), and Dr. Ruth's Guide to Talking about Herpes (2004, co-authored with 
Pierre A. Lehu). Her autobiography is All in a Lifetime (1987). 

Westheimer is a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and has received 
honorary doctorates from Hebrew Union College (2000), City University of 



Wexler, Nancy Sabin | 963 

New York, Lehman College (2001), Trinity College (2004), and Westfield State 
College (2008). Her most recent awards include the Ellis Island Medal of Honor 
and the Leo Baeck Medal of the International Society for Sexual and Impotence 
Research, both in 2002, and a 2006 Medal for Distinguished Services from 
Columbia University Teachers College. In 2009, Playboy magazine named her 
one of the "55 Most Important People in Sex" of the past 55 years. 

Further Resources 

Dr. Ruth, http://www.drruth.com. 



Wexler, Nancy Sabin 

b. 1945 
Neuropsychologist 

Education: B.A., Radcliffe College, 1967; Ph.D., clinical psychology, University 
of Michigan, 1974 

Professional Experience: intern and teaching fellow, University of Michigan, 
Ann Arbor, 1968-1974; assistant professor, psychology, New School of Social 
Research, New York City, 1974-1976; executive director, Congressional Commis- 
sion for Control of Huntington's Disease, National Institute of Neurology, 
National Institutes of Health (NIH), 1976-1978, health science administrator, 
1978-1983; associate professor, clinical neuropsychology, College of Physicians 
and Surgeons, Columbia University, 1985-1992, professor, 1992- 

Concurrent Positions: psychologist, private practice, 1974-1976; president, 
Hereditary Disease Foundation, Santa Monica, California, 1983— 

Nancy Wexler is renowned as one of the primary leaders in the fight to discover the 
cause of and cure for the hereditary Huntington's disease, named for George 
Huntington, a physician who identified the disease in 1872. The disease appears in 
middle age and slowly kills nerve cells in the brain, causing dementia and rapid, 
uncontrollable movements of the joints and limbs. Patients live an average of 15 years 
after the symptoms first appear. In 1968, when she was in graduate school at the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, Wexler learned that her mother had developed symptoms of the 
disease, which had killed her grandfather and three of her uncles. Her mother's illness 
meant that both Nancy and her sister had a 50% chance of having inherited the defec- 
tive gene that causes the disease — and that they might pass it on if they ever had chil- 
dren. Her father, a psychoanalyst, founded the Hereditary Disease Foundation in 
order to support research; Nancy assumed the presidency of the Foundation in 1983. 



964 | Wheeler, Anna Johnson Pell 

Wexler received her doctorate in 1974 and wrote her dissertation on the neuro- 
psychological and emotional consequences of being at risk for Huntington's dis- 
ease. She was executive director of the Congressional Commission for the 
Control of Huntington's Disease through the NIH. She also helped to organize 
the Huntington's Disease Collaborative Research Group in 1984, an international 
consortium of scientists whose mandate was to track down the gene. The gene 
was isolated in 1993, but unfortunately, there is not yet a treatment for the disease. 
She has been a member of government committees concerned with ethical, legal, 
and social issues in medicine, and advisor to several groups related to the Human 
Genome Project, an international effort to map and identify the approximately 
25,000 genes in the human body. 

In 1997, Wexler was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Acad- 
emies of Science. She has received several honorary medical doctorates and was 
awarded the Albert Lasker Public Service Award (1993) for her efforts connected 
with finding a cure for Huntington's disease. A partial listing of her numerous other 
awards includes an Alumnae Athena Award from the University of Michigan (1989), 
Venezuelan Presidential Award (1991), Distinguished Service Award of the National 
Association of Biology Teachers (1993), National Medical Research Award of the 
National Health Council (1993), J. Allyn Taylor International Prize in Medicine 
(1994), Public Advocacy Award of the Society for Neuroscience (2003), 
Distinguished Investigator Award of NARSAD (National Alliance for Research on 
Schizophrenia and Depression) (2006), and Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life 
Science (2007). She is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, American Acad- 
emy of Arts and Sciences, and New York Academy of Sciences, and has been a 
member of the American Psychological Association, American Society for Human 
Genetics, American Neurological Association, American Society of Law and 
Medicine, Society for Neuroscience, and World Federation of Neurology. 

Further Resources 

Hereditary Disease Foundation. "Meet Nancy Wexler." http://www.hdfoundation.org/bios/ 
nancyw.php. 



Wheeler, Anna Johnson Pell 

1883 1966 
Mathematician 

Education: A.B., University of South Dakota, 1903; M.A., University of Iowa, 1904; 
A.M., Radcliffe College, 1905; Ph.D., mathematics, University of Chicago, 1910 



Wheeler, Anna Johnson Pell | 965 

Professional Experience: instructor, mathematics, Mount Holyoke College, 
1911-1914, associate professor, 1914-1918; associate professor, Bryn Mawr 
College, 1918-1925, department chair, 1924-1948, professor, 1925-1927, non- 
research professor, 1929-1932, professor, 1932-1948 

Anna Pell Wheeler was a distinguished research mathematician whose work was 
primarily in the area of linear algebra of infinitely many variables and integral 
equations. She was only the second woman to receive a doctorate in mathemat- 
ics at the University of Chicago, and was one of the few professional women 
mathematicians recognized in the early twentieth century. She graduated from 
the University of South Dakota in 1903 and went on to obtain master's degrees 
from both the University of Iowa and Radcliffe. She received a one-year fellow- 
ship to study at the University of Gottingen (1906-1907), then returned to South 
Dakota, where she married one of her former mathematics professors and taught 
some classes. The couple moved to Chicago, where she completed her doctorate 
in mathematics in 1910. When her husband suffered a paralytic stroke, she sub- 
stituted for him at the Armour Institute of Technology, but she was unable to 
obtain a position there. She accepted a position at Mount Holyoke in 1911 in 
order to support them, but she did not have time for her research. She moved 
to Bryn Mawr as an associate professor in 1918, served as head of the depart- 
ment, and was promoted to professor in 1925, the same year she married her 
second husband, Arthur Wheeler, a classics professor. They moved to Princeton, 
New Jersey, but she continued to teach at Bryn Mawr on a part-time basis. 
When her husband died in 1932, she returned to full-time work at Bryn Mawr, 
retiring in 1948. 

During her 30-year affiliation with Bryn Mawr, Wheeler encouraged female 
students to pursue mathematics and advised several who went on to earn doctoral 
degrees. In addition to her teaching and research, Wheeler was active in profes- 
sional mathematical associations and was an editor of the Annals of Mathematics 
for almost 20 years. She received honorary degrees from the New Jersey College 
for Women (1932) and Mount Holyoke College (1937). In 1927, she was the first 
woman invited to give the American Mathematical Society Colloquium Lecture; 
the next female lecturer was not until 1980. Wheeler was a member of the 
American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America, and 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Further Resources 

Agnes Scott College. "Anna Johnson Pell Wheeler." Biographies of Women Mathematicians. 
http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/wheeler.htm. 



966 | Wheeler, Mary F. 
Wheeler, Mary F. 



b. 1931 

Mathematician, Engineer 

Education: B.S., social sciences and math, University of Texas, Austin, 1960, 
M.A., mathematics, 1963; Ph.D., mathematics, Rice University, 1971 

Professional Experience: instructor, mathematics, Rice University, 1971-1973, 
assistant to associate professor, mathematical sciences, 1973-1980, 
professor, 1980-1988; M.D. Anderson Professor of Mathematics, University 
of Houston, 1988-1990; Noah Harding Professor of Computational and 
Applied Mathematics, Rice University, 1988-1995; Ernest and Virginia 
Cockrell Chair in Engineering, University of Texas, Austin, 1995-, professor, 
mathematics, aerospace engineering, and petroleum and geosystems engineering, 
1995- 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct professor, University of Texas M. D. Anderson 
Cancer Center; affiliated senior scientist, University of Houston, 1990- 

Mary Wheeler is a mathematician whose research links theory and application in a 
focus on numerical solutions of partial differential equations, parallel computa- 
tion, and modeling subsurface and surface flows. Specifically, her work has had 
industry-related applications to projects in oil recovery, reservoir engineering, 
and solutions for reducing pollutants in groundwater, bays, and estuaries. Born 
in Texas, she received her doctorate in mathematics from Rice University in 
1971 and has taught at several Texas institutions, including Rice and the Univer- 
sity of Houston, and, since 1995, has been a faculty member at the University of 
Texas, Austin. She is also the director of the Center for Subsurface Modeling in 
the Texas Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics (TICAM). 
She is the author of hundreds of scientific technical papers and has edited or 
co-edited several books. She has also served on the editorial board of several pro- 
fessional journals, including Computational Geosciences. 

Wheeler began her college career with interests in pharmacology, or 
government and law. But her passion was in math, and she held a double major 
in social sciences and mathematics while an undergraduate at the University of 
Texas. She went on to study math at the graduate level and became interested in 
physical and engineering applications rather than theory and economics. 

She was invited to give the prestigious Emmy Noether Lecture in 1989 and has 
been an invited lecturer at universities and organizations around the world. She has 
served on committees on science policy, industrial mathematics, and science 
education, and mathematical sciences and research review committees for 



Whitman, Marina (von Neumann) | 967 

government organizations such as the National Science Foundation, Argonne and 
Oak Ridge National Laboratories, and U.S. Department of Energy. 

Wheeler was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1998. Among 
her numerous awards and honors is an Educator Award from American Women in 
Aerospace (1997), Distinguished Alumna Award from Rice University (2000), 
USACM Computational Fluid Mechanics Award (2003), Joe J. King Award from 
the University of Texas at Austin (2006), and several IBM Faculty Recognition 
Awards (2006, 2007, 2008). She has also received honorary doctorates from Tech- 
nische Universiteit Eindhoven (2006) and the Colorado School of Mines (2008). 
She is a member of the Mathematical Association of America, American Geo- 
physical Union, Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), Society 
of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), and American Women in Mathematics, and a 
fellow of the International Association for Computational Mechanics. 

Further Resources 

Agnes Scott College. "Mary F. Wheeler." Biographies of Women Mathematicians, http:// 
www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/mwheeler.htm. 

University of Texas. Faculty website, http://users.ices.utexas.edu/~mfw/. 



Whitman, Marina (von Neumann) 

b. 1935 
Economist 

Education: B.A., government, Radcliffe College, 1956; M.A., economics, Columbia 
University, 1959, Ph.D., economics, 1962 

Professional Experience: administrative assistant, Educational Testing Service, 
1956-1957; consultant, Pittsburgh Regional Planning Association, 1961, staff 
economist, Economic Study of the Pittsburgh Region, 1962; lecturer, economics, 
University of Pittsburgh, 1962-1964, assistant to associate professor, 1964-1971, 
professor, 1971-1973, Distinguished Public Service Professor of Economics, 
1973-1979; vice president and chief economist, General Motors (GM) Corpora- 
tion, New York, 1979-1985, vice president and group executive, public affairs 
and marketing staff, 1985-1992; distinguished visiting professor, business 
administration and public policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1992- 
1994, professor, 1994- 

Concurrent Positions: fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral 
Sciences, Stanford University, 1978-1979 



968 | Whitman, Marina (von Neumann) 

Marina v. N. Whitman is a renowned international economist who has worked in 
business, education, and government. She has served as a senior staff economist 
for the Council of Economic Advisers, its first woman member, and she was the 
only woman member of the National Price Commission. She earned her doctorate 
in economics from Columbia University in 1962 and subsequently joined the fac- 
ulty at the University of Pittsburgh. She rose quickly through the ranks to full pro- 
fessor, but left academia in 1979 to join GM as vice president and chief economist 
in charge of economic and environmental policy and industry-government rela- 
tions. She left GM in 1992 to return to teaching at the University of Michigan, 
Ann Arbor. In all of her work, in teaching, business, or as a government advisor, 
Whitman has advocated for a greater global vision and international economic role 
for the United States. 

As the only daughter of the eminent mathematician John von Neumann, she 
grew up in an atmosphere of stimulating people. Many famous people visited her 
family home, and she had tremendous intellectual drive and intense pressure to 
achieve as an undergraduate at Radcliffe. She married after graduation and, in 
order to be near her husband's job at Princeton, worked as an administrative assis- 
tant for Educational Testing Service, a nonprofit organization specializing in edu- 
cational measurement and research. She then enrolled in Columbia University, 
planning to receive a master's degree in economics and journalism, and to pursue 
a career in financial writing. Instead, she concentrated on economic theory and, as 
part of her graduate studies, prepared an economic development plan for the 
Pittsburgh Regional Planning Association. She then accepted an appointment as 
a lecturer in economics at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1970, she was selected 
as a member of the prestigious Council of Economic Advisers under President 
Nixon. In this role, Whitman made a special report on women in the American 
economy, stating that, despite 10 years of civil rights legislation, women had made 
little progress toward job equality with men; in 1971, the average female worker 
earned only 59.5 cents on the male dollar for comparable work. She later served 
on President Carter's Economic Advisory Committee. 

Whitman has published numerous articles and books, including Government 
Risk-Sharing in Foreign Investment (1965), Reflections of Interdependence: Issues 
for Economic Theory and U.S. Policy (1979), New World, New Rules: The Changing 
Role of the American Corporation (1999), and American Capitalism and Global 
Convergence (2003). She has examined the effect of global markets on American 
corporations and society, and advocated for an open market economy. She has been 
a member of several government committees, including the President's Council of 
Economic Advisors (1970-1973), National Price Commission (1971-1972), Eco- 
nomic Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of Commerce (1979-1980), 
Commission on Security and Economic Assistance (1983-1984), President's Export 



Whitson, Peggy A. | 969 

Council (1986-1987), and President's Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and 
Negotiations (1987-1993). She has also been a board member or trustee of numer- 
ous national, international, and academic advisory committees. 

Whitman has been awarded honorary doctorates from more than 20 universities 
and is the recipient of a Columbia University Medal for Excellence (1973 and 
1984), the George Washington Award of the American Hungarian Foundation 
(1975), the Catalyst Award for women in business (1976), a Women's Equity 
Action League Achievement Award (1979), and the William F. Butler Memorial 
Award of the New York Association of Business Economists (1988). She is a 
member of the American Economic Association, National Association of Business 
Economists, and Council on Foreign Relations, and a fellow of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences. 

Further Resources 

University of Michigan. Faculty website. http://www.bus.umich.edu/FacultyBios/ 
FacultyBio.asp?id=0001 19718. 



Whitson, Peggy A. 

b. I960 
Astronaut 

Education: B.S., biology and chemistry, Iowa Wesleyan College, 1981; Ph.D., 
biochemistry, Rice University, 1985 

Professional Experience: Robert A. Welch postdoctoral fellow, Rice University, 
1986; National Research Council Resident Research Associate, National Aero- 
nautics and Space Administration (NASA) Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, 
1986-1988; supervisor, Biochemistry Research Group, KRUG International, 
1988-1989; research biochemist, Biomedical Operations and Research Branch, 
NASA Johnson Space Center, 1989-1993, deputy division chief, Medical Sci- 
ences Division, 1993-1996, astronaut, 1996-, deputy chief, Astronaut Office, 
2003-2005, chief, Station Operations Branch, Astronaut Office, 2005 

Concurrent Positions: adjunct assistant professor, Departments of Internal Medi- 
cine and Human Biological Chemistry and Genetics, University of Texas Medical 
Branch, Galveston, 1991-1997; adjunct assistant professor, Maybee Laboratory 
for Biochemical and Genetic Engineering, Rice University, 1997- 

Peggy Whitson is a biochemist and astronaut who was the first woman commander 
of the International Space Station (ISS). She logged two long-term stays at the 



970 | Whitson, Peggy A. 



ISS, in 2002 and 2007, and has accu- 
mulated more than 377 days in space 
and almost 40 hours of space walks, 
more than any other female astronaut. 
Whitson completed her doctorate in 
biochemistry at Rice University in 
Houston, Texas, and was a research 
associate at NASA before working 
briefly for KRUG International, a 
NASA-contracted medical sciences 
company. She returned to NASA in 
1989 in Biomedical Operations and 
Research, and became a member of 
the U.S.-USSR Joint Working Group 
in Space Medicine and Biology, train- 
ing astronauts in both the United 
States and Russia. Between 1992 and 

1995, she was a project scientist on 
the Shuttle-Mir Program. She applied 
to the astronaut training program sev- 
eral years before being accepted in 

1996. In 2002, she flew aboard the 
Endeavour for the Expedition-5 mis- 
sion to dock with the ISS. She spent 
6 months (nearly 1 85 days) with only 

two other astronauts on the ISS as NASA Science Officer, conducting research on 
human biology and microgravity conditions. It was unusual for a first-time astronaut 
to be assigned such an extended mission, but her science research background, and 
her 10 years of NASA training on the ground, had prepared her well. In 2005, 
she began training as a backup ISS Commander and flew as Commander of the 
ISS for a second long-term stay (more than 191 days) with Expedition- 16 in the fall 
of 2007. 

Besides setting records for women in space, Whitson has been acknowledged 
for her numerous achievements at NASA, including but not limited to the follow- 
ing awards: Sustained Superior Performance Award (1990), Certificate of 
Commendation (1994), Exceptional Service Medal (1995, 2003, 2006), Silver 
Snoopy Award (1995), Space Act Board Award (1995, 1998), Group Achievement 
Award for Shuttle-Mir Program (1996), Space Flight Medal (2002), and Outstanding 




Astronaut Peggy Whitson preparing for the 
launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a 
mission to the International Space Station, 
2002. (NASA) 



Widnall, Sheila (Evans) | 971 

Leadership Medal (2006). She was also awarded the Randolph Lovelace Award of 
the American Astronautical Society (1995). 

Further Resources 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Peggy A. Whitson (Ph.D.)." http://www 
.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/whitson.html. 



Widnall, Sheila (Evans) 

b. 1938 
Aeronautical Engineer 

Education: B.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1960, M.S., 1961, D.Sc, 
aeronautical engineering, 1964 

Professional Experience: staff, Boeing, summers 1947-1959, 1961; staff, 
Aeronautical Research Institute of Sweden, summer 1960; research staff engineer, 
aerodynamics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1961-1962, research 
assistant, 1962-1964, assistant to associate professor, aeronautics, 1964-1974, 
professor, 1974-1986, Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor and Chair, 1986-1993; 
Secretary of U.S. Air Force, 1993-1997; Institute Professor, aeronautics and 
astronautics, MIT, 1998- 

Concurrent Positions: director, university research, U.S. Department of Trans- 
portation, 1974-1975; associate provost, MIT, 1992-1993; vice president, 
National Academy of Engineering, 1998-2006 

Sheila Widnall is an aeronautical engineer whose research interests include 
unsteady aerodynamics, aeroelasticity, aerodynamic noise, turbulence, applied 
mathematics, vortex flows, numerical analysis, aerospace, transportation, aerody- 
namics and fluid mechanics, acoustics, and noise and vibration. She has been a 
professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT for more than 40 years, where 
her research has centered particularly on problems associated with fluid dynamics 
and air turbulence. Another area of research is the vortices of aircraft that make 
vertical, short takeoffs and landings (V/STOL), and the noise associated with 
them. One of her projects was to design an anechoic wind tunnel at MIT to study 
V/STOL aircraft — a wind tunnel that has a low degree of reverberation and is 
echo-free. In 1993, she became the first woman to head a branch of the U.S. mili- 
tary when she was selected to be Secretary of the U.S. Air Force. In this position, 
Widnall was responsible for recruiting, organizing, training, administration, 



972 | Widnall, Sheila (Evans) 

logistical support, maintenance, and welfare of personnel, as well as overseeing 
research and development projects outlined by the president or the Secretary 
of Defense. She co-chaired the Department of Defense Task Force on Sexual 
Harassment and Discrimination. She left the Air Force in 1997 to return to her faculty 
position at MIT. 

As a young woman, she was encouraged by teachers and parents to pursue a 
career in science. Still, there were only 20 women in her class of about 900 at 
MIT. As president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 
(1988), she was committed to encouraging more women to pursue careers in sci- 
ence and engineering, and outlined the problems they face in attaining their degrees 
and achieving professional goals. She has been an advisor for numerous government 
and industry projects and scientific agencies, including for the Carnegie Corporation, 
Sloan Foundation, Institute for Defense Analysis, Smithsonian Institution of 
Washington, Boston Museum of Science, GenCorp Inc., Chemfab Inc., Space 
and Aeronautics Board of the National Research Council, and National Science 
Foundation, to name just a few. 

Widnall was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 
1985 and was vice president of the National Academy of Engineering from 1998 to 
2006. Her numerous awards and honors include the Lawrence Sperry Award of the 
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (1972), Outstanding Achieve- 
ment Award of the Society of Women Engineers (1975), Washburn Award of the 
Boston Museum of Science (1986), Distinguished Service Award of the National 
Academy of Engineering (1993), Medal of Distinction from Barnard College 
(1994), W. Stuart Symington Award (1995) and Maxwell A. Kriendler Memorial 
Award (1995), both from the Air Force Association, Applied Mechanics Award of 
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) (1996), Distinguished Civilian 
Service Medals from both the Army and Navy (1997), Reed Aeronautics Award from 
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) (2000), and Spirit of 
St. Louis Medal from ASME (2001). In 1996, she was inducted into the Women in 
Aviation Pioneer Hall of Fame. She is a fellow of the AIAA (president, 1999-2000), 
American Physical Society, Royal Aeronautical Society, and American Association 
for the Advancement of Science. She is a member of the Society of Women 
Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Puerto Rican Academy of 
Sciences, International Academy of Astronautics, Institute of Electrical and Electron- 
ics Engineers (IEEE), and American Philosophical Society. 

Further Resources 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Faculty website, http://web.mit.edu/aeroastro/ 
www/people/widnall/. 



Wilhclmi, Jane Anne Russell | 973 

Wilhelmi, Jane Anne Russell 

1911 1967 
Endocrinologist 

Education: B.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1932, Ph.D., biochemistry, 
1937 

Professional Experience: technical assistant in biochemistry, University of 
California, Berkeley, 1932-1933, assistant, institute of experimental biology, 1934- 
1937; research associate, pharmacology, Washington University, St. Louis, 1936; 
National Research Council (NRC) Fellow, School of Medicine, Yale University, 
1938-1939, fellow, 1939-1941, instructor, physiological chemistry, 1941-1950; 
assistant professor, biochemistry, Emory University, 1950-1953, associate profes- 
sor, 1953-1965, professor, 1965-1967 

Jane Russell Wilhelmi was an endocrinologist whose research interests 
included endocrine control of intermediate metabolism; adrenal cortex, anterior 
pituitary, growth hormone, and insulin in carbohydrate and protein metabolism; 
the metabolic aspects of shock; and the use of isotopic tracers in metabolism. 
After receiving her undergraduate degree at the University of California, 
Berkeley, she worked as a technical assistant while she completed her doctorate 
in biochemistry in 1937. She spent a year in 1936 as a pharmacology research 
associate working on carbohydrate metabolism with Carl and Gerty Cori at 
Washington University in St. Louis. She was appointed a research fellow at Yale 
School of Medicine in 1938, a fellow in 1939, and an instructor in physiological 
chemistry in 1941. In 1940, she married her colleague, Alfred Ellis Wilhelmi, 
with whom she collaborated on research and co-authored dozens of scientific 
papers on metabolism and the role of growth hormones in breaking down 
proteins. 

Jane Wilhelmi received outside recognition for her pioneering research, and 
consulted on committees of the National Institutes of Health, NRC, National 
Science Foundation, and National Science Board. Her research was acknowl- 
edged and supported with a California Fellowship in Biochemistry, a Rosenberg 
Fellowship, and the American Physiological Society's Porter Fellowship. 
Despite these honors, she did not advance at Yale, remaining at the rank of 
instructor before accepting a position as assistant professor of biochemistry 
at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1950. She finally reached the 
rank of full professor in 1965, just two years before her death. Up until the 
time of her death, she remained active in research, writing, and working as 
an editor for the American Journal of Physiology. She received the Ciba 



974 | Williams, Anna Wessels 

Award in 1946, and she shared the Upjohn Award of the Endocrine Society 
with her husband in 1961. She was also named Atlanta's Woman of the Year 
in 1961. 



Williams, Anna Wessels 

1863 1954 
Bacteriologist 

Education: diploma, New Jersey State Normal School, Trenton, 1883; M.D., 
Women's Medical College, New York, 1891 

Professional Experience: public school teacher, 1883-1885; instructor, pathology, 
Women's Medical College of the New York Infirmary, 1891-1893, assistant 
to department chair, pathology and hygiene, 1891-1895; assistant bacteriologist, 
diagnostic laboratory, New York City Department of Health, 1895-1905, assistant 
director, 1905-1934 

Concurrent Positions: consulting pathologist, Women's Medical College of the 
New York Infirmary, 1902-1905 

Anna Williams was a pioneering bacteriologist who gained national recognition 
for her work on infectious diseases. At the diagnostic laboratory of the New York 
City Department of Health, she made significant contributions on effective immu- 
nization for diphtheria, streptococcal (strep throat) and pneumococcal (pneumo- 
nia) infections, scarlet fever, and rabies. In the first year of her research, she 
isolated a strain of the diphtheria bacillus that made possible the widespread 
immunization of children and almost complete eradication of the disease that, at 
that time, was one of the primary causes of death among young children. She 
played a significant role in building the New York laboratory into a nationally 
known center as the first municipal laboratory to apply bacteriology to the 
problems of public health. After receiving her diploma from the New Jersey State 
Normal School, she taught public school for several years to earn funds to obtain 
her M.D. in 1891 from the Women's Medical College of New York. She had con- 
vinced her family to allow her to become a physician after a sister almost died due 
to complications of childbirth. 

After working as a pathologist for the Women's Medical College for several 
years, she was initially a volunteer with the diagnostic laboratory before joining 
the staff of the New York City Department of Health in 1895. She spent a year at 
the Pasteur Institute in Paris, unsuccessfully researching an antitoxin for scarlet 



Williams, Roberta | 975 

fever, but her work did lead to the development of a rabies vaccine by 1898 and a 
new, faster method for identifying rabies in animals. She later served as chair of a 
new rabies committee for the American Public Health Association and, during 
World War I, worked on government programs related to diagnosing influenza and 
meningitis. She was appointed assistant director of the diagnostic laboratory of the 
New York Department of Health in 1905, a position she held until forced into 
mandatory retirement in 1934 at the age of 71. 

Williams was co-author of a book for the general public entitled Who 's Who 
among the Microbes (1929). In addition to her scientific papers, she was also 
co-author of Pathogenic Microorganisms Including Bacteria and Protozoa: 
A Practical Manual for Students, Physicians and Health Officers (1905) and author 
of Streptococci in Relation to Man in Health and Disease (1932). She was a 
member of the American Public Health Association and the New York Women's 
Medical Association (president, 1915). 

Further Resources 

National Institutes of Health. "Dr. Anna Wessels Williams." Changing the Face of Medi- 
cine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians. National Library of Medicine, 
National Institutes of Health, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/ 
physicians/biography 331.html. 



Williams, Roberta 

b. 1952 

Computer Games Designer 

Education: high school 

Professional Experience: part-time programmer; designer of computer action 
games, 1979-1980; co-founder and chief game designer, Sierra On-Line, Inc., 
1980-1999 

Roberta Williams is considered a pioneer of the graphic adventure multimedia 
computer game. Williams did not attend college, but had some technical training 
and experience with mainframe computers in the 1970s. She became intrigued 
by text-based video games after purchasing an Apple computer. Her career started 
when her husband, programmer Kenneth Williams, brought home a computer 
game that she found was too easy to solve, so she was challenged to create more 
difficult games. The couple founded their own company, On-Line Systems (later 
known as Sierra On-Line) in 1980. Their first game, "Mystery House," debuted 



976 | Williams, Roberta 



in 1980 and became part of a six-part 
series of Apple games that included 
the first bestselling games with col- 
ored graphics. Their second game, 
"The Wizard and the Princess," was 
programmed on a disk rather than 
on a cassette, a format that revolu- 
tionized the microcomputer game 
industry by making possible much 
longer games. They also designed a 
computer game based on the Jim 
Henson movie The Dark Crystal, 
released at the same time, in 1992. 
Roberta also advised on some of 
the layouts for the movie. She was 
one of the first designers to use a 
female protagonist in an adventure 
game. She has also designed a range 
of other computer software products 
for home use. 

By 1983, Sierra On-Line was 
earning $10 million a year in sales, 
and by 1991, annual sales were 
$43 million and the company employed some 500 people. When the Williamses sold 
the company to CUC International, Inc. in 1996 for about $1 billion, Roberta stayed 
on briefly as chief designer. In 1997, Sierra On-Line, Inc. released the "Roberta 
Williams Anthology," a collection of 15 of her games. Most of the early ones are 
primitive by today's standards, but the anthology is a compact history of the 
form. She began all of her games by drawing them out on large sheets of paper, 
but the later games eventually involved the work of more than 100 people, including 
animators, programmers, musicians, and composers. Williams has won numerous 
awards and honors for her games. She retired from Sierra On-Line in 1999 to travel 
with Ken, and the couple maintain a website and message boards for gaming 
enthusiasts. 




Roberta Williams poses with a copy of her 
computer game, Phantasmagoria, 1995. 
(AP/Wide World Photos) 



Further Resources 

MobyGames. "Roberta Williams: Developer Bio." http://www.mobygames.com/ 
developer/sheet/view/developerld,60/. 

Sierra Gamers, http://www.sierragamers.com. 



Witkin, Evelyn Maisel | 977 

Witkin, Evelyn Maisel 

b. 1921 
Geneticist 

Education: B.A., zoology, New York University, 1941; M.A., Columbia Univer- 
sity, 1943, Ph.D., zoology, 1947 

Professional Experience: research associate, bacterial genetics, Cold Spring 
Harbor Laboratories, Carnegie Institution, 1945-1955; associate professor, medi- 
cine, Downstate Medical Center, State University of New York, 1955-1969, pro- 
fessor, 1969-1971; professor, biology, Douglass College (Rutgers University), 
1971-1983, Barbara McClintock Professor of Genetics, Rutgers, 1979, professor, 
Waksman Institute of Microbiology, 1983-1991, emerita 

Concurrent Positions: postdoctoral fellow, American Cancer Society, 1947-1949 

Evelyn Witkin is a geneticist who has been recognized for her work on mutation in 
bacteria. Her research has involved mechanism of spontaneous and induced muta- 
tion in bacteria, genetic effects of radiation, and enzymatic repair of DNA damage. 
While completing her doctorate in zoology from Columbia University, she spent a 
summer as a research associate in bacterial genetics at Cold Spring Harbor Labora- 
tories where she first isolated a radiation-resistant strain of E. coli. She became a 
regular staff member at Cold Spring Harbor in 1945 and remained there for 10 years. 
She was appointed an associate professor of medicine at the State University of New 
York in 1955 and promoted to full professor in 1969. She moved to Douglass Col- 
lege, the women's campus at Rutgers University in New Jersey, in 1971 and joined 
the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers in 1983. In the early 1970s, she 
made a breakthrough discovery on bacterial response to genetic damage and repair. 
She retired in 1991 as the Barbara McClintock Professor Emerita of Genetics. 

Witkin was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1977 and 
awarded a National Medal of Science by President George W. Bush in 2003. She is 
also the recipient of honorary doctorates from New York Medical College (1978), 
Rutgers University (1995), and Clark University (2006). Among her other honors 
are the Lindback Award (1979), the American Women of Science Award for 
Outstanding Research (1982), the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal of the Genetics 
Society of America (2000), and the Distinguished Research Award of the New 
Jersey Association for Biomedical Research (2004). She is a fellow of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences and American Society of Microbiology, and a 
member of the Genetics Society of America, American Society of Naturalists, and 
Radiation Research Society. 



978 | Wood, Elizabeth Armstrong 



Further Resources 



Rutgers University, Office of Media Relations. "President Bush Names Rutgers' Evelyn 
Witkin for Nation's Highest Science Honor." (22 October 2003). http://ur.rutgers.edu/ 
medrel/viewArticle.html?ArticleID=3545. 



Wood, Elizabeth Armstrong 

1912 2006 
Crystallographer 

Education: B.A., Barnard College, 1933; M.A., Bryn Mawr College, 1934, Ph.D., 
geology, 1939 

Professional Experience: instructor, geology, Bryn Mawr College, 1934-1935, 
1937-1938; assistant, Barnard College, 1935-1937, lecturer, geology and mineral- 
ogy, 1938-1941; research assistant, Columbia University, 1941-1942; technical 
staff, crystal research, Bell Telephone Uaboratories, AT&T, 1942-1967 

Elizabeth Wood was recognized for her research on x-ray crystallography and the 
physical properties of crystals. She also studied the geology and petrology of 
igneous and metamorphic rocks, and optical mineralogy. Wood received her 
undergraduate degree from Barnard in 1933. After earning her master's degree 
at Bryn Mawr in 1934, she was employed there as a demonstrator in geology 
while she did further graduate work. In 1938, she returned to Barnard as a lec- 
turer, and in 1939, she received her doctorate in geology from Bryn Mawr. She 
was promoted to research assistant at Barnard in 1941 before joining the technical 
staff in crystallographic research at Bell Telephone Uabs in 1942 — the first 
woman scientist in the physical research department. Her career coincided with 
the beginning of the discipline of solid-state physics, and Bell Uabs was one of 
the first developers of lasers and other solid-state devices that required crystals. 
Wood became an acknowledged authority at Bell and was even called upon to 
receive the first call on a "picture-phone," made from First Uady Johnson from the 
White House to Wood in New York in 1964. She spent 25 years at Bell/ AT&T, 
retiring in 1967. 

Wood was also committed to science education and published several textbooks 
and guides, including Rewarding Careers for Women in Physics (1962) and Press- 
ing Needs in School Sciences (1969), both published by the American Institute of 
Physics, and Crystal Orientation Manual (1963) and Crystals and Light: An Intro- 
duction to Optical Crystallography (1964), which remain classics in the field. In 



Woods, Geraldine (Pittman) | 979 

the 1960s, she also published (through Bell Labs) a high school curriculum, Experi- 
ments with Crystals and Light, and a general-interest book, Science for the Airplane 
Passenger, which was sold through airport bookstores. The American Crystallo- 
graphic Association (ACA) established the Elizabeth A. Wood Science Writing 
Award in her honor. 

Wood was active in professional scientific organizations, serving as secretary of 
the American Society for X-Ray and Electron Diffraction (ASXRED) in 1947, and 
was the first female president of the American Crystallographic Association in 
1957 (Isabella Karle became the second, in 1976). She received honorary doctor- 
ates from Wheaton College (1963), Western College, Ohio (1965), and Worcester 
Polytechnic (1970). She was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences, American Physical Society, International Union of Crystallography, 
and Mineralogical Society of America. 

Further Resources 

Abrahams, S. C. "Death Notice. Elizabeth A. Wood. 19 October 1912 23 March 2006." 
Physics Today. (12 May 2006). http://www.physicstoday.org/obits/notice 060.shtml. 



Woods, Geraldine (Pittman) 

1921 1999 

Embryologist, Science Consultant 

Education: B.S., biology, Howard University, 1942; M.A., Radcliffe College, 
1943, Ph.D., neuroembryology, 1945 

Professional Experience: instructor, biology, Howard University, 1945-1946; 
special consultant, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, National Insti- 
tutes of Health (NIH), 1969-1987 

Geraldine Woods was an embryologist who was primarily known for her efforts to 
improve access to higher education for minorities. In addition to her volunteer 
work, she served as a consultant to the National Institute of General Medical Sci- 
ences in implementing various programs. She was one of the earliest black women 
to hold a Ph.D. in the biological sciences, and her doctoral research involved the 
early development of nerves in the spinal cord, studying whether the nerve spe- 
cialization process was governed by the cell's heredity or by stimulation from 
nearby cells. While attending Talladega College in Alabama, her mother became 
seriously ill. The physicians recommended she take treatments at lohns Hopkins 
University, so Geraldine transferred to nearby Howard University in Washington, 



980 | Woods, Geraldine (Pittman) 

D.C. An embryology professor at Howard encouraged her to continue her studies 
at Harvard University. At that time, the women enrolled in Radcliffe College took 
all of their science classes at Harvard, and she earned two graduate degrees in 
three years. 

After receiving her doctorate, Woods taught biology at Howard before moving 
to California, where her husband set up his dental practice. She raised three 
children and began volunteering with social services projects and civil rights 
efforts, first locally, in Los Angeles, and then statewide. She served four years 
(1963-1967) as president of Delta Sigma Theta, a national public-service sorority 
of black, college-educated women. It was through this group that she helped estab- 
lish several Head Start preschools in the Los Angeles area. Her work attracted 
national attention when Lady Bird Johnson, wife of President Lyndon Johnson, 
invited her to the White House in 1965 to help launch Project Head Start, a federal 
program to help children from low-income families attend preschool. In 1968, 
President Johnson appointed her chair of the Defense Advisory Committee on 
Women in the Services. 

In 1969, Woods was appointed as a special consultant to the National Institute 
of General Medical Sciences of the NIH, where she addressed problems of 
minority students and institutions gaining access to grants and other funding, their 
overall lack of adequate equipment for scientific research, and educational oppor- 
tunities for minority students in the sciences. The NIH installed two programs 
under her guidance: the Minority Biomedical Support (MBS) program to guide 
researchers through the grant application process, and Minority Access to 
Research Careers (MARC), which provided counseling and scholarships for 
students and faculty members in science careers. 

Woods was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence and the New York Academy of Sciences. Among her awards and honors are 
several biomedical scholarships given in her name, and the Mary Church Terrell 
Award of Delta Sigma Theta (1979), the Scroll of Merit of the National Medical 
Association (1979), the Howard University Achievement Award (1980), and a 
Distinguished Leadership Achievement Award from the National Association for 
Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (1987). She received honorary degrees 
from several institutions, including Benedict College (1977), Talladega College 
(1980), Fisk University (1991), Bennett College (1993), Meharry Medical College 
(1988), and Howard University (1989). 

Further Resources 

Giddings, Paula A. 1994. In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of 
the Black Sorority Movement, 2nd ed. New York: William Morrow. 



Woolley, Helen Bradford Thompson | 981 

Warren, Wini. 1999. Black Women Scientists in the United States. Bloomington: Indiana 
University Press. 



Woolley, Helen Bradford Thompson 

1874 1947 
Psychologist 

Education: B.A., University of Chicago, 1897, Ph.D., neurology, 1900 

Professional Experience: instructor and professor, psychology, Mount Holyoke 
College, 1901-1905; experimental psychologist, Bureau of Education, Philippine 
Islands, 1905-1906; health inspector, serum laboratory, Bangkok, Thailand, 1907- 
1908; instructor, philosophy, University of Cincinnati, 1910-1912; director, Bureau 
for the Investigation of Working Children, Cincinnati public schools, 1911-1921; 
psychologist and assistant director, Merrill-Palmer School, Michigan, 1921-1926; 
professor of education and director, bureau of child development, Teachers 
College, Columbia University, 1926-1930 

Helen Woolley was a pioneer in the study of child development and of gender 
differences. Her research involved the psychology of adolescence and of young 
childhood, mental development, testing, and educational methods, and exposing 
what she termed the "inconsistencies, contradictions, and lack of data behind the 
conventional wisdom on sex differences." Woolley (then Thompson) challenged 
beliefs about women's "natural" roles and interests, and used scientific data to sup- 
port women's participation in academia and the workplace. For her doctoral 
research at the University of Chicago, she created a series of tests of male and 
female students' physical and mental processes. In her thesis, Psychological 
Norms in Men and Women (published in 1903 as The Mental Traits of Sex), she 
concluded that there were few biological or psychological differences between 
men and women, and that social and environmental factors accounted for most 
differences. Not surprisingly, Woolley became an advocate of both civil rights 
and women's rights, becoming a member and chair of the Ohio Woman Suffrage 
Association. 

After she received her doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1 900, she 
undertook further studies at the Universities of Berlin and Paris before she 
accepted a position in the psychology department at Mount Holyoke in 1901. 
When she was married in 1905, she and her husband spent several years in 
Southeast Asia, where she worked in the Philippine Bureau of Education and at 



982 | Wright, Margaret H. 

a laboratory run by her physician husband in Thailand. The couple returned to the 
United States, where she taught at the University of Cincinnati for three years and 
became involved in child welfare reforms and child psychology. After Ohio passed 
a child labor law in 1910, she served as director of a program to compare the 
development of working children with those who stayed in school, and her work 
contributed to educational reforms, such as compulsory attendance laws. She 
accepted a position as assistant director and psychologist at the Merrill-Palmer 
School, a child development institute in Detroit, in 1921, and she helped 
develop a teacher-training program and design educational tests, such as the 
Merrill-Palmer Scale of Mental Tests. In 1926, Woolley took a position at 
Teachers College, Columbia University, as professor of education and director 
of the bureau of child development. She was forced to retire in 1930 due to 
health issues. 

Woolley contributed a chapter on "The Psychologist" for a 1920 guide to 
Careers for Women (edited by Catherine Filene). She was elected president of 
the National Vocational Guidance Association in 1921. She also was a member 
of the American Psychological Association and the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science. 

Further Resources 

Morse, Jane Fowler. 2002. "Ignored but Not Forgotten: The Work of Helen Thompson 
Bradford Woolley." NWS A Journal. 14(2): 121 147. (Summer 2002). 

Scarborough, Elizabeth and Laurel Furumoto. 1987. Untold Lives: The First Generation of 
American Women Psychologists. New York: Columbia University Press. 



Wright, Margaret H. 

b. 1944 

Computer Scientist, Mathematician 

Education: B.S., mathematics, Stanford University, M.S., computer science, 
Ph.D., computer science, 1976 

Professional Experience: research associate, Systems Optimization Labora- 
tory, Operations Research, Stanford University, 1976-1981, senior research 
associate, 1981-1988; technical staff, Bell Laboratories, AT&T, 1988-1993, 
Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, 1993-2001, head, Scientific Computing 
Research Department, 1997-2000; Silver Professor of Computer Science and 



Wrinch, Dorothy Maud | 983 

Chair, Department of Computer Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical 
Sciences, New York University, 2001- 

Margaret Wright is a computer scientist and applied mathematician whose 
research interests include optimization, linear algebra, numerical analysis, scien- 
tific computing, and scientific and engineering applications. She builds math- 
ematical and computer models for problem solving in a variety of practical 
applications. She earned degrees from Stanford University and spent more than 
20 years in Scientific Computing Research at AT&T's Bell Laboratories (now 
Lucent Technologies) before entering academia in 2001 as professor and chair of 
computer sciences at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York 
University. She has co-authored two books on optimization and has published 
dozens of scientific papers, articles, and technical reports. 

Wright was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1997 and the 
National Academy of Sciences in 2005. She has been a distinguished lecturer and 
committee member for numerous academic and government scientific organizations, 
including the National Science Foundation, National Research Council, and U.S. 
Department of Energy. She has received an honorary doctorate from the University 
of Waterloo (2003) and was the Emmy Noether Lecturer of the Association for 
Women in Mathematics (2000). Her other awards and honors include a Special 
Award for Distinguished Service to the Profession from the Society for Industrial 
and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) (2000) and an Award for Distinguished Public 
Service from the American Mathematical Society (2001). She served as president 
of SIAM in 1995-1996. She is a fellow of the Institute for Operations Research 
and the Management Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
and a member of the Mathematical Programming Society. 

Further Resources 

Agnes Scott College. "Margaret Wright." Biographies of Women Mathematicians, http:// 
www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/wright.htm. 

New York University. Faculty website, http://cs.nyu.edu/mhw/. 



Wrinch, Dorothy Maud 

1894 1976 

Biochemist, Mathematician 

Education: mathematics and philosophy, Girton College, Cambridge; M.Sc, Uni- 
versity of London, 1920, D.Sc, 1922; M.A., Oxford University, 1924, D.Sc, 1929 



984 | Wrinch, Dorothy Maud 




Biochemist and mathematician, Dorothy Maud Wrinch, right, shows physicist Katharine 
Blodgett of General Electric her protein molecule model, 1938. (AP/Wide World Photos) 



Professional Experience: lecturer, pure mathematics, University College, Uni- 
versity of London, 1918-1920; lecturer, mathematics and director, studies for 
women, member, faculty of physical sciences, Oxford University, 1923-1939; 
research fellow, Somerville College, Oxford, 1939-1941; lecturer, chemistry, 
Johns Hopkins University, 1939-1941; visiting professor, natural sciences, 
Amherst College and Mount Holyoke College, 1941-1942; lecturer, physics, Smith 
College, 1941-1954, visiting professor, 1954-1971 

Dorothy Wrinch was a biochemist and mathematician whose interests spanned 
mathematical physics, molecular biology, chemistry, genetics, the philosophy of 
science, and sociology. In 1929, she was the first woman to receive a doctorate 
in science from Oxford University. In the mid- 1930s, she developed an important 
contribution to science — the first theory of protein structure, or the "cyclol theory" 
of amino acids holding the keys to the genetic code. She received a Rockefeller 
Foundation grant for this groundbreaking work applying mathematics to molecu- 
lar biology, but her funding and her reputation were damaged when prominent sci- 
entists, notably Linus Pauling, publicly rejected her theory. Although her theory 



Wu, Chien-Shiung | 985 

was proven incorrect (as was Pauling's early theory), it later applied to other 
aspects of chemical bonds in alkaloids and thus contributed to scientific advances. 
Her argument with Pauling began in the late 1930s, but she published her research in 
two books, Chemical Aspects of the Structure of Small Peptides: An Introduction 
(1960) and Chemical Aspects of Polypeptide Chain Structure: An Introduction 
(1960). Wrinch held a wide range of scientific interests and engaged in collaborative 
work with other scientists on topics related to theoretical physics and philosophy, 
and published nearly 200 articles and papers. 

In addition to the degree from Oxford, Wrinch also received a doctorate from 
the University of London and spent many years at a student at Cambridge and at 
the Universities of Vienna and Paris. She alternated between teaching at London 
and Oxford before coming to the United States with her daughter after her mar- 
riage ended in 1938. Wrinch accepted a position as a lecturer in chemistry at Johns 
Hopkins and went on to hold lectureships and fellowships at Amherst, Mount 
Holyoke, and at Smith College, where she spent 30 years as a teacher but never 
secured a permanent faculty appointment. 

Wrinch was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society and the London 
Royal Society, and was a member of the American Chemical Society and the 
American Crystallographic Association. In 1930, she published a book, The Retreat 
from Parenthood, under a pseudonym (Jean Ayling), in which she addressed the 
choice many educated women had to make between careers and family life, and 
advocated for greater childcare services. 

Further Resources 

Abir-Am, Pnina G. and Dorinda Outram. 1987. Uneasy Careers and Intimate Lives: 
Women in Science, 1789 1979. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 

Agnes Scott College. "Dorothy Maud Wrinch." Biographies of Women Mathematicians. 
http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/women/wrinch.htm. 



Wu, Chien-Shiung 

1912 1997 
Nuclear Physicist 

Education: B.S., physics, National Central University, China, 1934; Ph.D., physics, 
University of California, Berkeley, 1940 

Professional Experience: lecturer, University of California, Berkeley, 1940-1942; 
assistant professor, Smith College, 1942-1943; instructor, Princeton University, 



986 | Wu, Chien-Shiung 




Physicist Chien-Shiung Wu with a particle accelerator at Columbia University, 1963. 
(Robert W. Kelley/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images) 



1943-1944; senior scientist, Columbia University, 1944-1947, associate, 1947-1952, 
associate professor to professor, physics, 1952-1972, professor, physics, 1972-1981 

Concurrent Positions: member, advisory committee to director, National Institutes 
of Health (NIH), 1975-1982 



Chien-Shiung Wu was one of the top women in elementary particle physics in the 
world in the mid-twentieth century, and her work contributed to the research that 
earned two of her Columbia University colleagues, Drs. Tsung Dao Lee and Ning 
Yang, the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957. She researched the separation of ura- 
nium isotopes and experimentally established nonconservation of parity in beta 
decay and conservation of vector current in beta decay. At the time she received 
her doctorate from Berkeley, in 1940, not one of the nation's top research univer- 
sities had a female physics professor. She was hired as an instructor at Princeton 
due to the shortage of male scientists during World War II. In 1944, she was 



Wu, Chien-Shiung | 987 

appointed a senior scientist at Columbia, where she helped develop sensitive radi- 
ation detectors for the atomic bomb project. After the war ended and the Manhat- 
tan Project was completed, she was asked to remain at Columbia, where she spent 
the remainder of her career as a physics professor. Wu's research focused on radi- 
ation detection equipment and, as she moved through the faculty ranks, she con- 
ducted experiments to test the theories of Lee and Yang. The two scientists who 
shared the Nobel Prize acknowledged Wu's role in the success of proving their 
theory; Lee later said of Wu that she "was one of the giants of physics." 

Born in Shanghai, Wu was the daughter of an elementary school principal who 
founded a women's vocational school and impressed upon her the importance of edu- 
cation. She studied English and science in high school and graduated with a physics 
degree from the National Central University in Nanking. She did graduate-level study 
and worked as a research assistant at Zhejiang University and at the Institute of 
Physics of the Academia Sinica but, wishing to take her education further, Wu moved 
to the United States to study at the University of California, Berkeley, where she 
worked with professor Ernest Lawrence, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 
1939, while Wu was a student there. She worked as Lawrence's research assistant 
and, after receiving her Ph.D. in 1940, continued as a lecturer at Berkeley, then taught 
at Smith College and Princeton before moving to Columbia in New York. 

Wu was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1958. 
She received honorary degrees from several universities, including Princeton, 
where, also in 1958, she was the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate in 
science. She was the recipient of numerous awards, both in China and in the 
United States, including an Achievement Award for the American Association of 
University Women (1960), the Comstock Award of the National Academy of 
Sciences (1964), an Achievement Award from the Chi-Tsin Culture Foundation 
of Taiwan (1965), the Scientist of the Year Award from Industrial Research 
Magazine (1974), the Bonner Prize of the American Physical Society (1975), the 
National Medal of Science (1975), and the Wolf Prize in Physics in Israel 
(1978). She was the first living scientist with an asteroid named after her (1990). 
She was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 
an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and a member of the 
American Physical Society (president, 1975), the American Academy of Arts 
and Sciences, and Academia Sinica, the Academy of Sciences in China. 

Further Resources 

McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch. 1993. Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, 
and Momentous Discoveries. Secaucus, NJ: Carol Pub. Group. 

Byers, Nina and Gary A. Williams. 2006. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth- 
Century Women to Physics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 



988 | Wu, Ying-Chu (Lin) Susan 
Wu, Ying-Chu (Lin) Susan 



b. 1932 
Aerospace Engineer 

Education: B.S., mechanical engineering, National Taiwan University, 1955; 
M.S., aerospace engineering, Ohio State University, 1959; Ph.D., aeronautics, 
California Institute of Technology, 1963 

Professional Experience: engineer, Taiwan Highway Bureau, 1955-1956; senior 
engineer, Electro-Optical Systems, 1963-1965; assistant professor, University of 
Tennessee, 1965-1967, associate professor, 1967-1973, professor, aerospace 
engineering, University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI), 1973-1988; 
president and chief executive officer, Engineering Research Consulting, Inc., 
1988- 

Concurrent Positions: laboratory manager, research and development laboratory, 
University of Tennessee, 1977-1981, administrator, Energy Conversion Research 
and Development Program, University of Tennessee, 1981-1988 

Susan Wu is an aerospace engineer renowned for her research on the potential for 
cleaner and more efficient methods of coal-fired power generation in the United 
States through the use of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), which produce electric 
power without the use of rotating machinery by passing a plasma through a mag- 
netic field. This method of power generation is cleaner and more efficient than 
the traditional power plant, and MHD generation is also used as a power source 
for aircraft. Wu's field of research is an important one primarily because of 
increasing mandates from the federal government to reduce emissions from coal- 
fired power plants and to reduce the use of fossil fuels, such as coal, to preserve 
them for future generations. After a productive career as an engineer and then 
aerospace engineering professor, Wu founded her own company in 1988, Engi- 
neering Research Consulting, Inc. Wu still serves as the company chairman, and 
her oldest son, Dr. Ernie Wu, is the president and chief executive officer. 

After she received her undergraduate degree in 1955, Wu found that engineer- 
ing jobs for women were scarce in China. She moved to the United States, where 
she received graduate degrees in aerospace engineering and aeronautics. She 
became a professor at the University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI), but left 
academia after 23 years to found her own aerospace and energy research consult- 
ing firm, ERC, Inc., now headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama. ERC consults 
for such agencies as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the 
Department of Energy, and the Argonne National Laboratory, and for corporations 
such as Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. 



Wu, Ying-Chu (Lin) Susan | 989 

Wu has been a member of the advisory board of the National Air and Space 
Museum of the Smithsonian Institution since 1993 and has received several 
awards, including the University of Tennessee's Chancellor's Research Scholar 
Award (1978), Outstanding Educators of America Award (1973 and 1975), Soci- 
ety of Women Engineers Achievement Award (1985), and Plasmadynamics and 
Lasers Award of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (1994). 
She is a three-time recipient of the Amelia Earhart Fellowship (1958, 1959, 
1962) from the women's advocacy organization, Zonta International, for women 
in aerospace science and engineering. She is a fellow of the American Institute of 
Aeronautics and Astronautics and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 
and a member of the Society of Women Engineers. 

Further Resources 

ERC Incorporated, http://erc-incorporated.com/comphistory.aspx. 



Y 



Yalow, Rosalyn Sussman 



b. 1921 

Medical Physicist 

Education: A.B., Hunter College, 1941; M.S., University of Illinois, 1942, Ph.D., 
physics, 1945 

Professional Experience: assistant, physics, University of Illinois, 1941-1943, 
instructor, 1944; assistant engineer, Federal Telecommunications Laboratory, 
1945-1946; lecturer and assistant professor, physics, Hunter College, 1946-1950; 
physicist, assistant chief, chief, radioimmunoassay service, Veterans Administration 
(VA) Hospital, Bronx, New York, 1950-1970, nuclear medical service, 1970- 
1980; chair, clinical science, Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center, 1980-1985 

Concurrent Positions: consultant, radioisotope unit, Veterans Administration 
Hospital, 1947-1950; research professor, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 1968— 
1974, distinguished service professor, 1974-1979; distinguished professor at large, 
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University, 1980-1985; Solomon A. 
Berson distinguished professor at large, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 1986- 

Rosalyn Yalow was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 
1977, the second woman to win in that category (Gerty Cori had been the first, in 
1947). She and her collaborators were pioneers in the new science of neuroendocri- 
nology, a discipline that enables doctors to diagnose conditions caused by hormonal 
changes. Yalow's work combined immunology, isotope research, mathematics, and 
physics, and established the field of modern biomedical physics. She set up one of 
the first radioisotope labs in the United States when she was hired in 1947 at the VA 
Hospital in the Bronx. The initial plan was that radioisotopes would be a cheap alter- 
native to radium for cancer treatment. With her engineering experience, she was able 
to design her own equipment, as no commercial instrumentation existed at the time. 
As a graduate student in physics at the University of Illinois, Yalow was 
assigned to teach only pre-med students, as no female faculty taught male engi- 
neering and science students. This changed, however, as more men were called 
to war and women were called to fill teaching positions. After completing her 
Ph.D., she became the first woman engineer at the Federal Telecommunications 



991 



992 | Yalow, Rosalyn Sussman 




Physicist Rosalyn Yalow was co-recipient of the 1 977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 
her development of the radioimmunoassay (RIA) technique. (National Library of Medicine) 



Laboratory for a year before returning to her alma mater, Hunter College, to teach. 
In 1947, she began her long tenure with the VA Hospital and a fruitful collabora- 
tion with physician Solomon Berson. Together, they invented radioimmunoassay 
(RIA), or the method of using radioactively tagged substances to measure antibod- 
ies produced by the immune system. By accident, they discovered that the insulin 
obtained from animal sources had minor but important differences from human 
insulin, namely that human insulin contains antibodies created by the immune 
system. The result of their research was that manufactured insulin could be genet- 
ically engineered to be precisely the same as human insulin. She and Berson did 
not patent their discovery, and commercial laboratories have realized enormous 
profits from performing RIA. 

Yalow and Berson published numerous papers together, always alternating first 
authorship, and earned numerous awards for their work. Although Berson 
accepted a position at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1968, they continued 
their work together until he died in 1972. It was already rumored at that time that 
the two were candidates for a shared Nobel Prize, but Berson's premature death 



Young, Anne Sewell | 993 

in 1972 removed his name from consideration, as the prize is not awarded post- 
humously. Yalow continued her research and was finally recognized with the 
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1977. She went on to teach at Mount 
Sinai, at Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center, and at Albert Einstein College 
of Medicine. She helped establish and direct the Solomon A. Berson Research 
Laboratory at the Bronx VA Hospital and held the Berson Distinguished Profes- 
sorship at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She retired from full-time research 
in the 1980s, but retained positions as affiliated faculty at several schools and con- 
tinued to use her office at the VA Hospital until 2002. 

Yalow was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1975. She was the 
first woman and first nuclear physicist to win the Albert Lasker Medical Research 
Award (1976), and is also the recipient of a National Medal of Science (1988). She 
was elected president of the Endocrine Society (1978-1979) and fellow of the 
New York Academy of Sciences. She has been a member of the American Acad- 
emy of Arts and Sciences, the Radiation Research Society, the American College 
of Radiology, the Biophysical Society, the American Diabetes Association, and 
the American Physiological Society. 

Further Resources 

Byers, Nina and Gary A. Williams. 2006. Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth- 
Century Women to Physics. New York: Cambridge University Press. 

McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch. 1998. Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, 
and Momentous Discoveries. Secaucus, NJ: Birch Lane Press. 

Straus, Eugene. 1998. Rosalyn Yalow, Nobel Laureate: Her Life and Work in Medicine. 
New York: Basic Books. 



Young, Anne Sewell 

1871 1961 
Astronomer 

Education: B.L., Carleton College, 1892, M.S., 1897; University of Chicago, 
1898, 1902; Ph.D., astronomy, Columbia University, 1906 

Professional Experience: instructor, mathematics, Whitman College, 1892-1893, 
professor, 1893-1895; high school principal, 1897-1899; instructor to professor, 
astronomy, and director, John Payne Williston Observatory, Mount Holyoke 
College, 1899-1936 

Anne Young was an astronomer recognized for her research on observations 
of variable stars, measurement of astronomical photographs, and reduction of 



994 | Young, Roger Arliner 

occultation observations. She conducted an active program at Mount Holyoke on 
sunspot observations, asteroid positions, comet orbits, and variable stars. Young 
had an early interest in astronomy, and her uncle, Charles Young, was a renowned 
professor of astronomy at Princeton University. After receiving her undergraduate 
degree from Carleton College in 1892, she was an instructor and then professor of 
mathematics at Whitman College for four years. She returned to Carleton for her 
master's degree and was a high school principal for a year. She took additional 
studies at the University of Chicago before receiving her doctorate in astronomy 
from Columbia in 1906. Her doctoral research was based on the photographic 
measurements of stars within the constellation of Perseus. 

Young was appointed an instructor at Mount Holyoke in 1 899 and rose through 
the ranks to professor, retiring in 1936. Throughout her tenure at Mount Holyoke, 
she was also director of the Williston Observatory. She published numerous papers 
in astronomical journals, and in 1900, she started a program of daily sunspot 
observations at Mount Holyoke that led to a worldwide cooperative research 
project. One of her contributions to the profession was that she promoted popular 
interest in astronomy by writing a monthly column on astronomy for a local paper, 
the Springfield Republican, and by providing a series of open nights at the 
observatory for the public. She was beloved as a teacher and, in 1925, took an 
entire class of students from Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts to Connecticut by 
train to see the total eclipse of the sun that year. 

Young was elected a fellow of the American Astronomical Society, the Royal 
Astronomical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence, and was elected president of the American Association of Variable Star 
Observers (1923). 



Young, Roger Arliner 

1899 1964 
Zoologist 

Education: B.S., Howard University, 1923; M.S., University of Chicago, 1926; 
Ph.D., zoology, University of Pennsylvania, 1940 

Professional Experience: instructor and interim department head, zoology, Howard 
University, Washington, D.C., 1923-1936; researcher, Marine Biological Labora- 
tory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts; assistant professor, biology, North Carolina 
College for Negroes; instructor, biology, Shaw University, Raleigh, North Carolina; 
instructor, Jackson State College, Mississippi; instructor, Paul Quinn College, Texas; 
lecturer, biology, Southern University, Louisiana 



Young, Roger Arliner | 995 

Roger Arliner Young was a zoologist and marine biologist who was the first African 
American woman to receive a doctorate in zoology. Her research focused on the 
effects of radiation and ultraviolet light on sea urchin eggs, and hydration and salt 
concentration in other organisms. She published an article in Science, "On the 
Excretory Apparatus in Paramecium," before even receiving her master's degree. 
She published several other scientific papers in the 1930s. 

Young enrolled at Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 1916. Her family 
was poor, and she was responsible for the care of her invalid mother, causing her 
grades in school to suffer. For these reasons, it took seven years for Young to earn 
her bachelor's degree from Howard. She originally intended to study music, but 
took her first science course in 1921 with biology and zoology professor Ernest 
Everett Just, who became an important mentor for Young and encouraged her to 
pursue graduate work in the sciences. After receiving her degree from Howard in 
1923, she went on to attend the University of Chicago part-time. She received 
her master's degree in 1926 and was invited by Just to work with him at the Woods 
Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts during the summers. Young 
began her work on marine embryology, fertilization, and the processes of hydra- 
tion and dehydration. Just asked her to stand in for him as head of the zoology 
department at Howard on several occasions when he made trips to Europe to seek 
research funding. 

Young returned to the University of Chicago in 1929 to pursue a doctorate 
with another professor she had met at Woods Hole. She did not pass her quali- 
fying exams, however, and returned to teach at Howard for several more years. 
In 1936, she was fired by Everett Ernest Just for reasons that seemed to be both 
political (pressures from the dean) and personal (a rift with Just over rumors about 
the nature of their relationship). She left Howard and moved to the University of 
Pennsylvania to resume work toward a doctorate, which she finally received in 
1940 with a dissertation on "The Indirect Effects of Roentgen Rays on Certain 
Marine Eggs." After 1940, she taught at colleges in North Carolina, Mississippi, 
Louisiana, and Texas. She continued to care for her mother until her mother's 
death in 1953 and lived on the brink of poverty, unable to retain a teaching position 
very long. Her research using ultraviolet light had damaged her eyesight and, at 
one point, she was admitted to the Mississippi State Mental Asylum due to poor 
mental health. She died in New Orleans in 1964. 

Further Resources 

Manning, Kenneth R. 1983. Black Apollo of Science: The Life of Ernest Everett Just. 
New York: Oxford University Press. 

Warren, Wini. 1999. Black Women Scientists in the United States. Bloomington: Indiana 
University Press. 



z 



Zoback, Mary Lou 



b. 1952 
Geophysicist 

Education: B.S. geophysics, Stanford University, 1974, M.S. 1975, Ph.D., 1978 

Professional Experience: National Research Council postdoctoral fellow, Heat 
Flow Studies, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 1978-1979, research scientist, 
Earthquake Hazards Team, USGS, 1979-1999, chief scientist, Western Earthquake 
Hazards Team, 1999-2003, senior research scientist and program coordinator, 
Northern California Earthquake Hazards Program, 2003-2006; vice president, 
Earthquake Risk Applications, Risk Management Solutions (RMS), 2006- 

Concurrent Positions: visiting scholar, Geophysical Institute, Karlsruhe, 
Germany, 1990-1991 

Mary Lou Zoback is an internationally recognized geophysicist who specializes in 
plate tectonics and earthquakes. She has researched and mapped plate stresses, in 
particular focused on the San Andreas fault system which runs through California. 
She led the World Stress Map Project (1986-1992) of the International Lithosphere 
Program, a coalition of scientists from 30 countries who compiled geologic data on 
worldwide active tectonics and stress for environmental scientists and government 
risk assessments. Zoback earned three degrees in geophysics from Stanford Univer- 
sity and has spent nearly 25 years at the USGS Office of Earthquake Studies. She 
left the USGS in 2006 to become vice president of Earthquake Risk Applications 
at RMS in Newark, California. At RMS, she provides scientific data for purposes 
of assessing earthquake risk, risk-reduction plans, insurance needs, and disaster 
management and response. In 2006, she helped found the 1906 Earthquake 
Centennial Alliance to commemorate the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 and 
raise public awareness about earthquake safety. Zoback is also committed to 
science education and has been involved with Expanding Your Horizons, a national 
program to encourage young girls in science, math, and technology careers. 

Zoback has served on numerous scientific and government committees, including 
for the National Science Foundation, National Research Council, National Aeronau- 
tics and Space Administration (NASA), and several universities. She was elected to 



997 



998 | Zoback, Mary Lou 

the National Academy of Sciences in 1995. She is a fellow of the Geological Society 
of America (GSA) (president, 1999-2000) and American Geophysical Union, and a 
member of the American Geological Institute, Seismological Society of America, 
and Earthquake Engineering Research Institute. She has received the Macelwane 
Award of the AGU (1987), the USGS Gilbert Fellowship Award for a visiting schol- 
arship in Germany (1990-1991), Meritorious Service Award of the Department of 
Interior (2002), Bownocker Medal of Ohio State University (2003), Innovation and 
Exemplary Practice in Earthquake Risk Reduction Award from the Earthquake 
Engineering Research Institute (2006), and Arthur L. Day Medal (2007) and Public 
Service Award (2007) of the GSA. 

Further Resources 

National Academy of Sciences. 2003. "Interviews: Mary Lou Zoback, Geophysics." 
http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=INTERVIEWS Mary Lou 
Zoback. 



Women Nobel Prize Winners 
in the Sciences 



Physics 

1903 Marie Curie 

1963 Maria Goeppert-Mayer 

Chemistry 

1911 Marie Curie 

1935 Irene Joliot-Curie 

1964 Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin 
2009 Ada E. Yonath 

Physiology or Medicine 

1947 Gerty Cori 

1977 Rosalyn Yalow 

1983 Barbara McClintock 

1986 Rita Levi-Montalcini 

1988 Gertrude B. Elion 

1995 Christiane Niisslein-Volhard 

2004 Linda B. Buck 

2008 Francoise Barre-Sinoussi 

2009 Elizabeth H. Blackburn 
2009 Carol W. Greider 

Economic Sciences 

2009 Elinor Ostrom 



999 



Scientists by Discipline 



Aerospace & Astronautics 

Berger, Marsha J. 
Brill, Yvonne (Claeys) 
Cleave, Mary L. 
Cobb, Geraldyne M. 
Collins, Eileen 
Cowings, Patricia Suzanne 
Darden, Christine V. Mann 
Dunbar, Bonnie J. 
Fisher, Anna L. 
Flugge Lotz, Irmgard 
Hamilton, Margaret 
Jemison, Mae Carol 
Johnson, Barbara Crawford 
Johnston, Mary Helen 
Kurtzig, Sandra L. (Brody) 
Leveson, Nancy G. 



Long, Irene (Duhart) 
Lucid, Shannon (Wells) 
Ocampo, Adriana C. 
Ochoa, Ellen 
Resnik, Judith A. 
Ride, Sally Kristen 
Seddon, Margaret Rhea 
Simon, Dorothy Martin 
Stoll, Alice Mary 
Sullivan, Kathryn D. 
Thornton, Kathryn (Cordell) 
Townsend, Marjorie Rhodes 
Whitson, Peggy A. 
Widnall, Sheila (Evans) 
Wu, Ying-Chu (Lin) Susan 



Animal Sciences 

Altmann, Jeanne 
Altmann, Margaret 
Fossey, Dian 
Grandin, Temple 



Moss, Cynthia Jane 
Poole, Joyce 
Saif, Linda 



1001 



1002 | Scientists by Discipline 



Anthropology & Archaeology 

Aberle, Sophie Bledsoe 
Archambault, JoAllyn 
Bateson, Mary Catherine 
Beall, Cynthia 
Benedict, Ruth Fulton 
Bricker, Victoria (Reifler) 
Buikstra, Jane Ellen 
Cole, Johnnetta (Betsch) 
Colson, Elizabeth Florence 
De Laguna, Frederica Annis 
Ellis, Florence May Hawley 
Haas, Mary Rosamond 
Harrison, Faye Venetia 
Hawkes, Kristen 
Helm, June 
Hrdy, Sarah C. (Blaffer) 



Leacock, Eleanor (Burke) 

Linares, Olga Frances 

Lubic, Ruth (Watson) 

Lurie, Nancy (Oestreich) 

Marcus, Joyce 

Martin, Emily 

Mead, Margaret 

Medicine, Beatrice A. 

Parsons, Elsie Worthington Clews 

Reichard, Gladys Amanda 

Semple, Ellen Churchill 

Shipman, Pat 

Slye, Maud Caroline 

Sudarkasa, Niara 

Thompson, Laura Maud 

Watson, Patty Jo (Andersen) 



Astronomy & Astrophysics 

Bahcall, Neta 

Burbidge, (Eleanor) Margaret 
Cannon, Annie Jump 
Cordova, France Anne-Dominic 
Elmegreen, Debra Meloy 
Faber, Sandra (Moore) 
Furness, Caroline Ellen 
Geller, Margaret Joan 
Gill, Jocelyn Ruth 
Hammel, Heidi 
Hoffleit, (Ellen) Dorrit 
Intriligator, Devrie (Shapiro) 
Leavitt, Henrietta Swan 



Lippincott, Sarah Lee 

Makemson, Maud Worcester 

Maury, Antonia Caetana de Paiva 
Pereira 

McFadden, Lucy-Ann Adams 

Meinel, Marjorie Pettit 

Payne Gaposchkin, Celelia Helena 

Prince, Helen Walter Dodson 

Prinz, Dianne Kasnic 

Roemer, Elizabeth 

Roman, Nancy Grace 

Rubin, Vera (Cooper) 

Shoemaker, Carolyn (Spellmann) 



Scientists by Discipline | 1003 



Sitterly, Charlotte Emma Moore 

Small, Meredith F. 

Smith, Elske (van Panhuys) 



Tinsley, Beatrice Muriel (Hill) 
Young, Anne Sewell 



Biochemistry 

Banfield, Jillian F. 

Benesch, Ruth Erica (Leroi) 

Blackburn, Elizabeth 

Briscoe, Anne M. 

Brown, Barbara B. 

Brown, Rachel Fuller 

Chilton, Mary-Dell (Matchett) 

Cohn, Mildred 

Cori, Gerty Theresa Radnitz 

Daly, Marie Maynard 

Delmer, Deborah 

Edwards, Cecile Hoover 

Elion, Gertrude Belle 

Emerson, Gladys Anderson 

Fink, Kathryn Ferguson 

Fuchs, Elaine V. 

Greider, Carol W. 

Gross, Elizabeth Louise 

Guttman, Helene Augusta (Nathan) 

Hamilton, Alice 

Haschemeyer, Audrey E. V. 

Hay, Elizabeth Dexter 

Hollinshead, Ariel Cahill 

Horning, Marjorie G. 

Hubbard, Ruth (Hoffman) 

Jones, Mary Ellen 

Kaufman, Joyce (Jacobson) 

Klinman, Judith (Pollock) 



Macy-Hoobler, Icie Gertrude 

Maling, Harriet Mylander 

Miller, Elizabeth Cavert 

Morgan, Agnes Fay 

Neufeld, Elizabeth (Fondal) 

Osborn, Mary Jane (Merten) 

Petermann, Mary Locke 

Ratner, Sarah 

Richardson, Jane S. 

Rolf, Ida P. 

Seibert, Florence Barbara 

Shockley, Dolores Cooper 

Shotwell, Odette Louise 

Simmonds, Sofia 

Singer, Maxine (Frank) 

Stadtman, Thressa Campbell 

Stanley, Louise 

Stearns, Genevieve 

Steitz, Joan (Argetsinger) 

Stubbe, JoAnne 

Tilghman, Shirley M. 

Tolbert, Margaret Ellen (Mayo) 

Vaughan, Martha 

Vennesland, Birgit 

Weisburger, Elizabeth Amy (Kreiser) 

Whitson, Peggy A. 

Wrinch, Dorothy Maud 



1004 | Scientists by Discipline 



Biomedical Sciences 

Avery, Mary Ellen 
Baetjer, Anna Medora 
Bartoshuk, Linda 
Benesch, Ruth Erica (Leroi) 
Blackburn, Elizabeth 
Bliss, Eleanor Albert 
Briscoe, Anne M. 
Broome, Claire Veronica 
Brown, Rachel Fuller 
Brugge, Joan S. 
Buck, Linda B. 
Cobb, Jewel Plummer 
Cohn, Mildred 
Colwell, Rita (Rossi) 
Cori, Gerty Theresa Radnitz 
Cowings, Patricia Suzanne 
Daly, Marie Maynard 
Dick, Gladys Rowena Henry 
Dunbar, Bonnie J. 
Elion, Gertrude Belle 
Estrin, Thelma Austern 
Evans, Alice Catherine 
Farquhar, Marilyn (Gist) 
Ferguson, Angela Dorothea 
Fink, Kathryn Ferguson 
Free, Helen (Murray) 
Friend, Charlotte 
Fuchs, Elaine V. 
Gayle, Helene Doris 
Giblett, Eloise Rosalie 
Glusker, Jenny (Pickworth) 
Gordon, Ruth Evelyn 



Greider, Carol W. 

Griffin, Diane Edmund 

Gross, Carol A. (Polinsky) 

Guthrie, Mary Jane 

Guttman, Helene Augusta (Nathan) 

Harris, Mary (Styles) 

Hay, Elizabeth Dexter 

Hazen, Elizabeth Lee 

Hockfield, Susan 

Hollinshead, Ariel Cahill 

Horning, Marjorie G. 

Horstmann, Dorothy Millicent 

Huang, Alice Shih-Hou 

Jones, Mary Ellen 

Kaufman, Joyce (Jacobson) 

Kenyon, Cynthia J. 

King, Mary-Claire 

Koshland, Marian Elliott 

Krim, Mathilde (Galland) 

Lancaster, Cleo 

Lancefield, Rebecca Craighill 

Leeman, Susan (Epstein) 

Lesh-Laurie, Georgia Elizabeth 

L'Esperance, Elise Depew Strang 

Levi-Montalcini, Rita 

Lewis, Margaret Adaline Reed 

Lucid, Shannon (Wells) 

Maling, Harriet My lander 

Marrack, Philippa Charlotte 

McSherry, Diana Hartridge 

Mendenhall, Dorothy Reed 

Micheli-Tzanakou, Evangelia 



Scientists by Discipline | 1005 



Mielczarek, Eugenie Vorburger 
Miller, Elizabeth Cavert 
Mintz, Beatrice 
Murray, Sandra Ann 
Neufeld, Elizabeth (Fondal) 
New, Maria (Iandolo) 
Osborn, Mary Jane (Merten) 
Pearce, Louise 

Pert, Candace Dorinda (Bebe) 
Petermann, Mary Locke 
Pitelka, Dorothy Riggs 
Pittman, Margaret 
Pool, Judith Graham 
Profet, Margie 
Quimby, Edith Hinkley 
Ramaley, Judith (Aitken) 
Ramey, Estelle Rosemary White 
Ranney, Helen Margaret 
Ratner, Sarah 
Rowley, Janet Davison 
Sabin, Florence Rena 
Sager, Ruth 
Saif, Linda 



Scharrer, Berta Vogel 

Sedlak, Bonnie Joy 

Seibert, Florence Barbara 

Shapiro, Lucille (Cohen) 

Shaw, Jane E. 

Shockley, Dolores Cooper 

Simmonds, Sofia 

Sinkford, Jeanne Frances (Craig) 

Stoll, Alice Mary 

Stroud-Lee, F. Agnes Naranjo 

Taussig, Helen Brooke 

Vaughan, Martha 

Villa-Komaroff, Lydia 

Vitetta, Ellen Shapiro 

Waelsch, Salome Gluecksohn 

Weisburger, Elizabeth Amy (Kreiser) 

Wexler, Nancy Sabin 

Wilhelmi, Jane Anne Russell 

Williams, Anna Wessels 

Witkin, Evelyn Maisel 

Woods, Geraldine (Pittman) 

Yalow, Rosalyn Sussman 



Botany (Plant Sciences) 

Bennett, Joan Wennstrom 
Berenbaum, May Roberta 
Braun, (Emma) Lucy 
Britton, Elizabeth Knight 
Charles, Vera Katherine 
Chase, (Mary) Agnes Meara 
Chilton, Mary-Dell (Matchett) 



Chory, Joanne 
Davis, Margaret Bryan 
Delmer, Deborah 
Earle, Sylvia Alice 
Eastwood, Alice 
Esau, Katherine 
Farr, Wanda Kirkbride 



1006 | Scientists by Discipline 



Fedoroff, Nina Vsevolod 
Ferguson, Margaret Clay 
Gantt, Elisabeth 
Gerry, Eloise B. 
Goldring, Winifred 
Gross, Elizabeth Louise 
Hart, Helen 

Leopold, Estella Bergere 
Long, Sharon (Rugel) 
Mathias, Mildred Esther 
McClintock, Barbara 
McCoy, Elizabeth Florence 



Moore, Emmeline 

Patrick, Ruth 

Patterson, Flora Wambaugh 

Rissler, Jane Francina 

Roberts, Edith Adelaide 

Shields, Lora Mangum 

Sommer, Anna Louise 

Sweeney, (Eleanor) Beatrice Marcy 

Tilden, Josephine Elizabeth 

Vennesland, Birgit 

Walbot, Virginia Elizabeth 

Westcott, Cynthia 



Chemistry 

Anderson, Gloria (Long) 

Benerito, Ruth Rogan 

Berkowitz, Joan B. 

Brill, Yvonne (Claeys) 

Carr, Emma Perry 

Caserio, Marjorie Constance (Beckett) 

Cox, Geraldine Anne (Vang) 

Dicciani, Nance Katherine 

Drake, Elisabeth (Mertz) 

Fitzroy, Nancy (Deloye) 

Flanigen, Edith Marie 

Fox, Marye Anne (Payne) 

Free, Helen (Murray) 

Gast, Alice P. 

Glusker, Jenny (Pickworth) 

Good, Mary (Lowe) 

Grasselli (Brown), Jeanette 

Greer, Sandra Charlene 



Hahn, Dorothy Anna 
Harrison, Anna Jane 
Hoffman, Darleane (Christian) 
Jeanes, Allene Rosalind 
Karle, Isabella Helen Lugoski 
Kaufman, Joyce (Jacobson) 
Kwolek, Stephanie Louise 
Libby, Leona Woods Marshall 
MacLeod, Grace 
Marlatt, Abby Lillian 
Michel, Helen (Vaughn) 
Mitchell, Helen Swift 
Nightingale, Dorothy Virginia 
Patrick, Jennie R. 
Payne, Nellie Maria de Cottrell 
Pennington, Mary Engle 
Prichard, Diana (Garcia) 
Reichmanis, Elsa 



Scientists by Discipline | 1007 



Rose, Mary Davies Swartz 
Savitz, Maxine (Lazarus) 
Schwan, Judith A. 
Sherman, Patsy O'Connell 
Shotwell, Odette Louise 
Shreeve, Jean'ne Marie 
Simon, Dorothy Martin 



Solomon, Susan 
Stiebeling, Hazel Katherine 
Stubbe, JoAnne 
Taylor, Kathleen Christine 
Tesoro, Giuliana (Cavaglieri) 
Thomas, Martha Jane (Bergin) 



Computer Science & 

Bell, Gwen (Dru'yor) 
Berezin, Evelyn 
Berger, Marsha J. 
Butler, Margaret K. 
Conway, Lynn Ann 
Davis, Ruth Margaret 
Estrin, Thelma Austern 
Goldberg, Adele 
Goldwasser, Shafrira 
Graham, Susan Lois 
Granville, Evelyn (Boyd) 
Greibach, Sheila Adele 
Hamilton, Margaret 
Hopper, Grace Murray 
Hutchins, Sandra Elaine 



Information Technology 

Irwin, Mary Jane 
Jones, Anita Katherine 
Kempf, Martine 
Kurtzig, Sandra L. (Brody) 
Leveson, Nancy G. 
Liskov, Barbara Huberman 
Mc Sherry, Diana Hartridge 
Mitchell, Joan L. 
Pour-El, Marian Boykan 
Reichmanis, Elsa 
Sammet, Jean Elaine 
Shaw, Mary M. 
Turkle, Sherry 
Williams, Roberta 
Wright, Margaret H. 



Crystallography 

Donnay, Gabrielle (Hamburger) 
Glusker, Jenny (Pickworth) 
Karle, Isabella Helen Lugoski 

Economics 

Adelman, Irma Glicman 
Hewlett, Sylvia Ann 



Richardson, Jane S. 
Wood, Elizabeth Armstrong 



Kanter, Rosabeth (Moss) 
Kreps, Juanita (Morris) 



1008 | Scientists by Discipline 



Krueger, Anne (Osborn) 

Ostrom, Elinor 

Pate-Cornell, (Marie) Elisabeth 
Lucienne 

Rivlin, Alice (Mitchell) 



Stern, Frances 

Stokey, Nancy 

Tyson, Laura (D'Andrea) 

Wallace, Phyllis Ann 

Whitman, Marina (von Neumann) 



Engineering 

Abriola, Linda M. 
Agogino, Alice M. 
Baranescu, Rodica 
Benmark, Leslie Ann (Freeman) 
Berger, Marsha J. 
Brill, Yvonne (Claeys) 
Clarke, Edith 
Cleave, Mary L. 
Colmenares, Margarita H. 
Conway, Lynn Ann 
Conwell, Esther Marly 
Darden, Christine V. Mann 
Davis, Ruth Margaret 
De Planque, E. Gail 
Dicciani, Nance Katherine 
Drake, Elisabeth (Mertz) 
Dresselhaus, Mildred (Spiewak) 
Edwards, Helen Thom 
Estrin, Thelma Austern 
Fitzroy, Nancy (Deloye) 
Flugge Lotz, Irmgard 
Garmire, Elsa (Meints) 
Gast, Alice P. 
Gilbreth, Lillian E. Moller 
Goldwasser, Shafrira 



Good, Mary (Lowe) 

Graham, Susan Lois 

Hamilton, Margaret 

Hicks, Beatrice Alice 

Hutchins, Sandra Elaine 

Hwang, Jennie S. 

Irwin, Mary Jane 

Jackson, Shirley Ann 

Johnson, Barbara Crawford 

Johnston, Mary Helen 

Jones, Anita Katherine 

Kempf, Martine 

Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf, Doris 

Levelt-Sengers, Johanna Maria Henrica 

Liskov, Barbara Huberman 

Matthews, Alva T. 

Mitchell, Mildred Bessie 

Napadensky, Hyla Sarane (Siegel) 

Nichols, Roberta J. 

Ochoa, Ellen 

Pate-Cornell, (Marie) Elisabeth 
Lucienne 

Patrick, Jennie R. 

Peden, Irene (Carswell) 

Pressman, Ada Irene 



Scientists by Discipline | 1009 



Rand, (Marie) Gertrude 
Resnik, Judith A. 
Roy, Delia Martin 
Savitz, Maxine (Lazarus) 
Schwan, Judith A. 



Shaw, Mary M. 
Taylor, Kathleen Christine 
Townsend, Marjorie Rhodes 
Widnall, Sheila (Evans) 
Wu, Ying-Chu (Lin) Susan 



Environmental Sciences & Ecology 



Abriola, Linda M. 

Ancker-Johnson, Betsy 

Anderson, Mary P. 

Baetjer, Anna Medora 

Beattie, Mollie Hanna 

Berenbaum, May Roberta 

Berkowitz, Joan B. 

Bonta, Marcia (Myers) 

Braun, (Emma) Lucy 

Braun, Annette Frances 

Cady, Bertha Louise Chapman 

Caldicott, Helen Mary (Broinowski) 

Carson, Rachel Louise 

Cleave, Mary L. 

Colmenares, Margarita H. 

Cox, Geraldine Anne (Vang) 

Davis, Margaret Bryan 

DeFries, Ruth 

Drake, Elisabeth (Mertz) 

Ehrlich, Anne (Fitzhugh) Howland 

Grasselli (Brown), Jeanette 

Hamerstrom, Frances (Flint) 

Hamilton, Alice 

Haschemeyer, Audrey E. V. 

LaBastille, Anne 



Leopold, Estella Bergere 

Libby, Leona Woods Marshall 

Lubchenco, Jane 

Margulis, Lynn (Alexander) 

Matson, Pamela Anne 

McCammon, Helen Mary (Choman) 

McCoy, Elizabeth Florence 

McWhinnie, Mary Alice 

Moore, Emmeline 

Morgan, Ann Haven 

Nichols, Roberta J. 

Patch, Edith Marion 

Patrick, Ruth 

Ray, (Marguerite) Dixy Lee 

Rissler, Jane Francina 

Roberts, Edith Adelaide 

Savitz, Maxine (Lazarus) 

Scott, Juanita (Simons) 

Shields, Lora Mangum 

Shotwell, Odette Louise 

Solomon, Susan 

Stickel, Lucille Farrier 

Taylor, Kathleen Christine 

Tilden, Josephine Elizabeth 

Weisburger, Elizabeth Amy (Kreiser) 



1010 I Scientists by Discipline 



Genetics 

Adams, (Amy) Elizabeth 
Altmann, Margaret 
Bennett, Joan Wennstrom 
Blackburn, Elizabeth 
Carothers, (Estrella) Eleanor 
Chilton, Mary-Dell (Matchett) 
Fausto-Sterling, Anne 
Fedoroff, Nina Vsevolod 
Fuchs, Elaine V. 
Fuchs, Elaine V. 
Giblett, Eloise Rosalie 
Greider, Carol W. 
Harris, Mary (Styles) 
Hoy, Marjorie Ann (Wolf) 
Huang, Alice Shih-Hou 
Hubbard, Ruth (Hoffman) 
Jones, Mary Ellen 
Kidwell, Margaret Gale 
Kimble, Judith 
King, Helen Dean 
King, Mary-Claire 
Krim, Mathilde (Galland) 



Long, Sharon (Rugel) 
Macklin, Madge Thurlow 
Margulis, Lynn (Alexander) 
McClintock, Barbara 
Mintz, Beatrice 
Nelkin, Dorothy (Wolfers) 
Neufeld, Elizabeth (Fondal) 
Pardue, Mary Lou 
Rissler, Jane Francina 
Rowley, Janet Davison 
Russell, Elizabeth Shull 
Sager, Ruth 

Shapiro, Lucille (Cohen) 
Singer, Maxine (Frank) 
Steitz, Joan (Argetsinger) 
Stroud-Lee, F. Agnes Naranjo 
Tilghman, Shirley M. 
Villa-Komaroff, Lydia 
Waelsch, Salome Gluecksohn 
Walbot, Virginia Elizabeth 
Wexler, Nancy Sabin 
Witkin, Evelyn Maisel 



Geography 

Baber, Mary Arizona "Zonia" 
Bell, Gwen (Dru'yor) 
Boyd, Louise Arner 
DeFries, Ruth 



Fischer, Irene (Kaminka) 
Semple, Ellen Churchill 
Tharp, Marie 



Geology 

Anderson, Mary P. 
Banfield, Jillian F. 



Bascom, Florence 

Bunce, Elizabeth Thompson 



Scientists by Discipline | 101 I 



Davis, Margaret Bryan 

Donnay, Gabrielle (Hamburger) 

Dreschhoff, Gisela Auguste-Marie 

Fowler Billings, Katharine Stevens 

Gardner, Julia Anna 

Goldring, Winifred 

Herzenberg, Caroline Stuart 
(Littlejohn) 

Kieffer, Susan Werner 

Knopf, Eleanora Frances Bliss 

Lochman Balk, Christina 

Loeblich, Helen Nina Tappan 

Marvin, Ursula Bailey 

Maury, Carlotta Joaquina 

McCammon, Helen Mary (Choman) 

McNutt, Marcia Kemper 



Michel, Helen (Vaughn) 

Navrotsky, Alexandra A. S. 

Ocampo, Adriana C. 

Ogilvie, Ida Helen 

Owens, Joan Murrell 

Palmer, Katherine Hilton Van Winkle 

Peden, Irene (Carswell) 

Romanowicz, Barbara 

Roy, Delia Martin 

Schwarzer, Theresa Flynn 

Sullivan, Kathryn D. 

Talbot, Mignon 

Tharp, Marie 

Wood, Elizabeth Armstrong 

Zoback, Mary Lou 



Mathematics 

Bates, Grace Elizabeth 
Berger, Marsha J. 
Bertell, Rosalie 
Butler, Margaret K. 
Clarke, Edith 
Cox, Gertrude Mary 
Daubechies, Ingrid 
Davis, Ruth Margaret 
Fischer, Irene (Kaminka) 
Flugge Lotz, Irmgard 
Geiringer (Von Mises), Hilda 
Granville, Evelyn (Boyd) 
Greibach, Sheila Adele 
Hazlett, Olive Clio 
Hopper, Grace Murray 



Karp, Carol Ruth (Vander Velde) 
Kopell, Nancy J. 
Luchins, Edith Hirsch 
Menken, Jane Ava (Golubitsky) 
Morawetz, Cathleen (Synge) 
Partee, Barbara (Hall) 
Pour-El, Marian Boykan 
Rees, Mina Spiegel 
Robinson, Julia Bowman 
Rosenblatt, Joan (Raup) 
Rudin, Mary Ellen (Estill) 
Sammet, Jean Elaine 
Taussky-Todd, Olga 
Uhlenbeck, Karen (Keskulla) 
Wheeler, Anna Johnson Pell 



1012 | Scientists by Discipline 



Wheeler, Mary F. 
Wright, Margaret H. 



Wrinch, Dorothy Maud 



Medicine 

Apgar, Virginia 
Avery, Mary Ellen 
Broome, Claire Veronica 
Caldicott, Helen Mary (Broinowski) 
Crosby, Elizabeth Caroline 
Delgado, Jane L. 
Densen-Gerber, Judianne 
Dick, Gladys Rowena Henry 
Elders, (Minnie) Joycelyn (Jones) 
Ferguson, Angela Dorothea 
Fisher, Anna L. 
Gayle, Helene Doris 
Graham, Frances (Keesler) 
Harris, Jean Louise 
Harrison-Ross, Phyllis Ann 
Healy, Bernadine Patricia 
Horstmann, Dorothy Millicent 
Hyde, Ida Henrietta 
Jackson, Jacquelyne Mary (Johnson) 
Jemison, Mae Carol 
Kubler-Ross, Elisabeth 
Lancaster, Cleo 
Leeman, Susan (Epstein) 
LEsperance, Elise Depew Strang 
Long, Irene (Duhart) 
Love, Susan M. 
Lubic, Ruth (Watson) 



Macklin, Madge Thurlow 
Mc Sherry, Diana Hartridge 
Mendenhall, Dorothy Reed 
New, Maria (Iandolo) 
Nielsen, Jerri Lin 
Northrup, Christiane 
Novello, Antonia (Coello) 
Pearce, Louise 

Pert, Candace Dorinda (Bebe) 
Pool, Judith Graham 
Profet, Margie 
Ramaley, Judith (Aitken) 
Ramey, Estelle Rosemary White 
Rand, (Marie) Gertrude 
Ranney, Helen Margaret 
Rolf, Ida P. 

Rowley, Janet Davison 
Sabin, Florence Rena 
Seddon, Margaret Rhea 
Shalala, Donna Edna 
Sinkford, Jeanne Frances (Craig) 
Spurlock, Jeanne 
Taussig, Helen Brooke 
Wattleton, (Alyce) Faye 
Wilhelmi, Jane Anne Russell 
Williams, Anna Wessels 



Scientists by Discipline | 1013 



Meteorology 

Ackerman, Bernice 
Austin, Pauline Morrow 
Kalnay, Eugenia 
Ledley, Tamara (Shapiro) 

Neurosciences 

Brown, Barbara B. 

Crosby, Elizabeth Caroline 

Diamond, Marian Cleeves 

Estrin, Thelma Austern 

Fromkin, Victoria Alexandria 
(Landish) 

Goldman-Rakic, Patricia 

Graybiel, Ann Martin 

Hockfield, Susan 

Jameson, Dorothea A. 



LeMone, Margaret Anne 
Simpson, Joanne Malkus (Gerould) 
Van Straten, Florence Wilhemina 



Jan, Lily 

Kanwisher, Nancy 
Leeman, Susan (Epstein) 
Levi Montalcini, Rita 
Micheli-Tzanakou, Evangelia 
Pert, Candace Dorinda (Bebe) 
Spelke, Elizabeth 
Treisman, Anne 
Wexler, Nancy Sabin 



Nutrition & Home Economics 

Aberle, Sophie Bledsoe 
Brody, Jane Ellen 
Brooks, Carolyn (Branch) 
Calloway, Doris (Howes) 
Carey, Susan E. 
Cori, Gerty Theresa Radnitz 
Edwards, Cecile Hoover 
Emerson, Gladys Anderson 
Guttman, Helene Augusta (Nathan) 
Leverton, Ruth Mandeville 
MacLeod, Grace 
Macy-Hoobler, Icie Gertrude 
Marlatt, Abby Lillian 



Mitchell, Helen Swift 
Morgan, Agnes Fay 
Pennington, Mary Engle 
Roberts, Lydia Jane 
Rose, Flora 

Rose, Mary Davies Swartz 
Stadtman, Thressa Campbell 
Stanley, Louise 
Stearns, Genevieve 
Stern, Frances 
Stiebeling, Hazel Katherine 
Van Rensselaer, Martha 



1014 | Scientists by Discipline 



Ocean Sciences 

Avery, Susan K. 

Bunce, Elizabeth Thompson 

Clark, Eugenie 

Colwell, Rita (Rossi) 

Crane, Kathleen 

Earle, Sylvia Alice 

Harvey, Ethel Browne 

Haschemeyer, Audrey E. V. 

Hibbard, Hope 

La Monte, Francesca Raimond 

Lubchenco, Jane 



McCammon, Helen Mary (Choman) 

McNutt, Marcia Kemper 

McWhinnie, Mary Alice 

Owens, Joan Murrell 

Ray, (Marguerite) Dixy Lee 

Romanowicz, Barbara 

Sullivan, Kathryn D. 

Sweeney, (Eleanor) Beatrice Marcy 

Tharp, Marie 

Tilden, Josephine Elizabeth 

Young, Roger Arliner 



Paleontology 

Davis, Margaret Bryan 
Edinger, Tilly 
Gardner, Julia Anna 
Goldring, Winifred 
Leopold, Estella Bergere 
Lochman Balk, Christina 
Loeblich, Helen Nina Tappan 



Maury, Carlotta Joaquina 

Michel, Helen (Vaughn) 

Owens, Joan Murrell 

Palmer, Katherine Hilton Van Winkle 

Shipman, Pat 

Talbot, Mignon 



Physics 

Ajzenberg-Selove, Fay 
Ancker-Johnson, Betsy 
Anslow, Gladys Amelia 
Blodgett, Katharine Burr 
Chasman, Renate (Wiener) 
Conwell, Esther Marly 
De Planque, E. Gail 
Dewitt-Morette, Cecile Andree Paule 
Dreschhoff, Gisela Auguste-Marie 



Dresselhaus, Mildred (Spiewak) 

Edwards, Helen Thom 

Gaillard, Mary Katharine (Ralph) 

Garmire, Elsa (Meints) 

Goeppert-Mayer, Maria 

Goldhaber, Gertrude Scharff 

Greene, Laura 

Herzenberg, Caroline Stuart 
(Littlejohn) 



Scientists by Discipline | 1015 



Jackson, Shirley Ann 

Jan, Lily 

Karle, Isabella Helen Lugoski 

Keller, Evelyn Fox 

Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf, Doris 

Laird, Elizabeth Rebecca 

Levelt-Sengers, Johanna Maria 
Henrica 

Libby, Leona Woods Marshall 

Lubkin, Gloria (Becker) 

Maltby, Margaret Eliza 

Micheli-Tzanakou, Evangelia 

Mielczarek, Eugenie Vorburger 

Mitchell, Joan L. 

Nickerson, Dorothy 



Phillips, Melba Newell 

Prichard, Diana (Garcia) 

Quimby, Edith Hinkley 

Ride, Sally Kristen 

Sarachik, Myriam Paula 
(Morgenstein) 

Spaeth, Mary Louise 

Stoll, Alice Mary 

Thornton, Kathryn (Cordell) 

Warga, Mary Elizabeth 

Way, Katharine 

Weertman, Julia (Randall) 

Wu, Chien-Shiung 

Yalow, Rosalyn Sussman 



Primatology 

Altmann, Jeanne 
Fossey, Dian 



Hrdy, Sarah C. (Blaffer) 
Small, Meredith F. 



Psychiatry & Psychology 

Attneave, Carolyn (Lewis) 

Bartoshuk, Linda 

Brothers, Joyce Diane (Bauer) 

Carey, Susan E. 

Chesler, Phyllis 

Cowings, Patricia Suzanne 

Delgado, Jane L. 

Densen-Gerber, Judianne 

Downey, June Etta 

Fromkin, Victoria Alexandria 
(Landish) 



Gibson, Eleanor Jack 
Gilbreth, Lillian E. Moller 
Gleitman, Lila R. 
Goldman-Rakic, Patricia 
Goodenough, Florence Laura 
Gordon (Moore), Kate 
Graham, Frances (Keesler) 
Graham, Norma 
Graybiel, Ann Martin 
Harrison-Ross, Phyllis Ann 



1016 | Scientists by Discipline 



Hatfield, Elaine Catherine 

Hollingworth, Leta Anna Stetter 

Horner, Matina (Souretis) 

Howard (Beckham), Ruth Winifred 

Howes, Ethel Puffer 

Jameson, Dorothea A. 

Johnson (Masters), Virginia 
(Eshelman) 

Kanwisher, Nancy 

Kubler-Ross, Elisabeth 

Ladd Franklin, Christine 

Maccoby, Eleanor (Emmons) 

Mitchell, Mildred Bessie 

Nice, Margaret Morse 

Partee, Barbara (Hall) 



Payton, Carolyn (Robertson) 

Rand, (Marie) Gertrude 

Reinisch, June Machover 

Scarr, Sandra (Wood) 

Spelke, Elizabeth 

Spurlock, Jeanne 

Treisman, Anne 

Turkle, Sherry 

Washburn, Margaret Floy 

Weisstein, Naomi 

Westheimer, (Karola) Ruth (Siegel) 

Wexler, Nancy Sabin 

Woolley, Helen Bradford Thompson 



Zoology 

Adams, (Amy) Elizabeth 
Bailey, Florence Augusta Merriam 
Berenbaum, May Roberta 
Boring, Alice Middleton 
Braun, Annette Frances 
Brooks, Matilda Moldenhauer 
Cady, Bertha Louise Chapman 
Carothers, (Estrella) Eleanor 
Carson, Rachel Louise 
Clark, Eugenie 
Guthrie, Mary Jane 
Hamerstrom, Frances (Flint) 
Harvey, Ethel Browne 
Hibbard, Hope 
Hoy, Marjorie Ann (Wolf) 
Hughes Schrader, Sally (Peris) 



Hyman, Libbie Henrietta 

La Monte, Francesca Raimond 

Lewis, Margaret Adaline Reed 

McCracken, (Mary) Isabel 

Morgan, Ann Haven 

Moss, Cynthia Jane 

Nice, Margaret Morse 

Patch, Edith Marion 

Payne, Nellie Maria de Cottrell 

Peckham, Elizabeth Gifford 

Peebles, Florence 

Pitelka, Dorothy Riggs 

Poole, Joyce 

Ray, (Marguerite) Dixy Lee 

Rudnick, Dorothea 

Russell, Elizabeth Shull 



Scientists by Discipline | 1017 



Scharrer, Berta Vogel 
Stickel, Lucille Farrier 
Waelsch, Salome Gluecksohn 



West-Eberhard, Mary Jane 
Witkin, Evelyn Maisel 
Young, Roger Arliner 



Other 

Angier, Natalie 

Bunting (Smith), Mary Ingraham 

Baca Zinn, Maxine 

Jackson, Jacquelyne Mary (Johnson) 

Kanter, Rosabeth (Moss) 



Menken, Jane Ava (Golubitsky) 
Nelkin, Dorothy (Wolfers) 
Reskin, Barbara F. 
Riley, Matilda (White) 



Chronology 



1902 Florence Sabin appointed the first female faculty member at Johns 
Hopkins Medical School 

1903 Marie Curie shares Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband, Pierre 
Curie, and Antoine Henri Becquerel 

1911 Marie Curie awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry 

1919 Toxicologist Alice Hamilton appointed to faculty of Harvard Medical 
School, the first female faculty member in any Harvard department 

1920 American women gain the right to vote with passage of the Nineteenth 
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution 

1921 Margaret Sanger founds American Birth Control League 

1923 Chemist Louise Stanley becomes head of the Bureau of Home 
Economics, the first woman to lead a division at the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture (USDA) 

1925 Florence Sabin is the first woman elected to the National Academy of 
Sciences 

1928 Anthropologist Margaret Mead publishes Coming of Age in Samoa 

1935 Irene Joliot-Curie, daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie, shares Nobel 
Prize in Chemistry with her husband, Frederic Joliot 

1937 Mount Holyoke chemistry professor Fmma Carr is the first recipient of 
the Garvan Medal of the American Chemical Society, awarded to a 
woman chemist each year 

1940 Elsie Clews Parsons named the first female president of the American 
Anthropological Association 



1019 



1020 | Chronology 

1942 The U.S. government begins secret project known as the Manhattan 
Project to develop nuclear weapons, employing many female scientists, 
engineers, and researchers 

1943 Committee of the U.S. Food and Nutrition Board (FNB), chaired by 
nutritionist Lydia Roberts and including several other female research- 
ers, publishes new Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) guidelines 
for nutrients and vitamins 

1947 Biochemist Gerty Cori shares Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 
with her husband, Carl F. Cori 

1948 Electrical engineer and mathematician Edith Clarke is first 
woman elected a fellow of the American Institute of Electrical 
Engineers 

1950 Physician, nutritionist, and anthropologist Sophie Aberle is first female 
member of the National Science Board 

Rachel Brown and Elizabeth Hazen develop the antibiotic nystatin 

Beatrice Hicks helps found the Society of Women Engineers (S WE) and 
serves as first president 

1953 Physician Virginia Apgar publishes her Apgar scale, which becomes 
standard test for assessing responses and health of babies at birth 

1955 Chemist Patsy Sherman is co-inventor of Scotchgard Fabric Protector 
for3M 

1958 U.S. government creates National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

(NASA) 

1960 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves a combined 
hormone oral contraceptive ("the pill") 

1962 Environmental biologist Rachel Carson publishes the book Silent Spring 

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to Francis 
Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins for the discovery of DNA, 
research to which British crystallographer Rosalind Franklin also 
contributed 

1963 Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tershkova is the first woman in space 
Maria Goeppert-Mayer is co-recipient of Nobel Prize in Physics 



Chronology | 1021 

1964 British chemist Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin receives Nobel Prize in 
Chemistry 

U.S. Congress passes Civil Rights Act, which includes legislation against 
sex and race discrimination in employment and federal programs 

1965 Chemist Stephanie Kwolek develops Kevlar synthetic material for 
DuPont 

Engineer and industrial psychologist Lillian Gilbreth is first woman 
elected to National Academy of Engineering 

Endocrinologist Helen Taussig named first woman president of the 
American Heart Association 

1966 National Organization for Women (NOW) is founded 

1968 Biological and environmental scientists Anne Ehrlich and Paul Ehrlich 
publish the controversial book The Population Bomb 

1970 Economist Marina v. N. Whitman is first woman named to the Presi- 
dent's Council of Economic Advisors 

1971 Mina Rees named first female president of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 

1972 Title IX of the Educational Amendments to the Civil Rights Act prohibits 
discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded educational pro- 
grams 

1973 The book Our Bodies, Ourselves is published by Boston Women's Health 
Book Collective 

1976 Margaret Burbidge is named first woman president of the American 
Astronomical Society 

1977 Economist Juanita Kreps is named first woman secretary of the U.S. 
Department of Commerce 

Rosalyn Yalow is co-recipient of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 

Psychologist Carolyn Payton is named first woman director of the Peace 
Corps 

1978 NASA opens astronaut program to first group of six women 

Organic chemist Anna Harrison elected the first woman president of the 
American Chemical Society 



1022 | Chronology 

1981 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control first identifies the HIV virus that 
causes AIDS 

NASA launches first space shuttle 

1983 Sally Ride is first American woman in space 

Julia Robinson is first woman elected president of the American 
Mathematical Society 

Geneticist Barbara McClintock receives Nobel Prize in Physiology or 
Medicine 

1986 Neurologist Rita Levi-Montalcini is co-recipient of Nobel Prize in 
Physiology or Medicine 

Nancy Fitzroy is first female president of American Society of Mechani- 
cal Engineers 

1987 Anthropologist Johnnetta Cole is first black woman president of Spelman 
College, the United States' oldest historically black college for women 

1988 Gertrude Elion is co-recipient of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 

1990 Pediatrician Antonia Novello is named first female (and first Hispanic) 
U.S. Surgeon General 

Hubble Space Telescope is launched 

1991 Cardiologist Bernadine Healy is first woman to head the National Insti- 
tutes of Health 

1992 American Association of University Women (AAUW) publishes report 
on How Schools Shortchange Girls 

1993 Economist Alice Rivlin named first director of the new Congressional 
Budget Office 

Aeronautics engineer Sheila Widnall named Secretary of the U.S. Air 
Force, the first woman to lead a branch of the military 

Pediatrician Joycelyn Elders is second woman (and first African Ameri- 
can) to be named U.S. Surgeon General 

Ms. Foundation begins "Take Our Daughters to Work Day" 

1995 German biologist Christiane Niisslein-Volhard is co-recipient of Nobel 
Prize in Physiology or Medicine 



Chronology | 1023 

Theoretical physicist Shirley Ann Jackson is first woman to serve as 
chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 

1998 Marine scientist Rita Colwell named first female director of the National 
Science Foundation (NSF) 

Jane Henney named first female Commissioner of the U.S. Food and 
Drug Administration (FDA) 

1999 Physicist Shirley Ann Jackson becomes first female president of 
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 

2000 Rodica Baranescu elected first woman president of the Society of Auto- 
motive Engineers (SAE) 

2001 U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) establishes Office of Women to 
focus medical studies and research specific to women 

Biologist Shirley M. Tilghman is named first female president of 
Princeton University 

Physicist Shirley Ann Jackson is first African American woman to be 
elected to the National Academy of Engineering 

2002 Peggy Whitson is first woman commander of the International Space 
Station 

2003 A draft of the full Human Genome Project is completed 

2004 Neurobiologist Susan Hockfield is named first woman president of the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 

Biologist Linda Buck is co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or 
Medicine 

2005 Harvard University President Lawrence Summers delivers controversial 
remarks at conference on "Diversifying the Science & Engineering 
Workforce" 

2006 Chemical engineer Alice P. Gast named first female president of Lehigh 
University 

Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is made available for prevention 
of cervical cancer 

2007 Astrophysicist France Cordova is named first female president of Pur- 
due University 



1024 | Chronology 

2008 French virologist Francoise Barre-Sinoussi is co-recipient of Nobel Prize 
in Physiology or Medicine 

Karen LuJean Nyberg is the fiftieth American woman in space 

Oceanographer Susan Avery is named first female director of the Woods 
Hole Oceanographic Institution 

2009 Marine ecologist Jane Lubchenco is named head of the National 
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 

Geophysicist Marcia McNutt is named head of the U.S. Geological 
Survey (USGS) 

Biologists Carol Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn are co-recipients of 
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 

Elinor Ostrom is co-recipient of Nobel Prize in Economics, the first 
woman Nobel Laureate in that category 

Israeli scientist Ada Yonath is co-recipient of Nobel Prize in Chemistry 



Index 



AAA. See American Association of 
Anthropology 

AAAS. See American Association for the 
Advancement of Science 

AAUW. See American Association 
of University Women 

Aberle, Sophie Bledsoe, 1020; anthropologist 
and nutritionist, 179; career, 179 180; 
education, 179; photo, 180; professional 
associations, 180; professional 
experience, 179 

A Birding on a Bronco (Bailey), 212 

Abriola, Linda M.: civil engineer, 181; 
concurrent positions, 181; education, 181; 
photo, 181; professional associations, 
181 182; professional experience, 181 

Academia: adjunct faculty, 29; affirmative 
action for women, 33; Asian Americans, 56; 
assistant or associate professor, 28; 
astronomy, 76; biochemistry, 78 79; botany, 
93; chemistry, 99; deans, 29; department 
chairs, 29; discrimination on the job, 32 33; 
economics, 109; female scientists, 93; few 
women at highest level, 3 1 32; full 
professor, 28 29; gender discrimination in 
hiring, 31; geology, 128 129; instructors, 
29; jobs for women scientists, 28 34; leaky 
pipeline, 31 32; limitations of employment, 
42 43; medicine, 137 138; names left off 
faculty rosters, 30; problems hiring women, 
30 31; provosts, 29; psychologists, 168; 
publication pressures, 38; scientists 
organized by scientific disciplines, 29; 



sociologists, 172; status of women in, 

surveys of, 30; tenure, 38; university and 

college presidents, 29; women not 

welcomed in, 43; women's numbers rising, 

29; work/life balance problem, 32 
Academic feminism, 13 
Ackerman, Bernice: Argonne National 

Laboratory, 143; career, 183; Cloud Physics 

Laboratory, 143; education, 182; first 

woman weather forecaster, 143; 

meteorologist, 182; professional 

associations, 183; professional 

experience, 182 
ACM. See Association of Computing 

Machinery 
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome 

(AIDS), 51 
Acquiring Genomes: A Theory of the Origins 

of Species (Sagan and Margulis), 657 
ACS. See American Chemical Society 
Acta Crystallographica, 436 
Actae, A First Lesson in Natural History 

(Agassiz), 83 
Adams, (Amy) Elizabeth: career, 183 184; 

concurrent positions, 183; courses taught by, 

177; education, 183; professional 

associations, 184; professional experience, 

183; zoologist, 183 
Ada programming language, 101 
Adelman, Irma Glicman: career, 184 185; 

concurrent positions, 184; economist, 184; 

professional associations, 185; professional 

experience, 184 



l-l 



1-2 | Index 



Adjunct faculty, 29 

Adolescents After Divorce (Maccoby, 

Buchanan, and Dornbusch), 645 
ADP Ribosylating Toxins and G Proteins: 

Insights into Signal Transduction, 938 
Advances in Mathematics, 910 
Advances in Resist Technology and 

Processing VI, 791 
Advances in Understanding Genetic Changes 

in Cancer, 820 
The Adventure of the Stone Man 

(Hamerstrom), 478 
Adventures of a Physicist (Alvarez), 688 
Aerodynamics, 61 
Aeronomy of the Middle Atmosphere: 

Chemistry and Physics of the Stratosphere 

and Mesosphere (Solomon and 

Brasseur), 879 
Aerospace science, 61 65. See also Astronomy 

and Astrophysics; Engineering; Physics; 

astronomers, 64; astrophysicists, 64; 

physiologists, 64; professional 

organizations, 65; psychologists, 64; women 

engineers and scientists, 63 64 
A Feeling for the Organism: The Life of 

Barbara McClintock, 568 
African American families gender 

expectations, 55 
African American women, 54 56; advantages 

and disadvantages, 55; early successes in 

sciences, 54 55; issues facing 

communities, 57 
Agassiz, Elizabeth Cabot Cary, 128; Anderson 

School of Natural History, 83; first president 

of Radcliffe College, 83; naturalist, 83; 

Thayer expedition to Brazil, 83 
Agassiz, Louis, 83 
Age and Structural Lag: Society's Failure to 

Provide Meaningful Opportunities in Work, 

Family, and Leisure, 801 
Aging in Sub Saharan Africa, 687 
Agogino, Alice M.: career, 186; concurrent 

positions, 185; education, 185; mechanical 

engineer, 185; professional associations, 186; 

professional experience, 185 
Agricultural sciences, women's numbers in, 42 



Agricultural Strategies (Marcus and 

Stanish), 654 
Agriculture, 66; as women's work, 91 92 
Agriculture related fields, 3 
Agronomy, 91 
AHEA. See American Home Economics 

Association 
AIDS. See Acquired immune deficiency 

syndrome 
AIDS: The Ultimate Challenge 

(Kiibler Ross), 589 
Air Force, training women as pilots, 63 
Ajzenberg Selove, Fay: career, 187; concurrent 

positions, 187; education, 187; nuclear 

physicist, 187; professional experience, 187; 

professional organizations, 187 188 
Alchemy, 96 

Alexander, Annie Montague, 156 
The Algae and Their Life Relations 

(Tilden), 918 
Alice Eastwood's Wonderland:The Adventures 

of a Botanist (Wilson), 362 
All American Women: Lines That Divide, Ties 

That Bind (Cole), 306 
Allen, Frances, 103 
All in a Lifetime (Westheimer), 962 
Altmann, Jeanne, 16; anthropologist and 

primatologist, 188; baboon genetics, 

demography, and behavior, 166; career, 

188 189; concurrent positions, 188; education, 
188; photo, 189; professional associations, 
189; professional experience, 188; public 
education and preservation efforts, 177 

Altmann, Margaret: animal science, 189; 
biologist, 189; career, 190; concurrent 
positions, 190; education, 189; professional 
associations, 190; professional experience, 

189 190 
Alvarez, Luis, 129, 688 
Alvarez, Walter, 574, 688, 726 

AMA. See American Medical Association 
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 76 
American aerospace science industry and 

astronaut training programs, 61 
American Anthropological Association, 69, 

71, 180 



Index | 1-3 



American Anthropologist journal, 950 

American Antiquity journal, 950 

The American Arbacia and Other Sea Urchins 

(Harvey), 493 
American Association for the Advancement of 

Science (AAAS), 1 2, 76, 92, 180; National 

Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists 

and Technical Professionals 

(NOGLSTP), 58 
American Association of Anatomists, 136 
American Association of Anthropology 

(AAA), 70 
American Association of Medical 

Colleges, 138 
American Association of University 

Professors, 30 
American Association of University Women 

(AAUW), 19 
American Astronautical Society, 63 
American Astronomical Society, 2, 73; 

Committee on the Status of Women in 

Astronomy, 76 77 
American Birth Control League, 88 89 
American Bryological and Lichenological 

Society, 92 
American Cancer Society, 89 
American Capitalism and Global 

Convergence, 968 
American Chemical Society (ACS), 78, 97 
American Crystallographic Association, 108 
American Cyanamid Company, 44 
American Dental Association, 2 
American Economic Association (AEA) 

Committee on the Status of Women in the 

Economics Profession, 109 
American Ferns: How to Know, Grow, 

and Use Them (Roberts), 

806 807 
American Fisheries Society, 118 
American Geological Union, 130 
The American Geologist, 217 
American Geophysical Union, 182 
American Health for Women magazine, 503 
American Heart Association, 15, 90, 140 
American History and Its Geographic 

Conditions (Semple), 848 



American Home Economics Association 

(AHEA), 149 
American Indian Science & Engineering 

Society, 58 
American Institute of Aeronautics 

and Astronautics, 63, 65 
American Institute of Nutrition, 149 
American Institute of Physics, 162 
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 845 
American Journal of Human Genetics, 429 
American Journal of Physical 

Anthropology, 267 
American Journal of Physiology, 973 
American Journal of Psychology, 949 
American Journal of Science, 332, 907 
American Journal of Sociology, 172 
American Malacological Union, 157 
American Medical Association (AMA), 1, 135, 

180; female president and vice president, 

137; first female member, 4 
American Medical Women's Association 

(AMWA): statement on lesbian health 

(1993), 58 
American Meteorological Society, 143 144 
American Museum of Natural History, 1 2, 69, 

154, 177 
American Physical Society, 2 
American Physiological Society, 137 
American Phytopathological Society, 94 
American Plants for American Gardens: Plant 

Ecology, the Study of Plants in Relation to 

Their Environment, 806 
American Psychiatric Association, 167 
American Psychological Association, 167 
American Psychologist journal, 697, 750 
American Red Cross, 140 
American Society for Biochemistry and 

Molecular Biology (ASBMB), 78 
American Society of Animal Science, 67 
American Society of Biological Chemists, 78 
American Society of Civil Engineers, 2 
American Society of Geologists and 

Naturalists, 130 
American Society of Microbiology, 56 
American Society of Plant Biologists, 94 
American Society of Plant Taxonomists, 93 94 



1-4 | Index 



American Sociological Association (ASA), 172 
American Sociological Review, 801 
American Statistical Association, 133, 136 
American Trade Policy: A Tragedy in the 

Making (Krueger), 588 
American Women Afield: Writings by 

Pioneering Women Naturalists (Bonta), 244 
American women in science: history of, 1 7 
American Women in Science: 1950 to the 

Present (Bailey), xxi xxii 
American Women in Science: Volume 1 

(Bailey), xxi xxii 
American women's health movement, 140 
AMWA. See American Medical Women's 

Association 
Anaerobic Bacteria and Their Activities in 

Nature and Disease, 673 
Analyst journal, 597 

The Analytical Approach (Grasselli), 458 
Analytical Biochemistry, 785 
An Anthropologist on Mars (Sacks), 455 
Anatomy, 81 

Anatomy of Seed Plants (Esau), 377 
The Ancient City (Marcus and Sabloff), 655 
Ancker Johnson, Betsy: automotive industry's 

role in global climate change, 119; career, 

191; concurrent positions, 191; education, 

190; environmental policy, 161; fuel 

efficient car advocate, 161; professional 

associations, 191 192; professional experi 

ence, 190 191; solid state physicist, 190; 

vice president of General Motors 

Corporation, 44 
Andean Civilization (Marcus and 

Williams), 655 
Anderson, Gloria (Long): career, 192 193; 

chemist, 192; concurrent positions, 192; 

education, 192; professional associations, 

193; professional experience, 192 
Anderson, John, 472 
Anderson, Mary P.: career, 193 194; 

concurrent positions, 193; education, 193; 

geologist and hydrologist, 193; professional 

associations, 194; professional 

experience, 193 
Andrews, Lori B., 710 



Angier, Natalie: career, 195; concurrent 

positions, 195; education, 194; professional 

associations, 195; professional experience, 

194 195; science writer, 46, 194 
Animal biologists research on human health 

and disease, 177 
The Animal Mind, 948 
Animal Pets: A Study in Character and Nature 

Education (Cady), 276 
Animals: care as helping profession, 66; 

physical characteristics, behavior, and 

evolution, 174 
The Animals and Man, 674 
Animal sciences: See also Biochemistry; 

Environmental Sciences and Ecology; 

Genetics; Nutrition; Zoology; careers, 66; 

college programs, 65; farming and 

commercial agriculture, 67; professional 

organizations, 67; veterinary science, 65 66 
Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries 

of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior 

(Grandin), 454 
Anker, Suzanne, 710 
Annals of Mathematics, 965 
Annals of the New York Academy of 

Sciences, 825 
Anning, Joseph, 157 
Anning, Mary, 633; British Association 

for the Advancement of Science, 156; 

fossil collector and paleontologist, 

156 157 
An Annotated Bibliography of Sources on 

Plains Indian Art (Archambault), 200 
An Annotated Catalog of the Spermatophytes 

of Kentucky (Braun), 249 
Annual Review of Environment and 

Resources, 665 
Anslow, Gladys Amelia: career,196 197; 

concurrent positions, 196; education, 196; 

physicist, 196; professional associations, 

197; professional experience, 196 
Antheil, George, 5 
Anthropologists, 69 70 
Anthropology, 68 72; associations, 70; gender 

identity, 70; "Lucy" (Australopithecus 

afarensis), 72; patriarchy, 70; sexual 



Index | 1-5 



orientation, 70; subfields or specialties, 68; 

women's liberation movement, 70 
Anthropology for the Eighties (Cole), 306 
Anthropology for the Nineties: Introductory 

Readings (Cole), 306 
Anthropology Now, 66 1 
Anthropology Today journal, 950 
Anyone Can Grow Roses, 958 
The Ape in the Tree: An Intellectual and 

Natural History of Proconsul (Shipman 

and Walker), 859 
Apgar, Virginia, 1020; Apgar scoring system, 

137, 139; career, 197 198; Columbia 

University's medical school, 137; concurrent 

positions, 197; education, 197; pediatrician, 

197; photo, 139; professional associations, 

198; professional experience, 197 
Appalachian Autumn (Bonta), 244 
Appalachian Spring (Bonta), 244 
Appalachian Summer (Bonta), 244 
Appalachian Winter (Bonta), 244 
Applied Dietetics (Stern), 891 892 
Applied Groundwater Modeling (Anderson 

and Woessner), 194 
Applied Motion Study (Gilbreth), 431 
Applied sciences and mathematics, 131 
Archaeological Explanation: The Scientific 

Method in Archaeology, 950 
Archaeologists: alternate female past, 70 71; 

exotic peoples and cultures, 71; gendered 

divisions of labor, 70; prejudices and 

obstacles, 71; professional organizations, 

71 72; stereotypes, 71; women as, 71; 

women's economic contributions, 70; 

women's material past, 70 
Archaeology, 68 72, 155; established as 

academic discipline (1930s), 71; husband 

wife teams, 71 
The Archaeology of Cook Inlet, Alaska 

(De Laguna), 336 
Archaeology of the Mammoth Cave Area 

(Watson), 950 
Archaeology of the Mariana Islands 

(Thompson), 916 
Archambault, JoAllyn: anthropologist, 199; 

career, 199 200; education, 199; museum 



program director, 199; photo, 199; 

professional associations, 200; professional 

experience, 199 
Are You Your Garden's Worst Pest? , 958 
Argetsinger, Joan Steitz, 890 
Argonne National Laboratory, 37, 102, 

143; women on slower promotion 

track, 38 
Arithmetica (Hypatia), 75 
Armstrong, Neil, 318 
ASBMB. See American Society for 

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 
Asian Americans, 54; doctoral level scientists 

and engineers, 56; overrepresentation 

in sciences stereotype, 55 
ASK Computer Systems, 45, 103 
Ask Dr. Ruth, 962 
Assistant professor, 28 
Associate professor, 28 
Association for Advancement of Women, 76 
Association for Feminist Anthropology, 70 
Association for the Advancement of Science 

(AAAS), 130 
Association for Women Geoscientists, 120, 

130, 153 
Association for Women in Mathematics, 134 
Association for Women in Psychology, 170 
Association for Women Veterinarians 

(AVW), 67 
Association of American Geographers, 125 
Association of Computing Machinery 

(ACM), 103 
Association of Women Soil Scientists, 130 
Associations for the Advancement for 

Women, xix 
Astronautics, 61 65. See also Astronomy and 

Astrophysics; Engineering; Physics; Anna 

Fisher, 63; Eileen Collins, 63; Judith Resnik, 

63; Karen LuJean Nyberg, 64; Kathryn 

Sullivan, 63; Margaret Rhea Seddon, 63; 

Peggy Whitson, 63; professional 

organizations, 65; Sally Ride, 62, 63; 

Shannon Lucid, 63; Valentina 

Tereshkova, 62 
Astronauts, 140 
Astronomers, 64 



1-6 | Index 



Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of 

America, 2, 73 
Astronomical Canon (Hypatia), 73, 75 
Astronomy, 73 77; academia, 76; discoveries 

and tools developed in pre modern era, 73; 

doctorates, 76; greatest advances, 73; obser 

vational, 73; professional organizations, 77; 

smallest of disciplines, 75; spectroscope and 

photography, 73; weather observations and 

forecasting, 142 
Astronomy at Yale (Hoffleit), 513 
Astrophysical Journal, 772 
Astrophysicists, 64 
Astrophysics, 73 77 
A Tale of "O" (Kanter and Stein), 561 
Atlantic Monthly, 525 
Atlas of Spectral Data and Physical Constants 

of Organic Compounds, 458 
An Atlas of the Medulla and Mid Brain 

(Sabin), 830 
Atmospheric Modeling, Data Assimilation 

and Predictability (Kalnay), 559 
Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables, 953 
Atomic Energy Levels, 873 
Atoms, 97 
Attneave, Carolyn (Lewis): career, 201; 

concurrent positions, 201; education, 200; 

professional associations, 201 202; 

professional experience, 200 201; 

psychologist, 200 
Audubon magazine, 212 
Austin, Pauline Morrow: career, 202; 

education, 202; meteorologist, 143, 202; 

professional associations, 203; professional 

experience, 202 
Autism and women, 455 
Autobiographies of Three Porno Women 

(Colson), 311 
Automobile Catalytic Converters (Taylor), 911 
Automotive industry, 43 
Avery, Mary Ellen, 498; career, 203; education, 

203; pediatrician, 203; professional 

associations, 203 204; professional 

experience, 203 
Avery, Susan K., 1024; atmospheric scientist 

and oceanographer, 204; career, 204; 



concurrent positions, 204; education, 204; 

professional associations, 205; professional 

experience, 204; Woods Hole 

Oceanographic Institute, 45, 144, 152 
Aviation Week magazine, 845 
AVW. See Association for Women 

Veterinarians 
Axel, Richard, 266 

Babbage, Charles, 101 

Baber, Mary Arizona "Zonia":education, 207; 
geographer, 207; geography curricula 
pioneer, 125; professional associations, 207; 
professional experience, 207 

Baboon Mothers and Infants (Altman), 189 

Baca Zinn, Maxine: career, 208 209; 

concurrent positions, 208; education, 208; 
professional associations, 209; professional 
experience, 208; sociologist, 208 

Bach, Emmon, 740 

Baetjer, Anna Medora: career, 209 210; 
education, 209; physiologist and 
toxicologist, 209; professional associations, 
210; professional experience, 209 

Bahcall, John, 211 

Bahcall, Neta: astrophysicist, 210; career, 211; 
dark matter, study of, 75; education, 210; 
galaxies, research on formation of, 75; 
photo, 211; professional associations, 
211 212; professional experience, 210 211 

Bahr, Jean, 130 

Bailey, Florence Augusta Merriam: career, 212; 
natural history, wildlife, and birds, books on, 
175; professional experience, 212; 
professional organizations, 212 

Bailey, Martha, xxi xxii; women not 
professionally trained as scientists, xxii 

Bailey, Vernon, 212 

Balk, Christina Lochman, 157 

Balk, Robert, 627 

Ballard, Martha Moore, 637 

Banfield, Jillian E: career, 213 214; concurrent 
positions, 213; education, 213; geochemist, 
213; professional associations, 214; 
professional experience, 213 

Baranescu, Rodica, 1023; career, 214 215; 



Index | 1-7 



education, 214; International Truck and 

Engine Corporation, 44; mechanical 

engineer, 214; professional associations, 

215; professional experience, 214; Society 

of Automotive Engineers International, 115 
Barnard College, 3, 25, 159 
Barre Sinoussi, Francoise: HIV (human 

immunodeficiency virus), discovery of, 138; 

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 

(2008), 138, 999; Pasteur Institute, 138; 

Regulation of Retroviral Infections 

Unit, 138 
Barron, Sean, 455 
Bartoshuk, Linda: career, 215 216; education, 

215; professional associations, 216; 

professional experience, 215; 

psychologist, 215 
Bascom, Florence, 30, 728; career, 217; 

education, 217; first woman scientist hired 

at U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), 35, 129; 

geologist, 129, 217; professional experience, 

217; professional organizations, 217 
Bascom, John, 217 
Basic Geodesy.The Geoid What's That? 

(Fischer), 395 
Basic Principles of Organic Chemistry 

(Caserio), 286 
Bates, Grace Elizabeth: algebra and probability 

theory, 134; career, 218; education, 218; 

mathematician, 218; professional 

associations, 219; professional 

experience, 218 
Bateson, Gregory, 219, 220, 680, 681 
Bateson, Mary Catherine, 681; career, 

219 220; concurrent positions, 219; 

cultural anthropologist and linguist, 219; 

education, 219; photo, 220; professional 

associations, 220; professional 

experience, 219 
Beall, Cynthia: anthropologist, 221; career, 

221 222; concurrent positions, 221; 

education, 221; photo, 221; professional 

associations, 222; professional 

experience, 221 
Beattie, Mollie Hanna: career, 222 223; 

education, 222; Endangered Species Act, 119; 



forester, 222; government official, 222; 

photo, 223; professional associations, 223; 

professional experience, 222; U.S. Fish and 

Wildlife Service, 119 
The Beauty of the Beastly: New Views on the 

Nature of Life (Angier), 195 
Beckham, Albert, 524 
Becquerel, Antoine Henri, 159 
Beecher, Catharine, 149 
Behaviors, 121; differences between boys 

and girls, 1 1 
Bell, Gordon, 224 
Bell, Gwen (Dru'yor): Association of 

Computing Machinery (ACM), 103; career, 

224; computerized geographic mapping 

system, 126; computer museum founder, 

224; education, 224; geographer, 224; 

professional experience, 224; professional 

organizations, 224 
Bell Burnell, Susan Jocelyn, 74 
Belles on Their Toes (Gilbreth and Carey), 432 
Bell Telephone Laboratories, 107 
Benedict, Ruth Fulton: anthropologist, 225; 

career, 225 226; education, 225; Franz Boas 

and, 69; professional associations, 226; 

professional experience, 225 
Benerito, Ruth Rogan: career, 226 227; 

concurrent positions, 226; education, 226; 

patents, 99; photo, 227; polymer chemist, 

226; professional associations, 227; 

professional experience, 226 
Benesch, Reinhold, 228 
Benesch, Ruth Erica (Leroi): biochemist, 228; 

education, 228; professional associations, 

229; professional experience, 228 
Bengtson, Ida: U.S. Public Health Service, 35 
Benmark, Leslie Ann (Freeman): career, 

229 230; concurrent positions, 229; 

education, 229; industrial engineer, 229; 

professional associations, 230; professional 

experience, 229 
Bennett, Joan Wennstrom: career, 231; 

concurrent positions, 231; education, 230; 

plant geneticist, 230; professional 

associations, 231; professional 

experience, 230 



1-8 | Index 



Benson, Clara: Canadian chemist and food 

scientist, 78 
Berenbaum, May Roberta: bees, importance of, 

177; concurrent positions, 232; education, 

231; entomologist, 231; photo, 232; 

professional associations, 233; professional 

experience, 231 
Berezin, Evelyn: career, 234; computer 

scientist and physicist, 234; education, 234; 

professional associations, 234; professional 

experience, 234; Redactron, founder of, 45; 

word processing, 102 
Berg, Paul, 870 
Berger, Marsha J.: career, 235; computer 

scientist, 235; concurrent positions, 235; 

education, 235; professional associations, 

236; professional experience, 235 
Bergere, Luna, 611 
Bergere, Starker, 611 
Berkowitz, Joan B.: career, 236 237; 

concurrent positions, 236; education, 236; 

environmental hazards expertise, 119; 

physical chemist, 236; professional 

associations, 236 237; professional 

experience, 236 
Berson, Solomon, 992 293 
Bertell, Rosalie: biomathematics, 134, 237; 

career, 238; concurrent positions, 238; 

education, 237; professional associations, 

238 239; professional experience, 237 238 
The Best American Essays of 1994, 388 
The Best American Science and Nature 

Writings (Angier), 195 
Betrayal of Science & Reason: How Anti 

Environmental Rhetoric Threatens Our 

Future (Ehrlich and Ehrlich), 367 
Better Homes and Gardens, 431 
Beyond Jupiter: The Story of Planetary 

Astronomer Heidi Hammel (Bortz), 483 
Beyond the Dot Coins: The Economic Promise 

of the Internet, 805 
Bibliography of Fishes, 600 
"Big Bang" theory, 73 
Billings, Marland Pratt, 405 
Bioarchaeology: The Contextual Study 

of Human Remains (Buikstra), 268 



The Bioarchaeology of Tuberculosis: A Global 

View on a Reemerging Disease 

(Buikstra), 268 
Biochemistry, 77 80, 98 99. See also Biology; 

Biomedical Sciences; Chemistry; Genetics; 

academia, 78 79; careers, 77 78; chemistry, 

95; chemistry or biology, subfield of, 78; 

Ph.D.s awarded to women, 78 79 
Biochemists, 78 
Bioengineers, 84 85 
Biofeedback, 145 
Biogenic Trace Gases: Measuring Emission 

from Soil and Water, 665 
Biogeochemistry, 665 

Biography of Franklin Paine Mall (Sabin), 830 
Biological Abstracts, 673, 748, 749 
Biological and family demands, 50 
Biological Bulletin journal, 283, 532 
Biological Control of Agricultural IPM 

Systems, 527 
Biological Control of Pests by Mites, 527 
Biological determinism, 81 
Biological Physics, 69 1 
Biological sciences, 83 
Biological Woman: The Convenient Myth 

(Hubbard), 531 
Biologists, 84 85 
Biology: See also Biochemistry; Biomedical 

Sciences; Botany; Genetics; Medicine; 

Neuroscience; Zoology; American women 

represented in, 83; anatomy, 81; biological 

determinism, 81; doctorates, 83; gender bias, 

81; genetics, 121; natural history and, 83; 

nutrition science, 148; scientific disciplines, 

81 85; sex and gender importance of, 81; 

social and cultural assumptions, 82; social 

policy and attitudes, 81; stereotypes, 81; 

subfields or specialties, 81, 83; zoology, 174 
Biomathematics, 134 
Biomedical sciences: See also Biochemistry; 

Biology; Genetics; Medicine; Neuroscience; 

biological functions and sources of disease, 

86; human medical conditions, 86; 

physiology, 86 87; subjects of research, 

88 90; vaccines, development of, 86; 

women as patients, 88 90 



Index | 1-9 



Biometrics Bulletin, 324 

Biometric Society, 133 

Biophysicists, 84 85 

Biotechnology and Materials Science: 
Chemistry for the Future (Good), 445 

Bipolar Expeditions: Mania and Depression 
in American Culture (Martin), 661 

Bird Banding, 715 

Birding with a Purpose (Hamerstrom), 478 

Bird Kingdom of the Mayas (LaBastille), 595 

Birds of New Mexico (Bailey), 212 

The Birds of Oklahoma (Nice and Nice), 715 

Birds of the Mayas (LaBastille), 595 

Birds of Village and Field (Bailey), 212 

Birds through an Opera Glass (Bailey), 212 

Birth control pills, 49, 88 

Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years 
(Mead), 681 

Blackburn, Elizabeth H., 466, 1024; cancer 
research, 87; career, 239 240; cell biologist, 
239; education, 239; telomerase enzyme, dis 
covery of, 84; Nobel Prize in Physiology or 
Medicine (2009), 84, 87, 999; photo, 240; pro 
fessional associations, 240 241; professional 
experience, 239; telosomeres research, 79 

Black Families in Crisis: The Middle 
Class, 884 

Black Folks in Cities Here and There, 489 

Black institutions, 3 

Black Man of Zinacantan: A Central American 
Legend (Hrdy), 528 

Black Psychiatrists and American 
Psychiatry, 884 

Blackwell, Antoinette Brown, 137 

Blackwell, Elizabeth, 137; first woman to earn 
medical degree, 135; New York Infirmary 
for Women and Children, 136; Women's 
Medical College, 136 

Blackwell, Emily, 137; New York Infirmary for 
Women and Children, 136 

Black Women in the Labor Force 
(Wallace), 946 

Blalock, Dr., 909 

The Blazing World (Cavendish), 3 

Bliss, Eleanor Albert: bacteriologist, 241; 
career, 241 242; concurrent positions, 241; 



education, 241; professional associations, 
242; professional experience, 241; sulfa 
drugs, 86 

Blodgett, Katharine Burr: activated charcoal 
research, 160; de icing airplane wings, 160; 
education, 242; General Electric, employ 
ment at, 160; military weather balloons, 160; 
nonreflecting glass development, 44; photo, 
243, 984; physicist, 242; professional asso 
ciations, 243; professional experience, 242 

Boas, Franz, 69, 225, 336 

Bodley, Rachel: first female member of 
American Chemical Society (ACS), 97 

Body Bazaar: The Market for Human Tissue in 
the Biotechnology Age (Nelkin and 
Andrews), 710 

Boice, Melinda: first calf by in vitro 
fertilization, 67 

Bond, Judith: ASBMB president, 79 

Bonta, Marcia (Myers): career, 244; education, 
244; naturalist, 244; professional 
associations, 244; professional experience, 
244; science writer and nature writer, 46 

Book of the Jaguar Priest (Makemson), 651 

Boring, Alice Middleton, 174; career, 245 246; 
Chinese amphibians and reptiles, taxonomy 
of, 175; education, 245; professional 
experience, 245; zoologist, 245 

Born Early (Avery), 203 

Bortz, Fred, 483 

Boston Dispensary Food Clinic, 148 

Boston Women's Health Book Collective, 140 

Botanical Society of America (BSA) female 
presidents, 93 94 

Botanists and U.S. Department of Agriculture 
(USDA), 93 

Botany, 90 95. See also Biology; 

Environmental Sciences and Ecology; 
Genetics; academia, 93; as amateur pursuit, 
92; gender bias, 81; language and 
metaphors, 82; subfields or specialties, 91 

Botany for Beginners (Phelps), 92 

Boundless Horizons: Portrait of a Woman 
Scientist (Macy Hoobler), 650 

Boyd, Louise Arner: Arctic region 
explorations, 126; career, 246 247; 



1-10 I Index 



education, 246; explorer and geographer, 

246; International Geographical Congress 

(1934), 126; professional experience, 246 
Boys: different education than girls, 20; 

neglecting physical and emotional needs of, 

19; spatial reasoning and brain development, 

11; vocational or technical courses, 19 
Brain: damage and ancient cultures, 145; male 

and female, 147; study of, 144 
Brain and Language, 410 
Brandegee, Mary Katharine Layne Curran, 92, 

361; botanist, 362; California Academy of 

Sciences, 93 
Brandegee, Townshend 
Brasseur, Guy, 879 
Braun, Annette Frances: career, 247; education, 

247; entomologist, 247; professional 

associations, 248; professional experience, 

247; research expeditions and preservation 

efforts, 176 
Braun, Lucy (Emma), 247; botanist, 93, 248; 

Ecological Society of America, 118; 

ecologist, 93; education, 248; mining, effect 

on plant life, 118; plant preserver, 93; 

professional associations, 249; professional 

experience, 248; research expeditions and 

preservation efforts, 176 
Breast cancer research, 633 
Breast feeding, social controversy over, 82 
Bricker, Victoria (Reifler): anthropologist and 

ethnologist, 249; career, 249 250; 

concurrent positions, 249; education, 249; 

professional associations, 250; professional 

experience, 249 
Bright Start Catalogue (Hoffleit), 513 
Brill, Yvonne (Claeys): aerospace engineer and 

chemist, 250; career, 251; education, 250; 

professional associations, 251; professional 

experience, 250 251 
Briscoe, Anne M.: biochemist, 252; career, 

252; education, 252; professional 

associations, 252 253; professional 

experience, 252 
British Association for the Advancement 

of Science, 156 
British Royal Society, 84 



British women: crystallography, 106; 

paleontology, 156 
Britton, Elizabeth Knight: botanist and 

bryologist, 253; education, 253; New York 

Botanical Society, founding of, 92; 

professional associations, 253 254; 

professional experience, 253; Sullivant Moss 

Society, 92 
Britton, Nathaniel, 253 
Brody, Jane Ellen: career, 254 255; education, 

254; nutrition and personal health columnist, 

author, and media personality, 149; 

nutritionist, 254; professional associations, 

255; professional experience, 254; science 

writer, 46, 254 
Brookhaven National Laboratory, 37 
Brooks, Carolyn (Branch): career, 256; 

concurrent positions, 256; education, 256; 

microbiologist, 256; professional 

associations, 256 257; professional 

experience, 256 
Brooks, Matilda Moldenhauer: career, 257; 

education, 257; physiologist, 257; 

professional associations, 257; professional 

experience, 257 
Brooks, Summer Cushing, 257 
Broome, Claire Veronica: career, 258 259; 

concurrent positions, 258; education, 258; 

epidemiologist, 258; professional 

associations, 259; professional 

experience, 258 
Brophy, William S., 179 
Brothers, Joyce Diane (Bauer), 169; career, 

259 261; education, 259; family, 

relationships, and sexuality, 170; mental 

health and relationship advice, 46; photo, 

260; professional associations, 259; profes 

sional experience, 259; psychologist, 259; 

television and radio personality, 259 
The Brothers System for Liberated Love and 

Marriage (Brothers), 260 
Brown, Barbara B.: biofeedback research, 145; 

career, 261 262; concurrent positions, 261; 

education, 261; neurophysiologist and phar 

macologist, 261; professional assoc 

iations, 262; professional experience, 261 



Index | I- 1 I 



Brown, Nancy Marie, 390 

Brown, Rachel Fuller, 1020; antifungal 

antibiotics, 80, 84, 86; biochemist, 262; 

career, 262 263; education, 262; 

professional associations, 263; professional 

experience, 262 
Brown, Wade Hampton, 752 
Brownell, Josephine D.: patented roses, 93 
Brugge, Joan S.: cancer researcher and cell 

biologist, 263; career, 264 265; education, 

263; photo, 264; professional associations, 

265; professional experience, 263 264 
Bryn Mawr College, 3 4, 121, 123, 129, 133, 

159, 174 175, 177 
Bryologist journal, 254 
Bryology, 92 

BSA. See Botanical Society of America 
Buchanan, Christy M, 646 
Buck, Linda B., 942, 1023; biologist, 265; 

career, 266 267; concurrent positions, 265; 

education, 265; Nobel Prize in Physiology or 

Medicine (2004), 999; photo, 266; 

professional associations, 267; professional 

experience, 265; sense of smell research, 88 
Buckley, Margaret Jeffrey, 828 
Bugs in the System: Insects and Their Impact 

on Human Affairs (Berenbaum), 233 
Buikstra, Jane Ellen: anthropologist and 

archaeologist, 267; career, 268; concurrent 

positions, 267 268; education, 267; photo, 

268; professional associations, 268 269; 

professional experience, 267 
BULB IE Gnass Spirit of Achievement 

Award, 5 
Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 253 
Bunce, Elizabeth Thompson: career, 269 270; 

education, 269; geophysicist, 269; marine 

seismology and underwater acoustics, 130, 

153; professional associations, 270; 

professional experience, 269; Woods Hole 

Oceanographic Institute, 130 
Bunting, Mary Ingraham (Smith): career, 

270 271; concurrent positions, 270; 

education, 270; microbiologist, 84; photo, 

271; professional associations, 270 271; 

professional experience, 270 



Burbidge, Geoffrey, 272 273 

Burbidge, Margaret (Eleanor), 1021; 

astronomer and astrophysicist, 272; career, 
272 273; chemical elements, theory of 
origin, 75; concurrent positions, 272; 
education, 272; Hubble space telescope 
design, 64; professional associations, 
272 273; professional experience, 272 

Bureau of Home Economics, 149 

Bureau of Indian Affairs, 69 

Bush, George H. W., 56, 140, 378, 903 

Bush, George W., 460, 850, 977; photo, 
313,389 

Business: engineering jobs, 1 14; gender neutral 
hiring practices, 42; government money, 42; 
hiring and advancement criteria, 40; man 
agement or profit related activities, 43; 
women scientist jobs, 40 46; work/life 
balance, 46 

Business Week magazine, 867 

Butler, Margaret K.: career, 274; computer 
scientist and mathematician, 273; digital 
computers, development of, 102, 132; 
education, 273; professional associations, 
274; professional experience, 274 

Byron, Lord, 101 

Cady, Bertha Louise Chapman: career, 

275 276; concurrent positions, 275; 

education, 275; entomologist, 275; 

professional associations, 275; professional 

experience, 275; research and teaching 

interests, 177 
Cady, Vernon Mosher, 275 
Caldicott, Helen Mary (Broinowski): 

antinuclear activist, 276; career, 276 277; 

concurrent positions, 276; education, 276; 

effects of radiation, 119; environmentalist 

and pediatrician, 276; photo, 277; 

professional associations, 277; professional 

experience, 276 
California Academy of Sciences, 93 
California Institute of Technology, 65 
Calkins, Mary Whiton: president of American 

Psychological Association, 167 
Calloway, Doris (Howes): career, 278 279; 



1-12 I Index 



concurrent positions, 278; education, 278; 

food processing and packaging research, 

149; nuclear radiation research, 149; 

nutritionist, 278; professional associations, 

279; professional experience, 278 
Cambridge, 74, 97 

Campbell, Elizabeth: husband wife teams, 71 
Canadian Journal of Biochemistry, 557 
Cancer Research, 692 
Canino, Ian A., 884 
Cannon, Annie Jump, 74, 513, 605, 750; 

astronomer, 279; career, 279 280; 

education, 279; photo, 280, 414; 

professional associations, 280; professional 

experience, 279 
The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful 

Basics of Science (Angier), 195 
Cantor, Frank, 543 
Capitalism and patriarchy, 109 "Carbon 

footprint," 119 
Careers: equality in, 19; social and institutional 

constraints, 50 
Careers for Women (Filene), 287, 581, 653, 

747, 982 
Caretaker role for humans, 117 
CARE USA, 140 
Carey, Ernestine G., 432 
Carey, Susan E., 883; brain development of 

infants, 147; career, 281; concurrent 

positions, 281; education, 281; language and 

knowledge, acquisition of, 147; professional 

experience, 281; professional organizations, 

281 282; psychology, 281 
Carothers, Eleanor (Estrella): career, 282; 

concurrent positions, 282; education, 282; 

professional associations, 283; professional 

experience, 282; zoologist, 282 
Carr, Emma Perry, 263, 477, 1019; career, 283; 

chemist, 283; education, 283; Garvan Medal 

of American Chemical Society (ACS), 97; 

Mount Holyoke, 97; Ph.D. in chemistry, 97; 

photo, 96; professional associations, 283; 

professional experience, 283 
Carson, Rachel Louise, 633, 746, 1020; aquatic 

biologist, 176; biologist and conservationist, 

284; career, 284 285; education, 284; 



humans, impact on nature, 118; marine 

ecology and oceanography books, 154; 

photo, 284; professional associations, 285; 

professional experience, 284 
Carter, Jimmy, 326, 585, 750 
Caserio, Fred, 286 
Caserio, Marjorie Constance (Beckett): career, 

286; education, 285; organic chemist, 285; 

professional associations, 286; professional 

experience, 285 286 
Catalogue of Stars (Herschel), 73 74 
The Caterpillar, Marvelous Transformation 

and Strange Floral Food (Merian), 175 
Cave Life of Kentucky (Bailey), 212 
Cavendish, Margaret Lucas, Duchess of 

Newcastle upon Tyne, 3 
CDC. See Centers for Disease Control 
Celanese Corporation of America, 44 
Cell Biology of Extracellular Matrix 

(Hay), 498 
Cell Heredity (Sager and Ryan), 831 
Ce// journal, 412, 576, 852 
Cellular biologists, 83 84 
Cement and Concrete Research 

journal, 822 
Center for Work Life Policy, 111 
Center for Work Life Policy Web site, 52 
Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 85 
The Century of the Gene (Keller), 569 
CEO: Building a $400 Million Company from 

the Ground Up (Kurtzig), 592 
Cerebral Cortex journal, 146, 441 
The $64,000 Challenge, 260 
The Change Masters: Innovation for 

Productivity in the American Corporation 

(Kanter), 561 
The Changing World of Mongolian Nomads 

(Beall and Goldstein), 221 
Charles, Vera Katherine, 747; career, 287; 

education, 286; mycologist, 286; 

professional experience, 287 
Chase, Agnes Meara (Mary): botanist, 287; 

career, 288; education, 287; professional 

associations, 288; professional 

experience, 288 
Chasman, Edith, 289 



Index | 1-13 



Chasman, Renate (Wiener): career, 289; 

education, 288; nuclear physicist, 288; 

professional associations, 289; professional 

experience, 289 
Cheaper by the Dozen (Gilbreth and Carey), 

50, 432 
Chemical Anthropology: A New Approach to 

Growth in Children (Macy Hoobler and 

Kelly), 649 
Chemical Aspects of Polypeptide Chain 

Structure: An Introduction (Wrinch), 985 
Chemical Aspects of the Structure of Small 

Peptides: An Introduction (Wrinch), 985 
Chemical Heritage Foundation's Women in 

Chemistry project, 99 
Chemical Senses, 216 
Chemistry, 95 99. See also Biochemistry; 

Crystallography; Nutrition; academia, 99; 

biochemistry, 95; crystallography, 105; 

European women, 96; geology, 95; 

mathematics, 96; metallurgy, 95; nuclear 

sciences, 95; nutrition science, 148; patents, 

99; periodic table of elements, 97; 

pharmacology, 95; physics, 95 96; 

physiology, 95; scientific disciplines, 

overlapping, 98; twentieth century, most 

important discoveries of, 97; women as first 

chemists, 96 
Chemistry: A Search to Understand (Harrison 

and Weaver), 488 
Chemistry for Beginners (Phelps), 92 
Chemotherapy, 633 
Chesler, Phyllis, 957; Association for Women 

in Psychology, 170; career, 290 291; 

concurrent positions, 290; education, 290; 

photo, 291; professional associations, 

290 291; professional experience, 290; 

psychological definition of femininity and, 

170; psychologist, 290 
Child Abuse and Neglect as Related to Parental 

Drug Abuse and Other Antisocial Behavior 

(Densen Gerber), 343 
Childbearing: A Book of Choices, 637 
Childcare, 48 49 
Children above 180 I.Q., 516 
Chilton, Mary Dell (Matchett): biochemist and 



molecular biologist, 292; career, 292 293; 
education, 292; genetic engineering of agri 
cultural crops, 80, 124; professional associ 
ations, 293; professional experience, 292 

Chimpanzee, 165 

Chinese alchemy, 96 

Chipp, Rodney, 510 

Chory, Joanne: career, 293 294; concurrent 
positions, 293; education, 293; plant 
biologist, 293; professional associations, 
294; professional experience, 293 

Chromosome Changes in Leukemia 
(Rowley), 820 

Chromosomes, 121 

Chromosomes and Cancer: From Molecules to 
Man, 820 

Chromosomes journal, 532 

The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns 
of Japanese Culture (Benedict), 225 226 

Circuit Analysis of A C Power Systems 
(Clarke), 297 

City and the Constitution (Shalala), 850 

Civil Rights Act (1964), 6, 42, 114 

Clark, Eugenie, 596; career, 295 296; 

concurrent positions, 295; education, 294; 
ichthyologist and zoologist, 294; marine 
biologist, 154; photo, 295; professional 
associations, 296; professional experience, 
294 295; sharks, specializing in, 177 

Clarke, Edith, 1020; academia, 113; ATT 
and General Electric, 113; career, 297; 
education, 296; electrical engineer, 296; 
electric power systems, design of, 44; first 
female electrical engineers in United States 
(photo), 44; first woman to receive electrical 
engineering degree, 113; professional 
associations, 297; professional 
experience, 297 

Classes, 81 

Classical Electricity and Magnetism, 762 

Classroom, 18 20 

Cleave, Mary L.: astronaut and environmental 
engineer, 297; career, 298; education, 297; 
photo, 298; professional associations, 298; 
professional experience, 298 

Cleveland Museum of Natural History, 72 



1-14 I Index 



Climate change and women, 117 
Climatology, 141 142. See also Meteorology 
Clinical and Experimental Use of 

Sulfanilamide, Sulfapyridine, and Allied 

Compounds (Bliss and Long), 241 
Clinton, Bill, 140, 313, 369, 445, 564, 635, 677, 

771, 805, 849, 850, 879; photo, 307 
Clinton, Hillary Rodham: photo, 545 
Cloth production, 91 92 
The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution of the 

Zapotec and Mixtec Civilizations (Marcus 

and Flannery), 654 
Cloud Structure and Distributions over the 

Tropical Pacific Ocean (Simpson), 868 
CNN, 291 

The Coast of Northeast Greenland (Boyd), 247 
Cobb, Geraldyne "Jerrie" M.: astronaut 

consultant, 299; aviator, 299; career, 

299 300; education, 299; physical fitness 

tests for women, 62; professional associa 

tions, 300; professional experience, 299; 

requirements for astronauts, 62 
Cobb, Jewel Plummer: career, 301; cell 

biologist, 55, 301; concurrent positions, 301; 

education, 301; professional associations, 

302; professional experience, 301 
COBOL programming language, 102 
Cochran, William, 323 
Co educational institutions, 3, 25; female 

college professors, 30 
Cohen, Stanley, 618 
Cohn, Mildred: ASBMB's first female 

president, 79; biochemist, 302; career, 

303 304; concurrent positions, 302 303; 

education, 302; photo, 303; professional 

associations, 304; professional 

experience, 302 
Colden, Jane: first American woman 

botanist, 91 
Cold Sprint Harbor Laboratory, 44 
Coldwell, Rita: medical, industrial, and 

aquaculture resources, 154; University of 

Maryland Biotechnology Institute 

(UMBI), 154 
Cole, Johnnetta (Betsch), 1022; Africans and 

African Americans, work among, 70; 



anthropologist, 304; career, 304 305; 

concurrent positions, 304; education, 304; 

photo, 305; professional associations, 306; 

professional experience, 304 
Cole, Robert, 305 
College of New Jersey, 5 1 
Colleges: co educational, 25; faculty members 

role models, 26; female faculty, 4; science, 

25 27; science classes, 26 27 
Collins, Eileen: astronaut, 306; career, 

307 308; first woman to pilot space shuttle, 

63; photo, 307; professional associations, 

308; professional experience, 306 307 
Colmenares, Margarita H: career, 309; 

concurrent positions, 309; education, 308; 

environmental engineer, 308; professional 

associations, 309 310; professional 

experience, 309 
Color for the Landscape: Flowering Plants for 

Subtropical Climates (Mathias), 664 
Colour and Colour Theories 

(Ladd Franklin), 597 
Colson, Elizabeth Florence: anthropologist, 

310; career, 310 311; concurrent positions, 

310; education, 310; professional 

associations, 311; professional 

experience, 310 
Columbia University, 25, 26, 78, 132, 156, 174 
Colwell, Jack, 313 
Colwell, Rita (Rossi), 1023; career, 313; 

concurrent positions, 312; education, 311; 

marine microbiologist, 311; photo, 312; 

professional associations, 313; professional 

experience, 312 
Comey, Arthur, 477 

Coming of Age in Samoa (Mead), 680, 681 
Coming of Age with Elephants (Poole), 768 
Commissioner for Atomic Energy, 98 
Committee on the Status of Women 

in Anthropology, 70 
Committee on Women in Neuroscience, 145 
Communications of the Association for 

Computing Machinery, 453 
The Comparative Anatomy of the Nervous 

System of Vertebrates, Including Man 

(Crosby), 326 



Index | 1-15 



A Comparative and Analytical Study of Visual 

Depth Perception (Gibson and Walk), 430 
The Comparative Correlative Neuroanatomy of 

the Vertebrate Telencephalon (Crosby), 326 
Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy 

(Hyman), 537 
A Comparison of the Oligocene of Western 

Europe and the Southern United States 

(Maury), 669 
Composing a Life (Bateson), 220 
Compositionality in Formal Semantics: 

Selected Papers of Barbara Partee 

(Partee), 740 
Computability in Analysis and Physics (Pour El 

and Richards), 769 
Computational Geosciences journal, 966 
Computers: development of, 101; digital 

divide, 103 104; role of gender, 103; usage, 

102; women's roles as workers and 

consumers, impact on, 103 
Computer sciences, 100 104; doctorate in, 100; 

significant presence of women, 42 
Computer technology: See also Engineering; 

Mathematics 
Conceptual Change in Childhood (Carey), 281 
Conchology (study of shells), 128 
Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing 

Streaks Begin and End (Kanter), 562 
Congenital Malformations of the Heart 

(Taussig), 909 
Consistent and Chromosomal Aberrations and 

Oncogenes in Human Tumors, 820 
Conversations: Straight Talk with America's 

Sister President (Cole), 306 
Conversations on Chemistry (Marcet), 96 
Conway, Lynn Ann: career, 314 315; computer 

scientist and electrical engineer, 314; 

concurrent positions, 314; education, 314; 

integrated computer circuit chips, 102; 

professional associations, 315; professional 

experience, 314 
Conwell, Esther Marly: career, 316; concurrent 

positions, 316; education, 315; head of 

research departments, 161; physicist, 315; 

professional associations, 316 317; 

professional experience, 316 



Copernicus, Nicolaus, 73 

Cordova, France Anne Dominic, 1023; 

astronomer and astrophysicist, 317; career, 

317 318; education, 317; first university 

president, 32; NASA and, 56; photo, 318; 

president of Purdue University, 56; profes 

sional associations, 318; professional 

experience, 317 
Cori, Carl Ferdinand, 303, 319, 973; 

metabolism of glycogen, 79 
Cori, Gerty Theresa Radnitz, 303, 973, 991, 

1020; biochemist, 319; career, 319; 

education, 319; glycogen, discovery of, 87; 

how glycogen is metabolized in body, 79; 

insights into diabetes, 87; Nobel Prize in 

Physiology or Medicine (1947), 79, 87, 999; 

photo, 79; professional associations, 319; 

professional experience, 319; Washington 

University, 79 
Cornell Countryman, 254 
Cornell University, 112 113, 157, 173, 

176 177 
Corporations: advancement, 43; employment 

or business leadership positions, 42; 

family friendly and flexible work policies, 

38; family leave and other policies, 46; glass 

ceiling, 43; old boys' networks, 43; women 

managers, 43 
Correlation of the Cenozoic Formations of the 

Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain and the 

Caribbean Region, 418 
The Correlative Anatomy of the Nervous 

System (Crosby), 326 
Cosmology: greatest advances in, 73 
Courant, Richard, 700 
Courant Institute of Mathematical Science 

at New York University, 134 
Court TV, 291 
Covert Discrimination of Women in the 

Sciences, 779, 877 
Cowings, Patricia Suzanne: biofeedback, 

64 65; career, 320 321; concurrent 

positions, 320; education, 320; photo, 321; 

physiologist and psychologist, 320; 

professional associations, 321; professional 

experience, 320 



1-16 I Index 



Cox, Geraldine Anne (Vang), 118; biologist 

and environmental scientist, 322; career, 

322; chemical industry policy guidelines for 

disaster management, 119; concurrent 

positions, 322; education, 322; professional 

associations, 322 323; professional 

experience, 322 
Cox, Gertrude Mary: American Statistical 

Association and Biometric Society, 133; 

career, 323 324; education, 323; 

mathematician and statistician, 323; 

professional association, 323 324; 

professional experience, 323 
Crane, Kathleen: career, 325; concurrent 

positions, 325; education, 324; NOAAs 

Arctic Research Office, 153; oceanographer, 

324; professional experience, 324 325 
Creating a Life: What Every Woman Needs to 

Know about Having a Baby and a Career 

(Hewlett), 508 
Creating the Future: The Massachusetts 

Comeback and Its Promise for America 

(Dukakis and Kanter), 562 
Creative Women, 474 
Crick, Francis, 327, 889; discovery of gene and 

DNA, 80; Nobel Prize in Physiology or 

Medicine (1962), 106, 107, 123 
Crimean War (1850s), 136 
Crisis: Heterosexual Behavior in the Age of 

AIDS (Masters, Johnson, and Kolodny), 554 
Crosby, Elizabeth Caroline: brain researcher, 

145; career, 326; education, 325; neuro 

anatomist, 325; neuroanatomy and neuro 

surgery textbook, 145; professional associa 

tions, 326; professional experience, 326 
Crumpler, Rebecca Lee: first African American 

woman doctor, 136 
Crystal Data (Donnay and Donnay), 350 
Crystallography, 97, 105 108. See also 

Biomedical Sciences; Chemistry; Geology; 

Physics; British women, 106; careers, 105; 

predominantly female field, 105; 

professional associations, 108 
Crystallography: Fifty Years ofX Ray Crystal 

lography at the Geophysical Laboratory, 

1919 1969 (Donnay), 350 



Crystal Orientation Manual, 978 

Crystals: physical structure of atoms or 
molecules, 105 

Crystals and Light: An Introduction to Optical 
Crystallography, 978 

Crystal Structure Analysis: A Primer (Glusker), 
435 

Crystal Structure Analysis for Chemists 
and Biologists (Glusker), 436 

CSPAN, 291 

Cuban Missile Crisis (early 1960s), 5 

Culturally Diverse Children and Adolescents 
(Spurlock and Canino), 884 

Culture in Crisis: A Study of the Hopi Indians 
(Thompson), 916 

The Culture of Our Discontent: Beyond 
the Medical Model of Mental Illness 
(Small), 876 

Cummings, Clara Eaton, 94 

Curie, Marie Sklodowska, xxiii; Curie 

Laboratory in Radium Institute of University 
of Paris, 159; Nobel Prize in Chemistry 
(1911), 98, 159, 999; Nobel Prize in Physics 
(1903), 98, 159, 999; Professor of General 
Physics at Sorbonne, 159; radium and 
polonium, discovery of, 159; Radium 
Institute in Warsaw, 159; work on 
radium, 159 

Curie, Pierre, 98, 159 

Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 
Cognition, Journal of Neuroscience, 
Journal of Experimental Psychology 
journal, 563 

Curtis, Winterton Conway, 472 

Cytology, 91 

Daly, Marie Maynard: biochemist, 327; career, 
327 328; concurrent positions, 327; 
education, 327; first African American 
woman Ph.D. in chemistry (1948), 54, 99; 
link between cholesterol and heart attacks, 
99; professional associations, 328; 
professional experience, 327 

Dangerous Diagnostics: The Social Power 
of Biological Information (Nebcin), 710 

Daniel, Fluor, 322 



Index | 1-17 



Darden, Christine v. Mann: aeronautical 

engineer, 328; aircraft design and supersonic 
flights, 114; career, 328 329; computer 
software program simulating sonic boom, 
64; concurrent positions, 328; education, 
328; Langley Research Center, 64; National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration 
(NASA), 114; professional associations, 
329; professional experience, 328 

The Dark Crystal movie, 976 

Darwin, Charles, 121, 128, 164; adaptation 
and evolution theories, 174 

DAST. See "Draw A Scientist Test" 

Daubechies, Ingrid: career, 330; concurrent 
positions, 330; education, 329; 
mathematician, 329; photo, 330; 
professional associations, 330 331; 
professional experience, 330 

Davis, Margaret Bryan: ancient pollen and 
vegetation, 157 158; career, 332; ecologist, 
paleoecologist, and palynologist, 331; 
education, 331; photo, 332; professional 
associations, 332 333; professional 
experience, 331; taught in ecology and 
evolution departments, 158 

Davis, Ruth Margaret: career, 333 334; 

computer scientist and mathematician, 333; 
concurrent positions, 333; data encryption, 
international standards, 103; education, 333; 
professional associations, 334; professional 
experience, 333 

Dealing with Genes: The Language of Heredity 
(Singer and Berg), 870 

Deans, 29 

The Death of Feminism: What's Next in the 
Struggle for Women 's Freedom 
(Chesler), 291 

Decentralization Approach (Shalala), 850 

Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America 
(Braun), 249 

Decolonizing Anthropology: Moving Further 
toward an Anthropology for Liberation, 489 

DeFries, Ruth: career, 335; concurrent 
positions, 335; Earth's habitats and 
ecosystems, effects of humans on, 126; 
education, 334; environmental geographer, 



334; human activities on physical 

environment, impact on, 120; photo, 126; 

professional associations, 335; professional 

experience, 335 
De Laguna, Frederica Annis: American 

Anthropological Association, 71; 

anthropologist and archaeologist, 336; 

career, 336 337; concurrent positions, 336; 

education, 336; professional associations, 

337; professional experience, 336; working 

alone in archaeology, 71 
Delbriiek, max 548 
Delgado, Jane L.: career, 338 339; concurrent 

positions, 338; education, 337; Hispanic 

health movement, 57; National Alliance for 

Hispanic Health, 139 140; photo, 338; 

professional associations, 339; professional 

experience, 337 338; psychologist, 337 
Delineator journal, 935 
Dellaite, 130 
Delmer, Deborah: career, 340; education, 339; 

plant biologist, 339; professional 

associations, 340; professional experience, 

339 340 
Demographic Research, 687 
Dennis, Olive: civil engineering degree, 112 
Densen Gerber, Judianne: addiction, 169; 

career, 342 343; education, 342; 

physician and psychiatrist, 342; professional 

associations, 343; professional 

experience, 342 
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), 121 122; 

double helix structure, 107 
Department chairs, 29 
De Planque, E. Gail: career, 341 342; 

concurrent positions, 341; education, 341; 

physicist, 341; professional associations, 

342; professional experience, 341 
A Desperate Passion (Caldicott), 277 
Developing Talents: Careers for Individuals 

with Asperger Syndrome and High 

Functioning Autism (Grandin and 

Dufy), 455 
Developmental Biology journal, 576, 945 
Developmental Cell, 412 
Developmental Genetics journal, 576 



1-18 I Index 



Developmental Plasticity and Evolution 

(West Eberhard), 960 
Developmental Psychology, 282 
Development of Hazards Classification Data on 

Propellants and Explosives, 707 
The Development of Sex Differences 

(Maccoby), 645, 793 
The Devonian Crinoids of the State of New York 

(Goldring), 442 
DeWitt, Bryce S., 344 
DeWitt Morette, Cecile Andree Paule: career, 

344 345; concurrent positions, 344; educa 

tion, 343; professional associations, 345; 

professional experience, 344; theoretical 

physicist, 343 
Diabetic Care in Pictures, 891 
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental 

Disorders (DSM V), 455 
Diamond, Marian Cleeves: brain, 

environmental factors impact on 

development of, 146; cerebral cortex, 

physical structure of, 146; concurrent 

positions, 345; education, 345; 

neuroscientist, 345; professional 

associations, 346; professional 

experience, 345 
Dicciani, Nance Katherine: career, 347 348; 

chemical engineer, 347; education, 347; 

professional associations, 348; professional 

experience, 347 
Dick, George, 348, 349 
Dick, Gladys Rowena Henry: career, 348 349; 

education, 348; microbiologist and 

physician, 348; photo, 349; professional 

associations, 349; professional experience, 

348; scarlet fever, reduced incidence and 

mortality rate of, 86 
A Dictionary of Chemical Solubilities, 

Inorganic (Hahn and Comey), 477 
Die Fossilen Gehirne (Edinger), 363 
Diesel Engine Reference Book, 215 
Dietary standards, 148 
Digital divide, 103 104 
Dinosaur fossils, 155 
Discontinuous and Optimal Control 

(Flugge Lotz), 401 



Discontinuous Automatic Control 

(Flugge Lotz), 401 
Discover magazine, 317, 483, 626 
Discovery Health channel, 632 
Discovery space shuttle, 64 
Discrimination: based on sexual orientation, 

57; private employment, 43 
Diseases: hereditary, 122; sex based 

differences in, 1 1 
Diseases of the Newborn (Avery), 203 
"Diversifying the Science & Engineering 

Workforce" (2005), 8 
Dividing the Child: Social and Legal Dilemmas 

of Custody (Maccoby), 645 
Dix, Dorothea Lynde, 168 
DNA. See Deoxyribonucleic acid 
The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural 

Icon (Nelkin and Lindee), 710 
DNA testing, 122 
Donnay, Gabrielle (Hamburger): career, 

349 350; concurrent positions, 349; 

education, 349; first woman to earn Ph.D. 

in crystallography, 106; geologist and 

mineralogist, 349; professional associations, 

350; professional experience, 349 
Donnay, Jose D. H, 350 
Dornbusch, Sanford M., 646 
Downey, June Etta: career, 351; education, 350; 

personality tests to assess character traits, 

168; professional associations, 351; 

professional experience, 351; 

psychologist, 350 
Dr. Brothers' Guide to Your Emotions 

(Brothers), 260 
Dr. Joan 's Mentoring Book.Straight Talk 

about Taking Charge of Your Career 

(Mitchell), 696 
Dr. Ruth 's Encyclopedia of Sex 

(Westheimer), 962 
Dr. Ruth 's Guide to Good Sex 

(Westheimer), 962 
Dr. Ruth 's Guide to Safer Sex 

(Westheimer), 962 
Dr. Ruth 's Guide to Talking About Herpes 

(Westheimer and Lehu), 962 
Dr. Susan Love 's Breast Book (Love), 632 



Index | 1-19 



Dr. Susan Love's Menopause and Hormone 
Book (Love), 632 

The Dr. Joyce Brothers Show, 259 

The Dr. Ruth Show, 962 

Drake, Elisabeth (Mertz): career, 352 353; 
chemical engineer, 352; concurrent positions, 
352; education, 352; professional associa 
tions, 353; professional experience, 352 

Drake, Walter, 688 

"Draw A Scientist Test" (DAST): 
study of stereotypes and 
images, 21 22 

Dreschhoff, Gisela Auguste Marie: Antarctica, 
surveys to locate radioactive materials, 
130; career, 353 354; concurrent positions, 
353; education, 353; geophysicist and 
radiation physicist, 353; professional asso 
ciations, 353 354; professional 
experience, 353 

Dresselhaus, Gene, 355 

Dresselhaus, Mildred (Spiewak): career, 355; 
concurrent positions, 355; education, 355; 
electronic properties of materials, 161; 
expertise on semimetals and 
semiconductors, 114; professional 
associations, 355 356; professional 
experience, 355; solid state physicist, 355 

Drugs, Sex, Parents, and You 
(Densen Gerber), 343 

DSM V. See Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 
of Mental Disorders 

Duffy, Kate, 455 

Dukakis, Michael, 562 

Dunbar, Bonnie J.: astronaut, biomedical 
engineer, and ceramics engineer, 356; 
concurrent positions, 356; education, 356; 
effect of space flight on body, studies on, 
115; National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA), 114; photo, 357; 
professional associations, 357; professional 
experience, 356 

DuPont industries, 43 

Dutton, R. W., 659 

Dynamic Genome: Barbara McClintock's 
Ideas in the Century of Genetics 
(Fedoroff), 390 



Eagles, Juanita A., 817 

EAOS. See Earth, atmospheric, and ocean 

sciences 
Earhart, Amelia, 62 
Earle, Sylvia Alice, 903; career, 359 360; 

concurrent positions, 359; education, 359; 

environmentalist, marine botanist, and 

oceanographer, 359; marine environments, 

153; NOAA, 153; photo, 153; professional 

associations, 361; professional 

experience, 359 
Earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences 

(EAOS), 152 
Earth sciences: See Environmental Sciences 

and Ecology; Geography; Geology; 

Meteorology; Ocean Sciences; geology, 128; 

meteorology, 142; physical geography, 125; 

women's doctorates, 128; women's numbers 

in, 42 
East Coast women's colleges undergraduate 

astronomy programs, 76 
Eastman Kodak Company, 161 
Eastwood, Alice: botanist, 361; California 

Academy of Sciences, 93; career, 361 362; 

education, 361; professional associations, 

362; professional experience, 361 
Ecofeminism, 116 117 
Ecological botanists, 91 

The Ecological Risks of Engineered Crops, 803 
Ecological Society of America, 118 
Ecology, 116 120. See also Biology; 

Biomedical Sciences; Botany; Geography; 

Geology; Ocean Sciences 
Economic Fungi, 1A1 
Economic Policy Reform and the Indian 

Economy (Krueger), 588 
Economics: See also Nutrition and Home 

Economics; academia, 109; careers, 110; 

gender and, 110; institutional model of, 109; 

laissezfaire, 109; male dominated, 109; 

radical theories, 109; subfields, 108 109; 

Western thinking about, 109 
The Economics of Inaction, 895 
Ecosystems, 665 

The Edge of the Sea (Carson), 285 
Edgerton, Winifred, 132 



1-20 | Index 



Edinburgh Philosophical Society, 91 

Edinger, Tilly:brain's evolution studied through 

fossils, 156; career, 363; education, 363; 

fossils of mammal brains, research on, 157; 

paleontologist, 363; photo, 156; professional 

associations, 363; professional experience, 

363; Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, 157 
Education: access to, xix xx; agriculture 

related fields, 3; equal, 20; gender stereo 

types, 20; sex based differences in ability, 20 
Educational Times journal, 597 
Edwards, Cecile Hoover: biochemist and 

nutritionist, 363; career, 364; concurrent 

positions, 364; education, 363; Howard 

University, 150; professional associations, 

364 365; professional experience, 364; 

resources for low income people, 150 
Edwards, Don, 365 
Edwards, Helen Thom: accelerator physicist, 

365; career, 365 366; education, 365; 

professional associations, 366; professional 

experience, 365 
EEOC. See Equal Employment Opportunity 

Commission 
The Effects of Radiation on High Technology 

Polymers, 790 791 
Egyptians and alchemy, 96 
Ehrlich, Anne (Fitzhugh) Howland, 1021; 

author and environmental scientist, 366; 

career, 366 367; concurrent positions, 366; 

education, 366; overpopulation straining 

Earth's natural resources, 118; photo, 367; 

professional associations, 367 368; 

professional experience, 366 
Ehrlich, Paul R., 366, 527 
Einstein, Albert, 425, 953 
Elders, Joycelyn (Minnie) (Jones), 1022; 

career, 368 370; concurrent positions, 368; 

education, 368; endocrinologist and 

pediatrician, 368; photo, 369; professional 

associations, 370; professional experience, 

368; Surgeon General, 56, 140 
Electrical Studies on the Unanesthetized 

Brain, 781 
Electron Microscopic Structure 

of Protozoa, 763 



Elementary Dislocation Theory (Weertman 

and Weertman), 954 
Elementary Theory of Nuclear Shell Structure 

(Goeppert Mayer and Mayer), 437 
Elephant Memories: Thirteen Years in the Life 

of an Elephant Family (Moss), 704 
Elion, Gertrude Belle, 1022; biochemist, 370; 

career, 370 371; chemotherapy for treating 

cancer, 88; concurrent positions, 370; 

education, 370; Nobel Prize in Physiology or 

Medicine (1988), 999; nucleotide derived 

anticancer, antiviral drugs, 79; photo, 371; 

professional associations, 371 372; profes 

sional experience, 370 
Ellis, Florence May Hawley: anthropologist, 

372; archaeology, 71; career, 372 373; 

concurrent positions, 372; education, 372; 

professional associations, 372 373; 

professional experience, 372 
Elmegreen, Bruce, 374 
Elmegreen, Debra Meloy: astronomer, 373; 

career, 374; concurrent positions, 374; 

education, 373; professional associations, 

374; professional experience, 373 374 
Emergence: Labeled Autistic (Grandin), 455 
Emerson, Gladys Anderson: amino acids and 

vitamins, 149; biochemist and nutritionist, 

375; career, 376; concurrent positions, 376; 

education, 375; isolated vitamin E, 80, 149; 

photo, 375; professional associations, 376; 

professional experience, 375 376 
Emotional Contagion (Hatfield), 495 
Employment: women's presence and 

representation in, xxi 
Encyclopedia of Baby and Child Care, 713 
Encyclopedia of the Solar System, 675 
Endangered Species Act, 119 
Energy Levels of Light Nuclei (Ajzenberg 

Selove), 187 
Engels, Friedrich, 603 
"Engineer Girl," 115 
Engineering, 112 115. See also Computer 

Sciences and Information Technology (IT); 

bachelor's degrees, 25; branches of, 112; 

encouraging girls and young women to 

pursue, 7; minority presence in, 8; 



Index | 1-21 



perception as male fields, 21; specialties, 

112; women, increases in numbers of, xx 
Engineers: black female, 54; business and 

industry, 29; companies refusing to hire 

female, 114; revised direction and methods 

of scientific inquiry, 15 16; types of, 112 
"Engineer Your Life," 115 
England: first woman scientists, 3 
ENIAC, 101 

Enlightenment and scientific revolution, 14 
Entomological Society of America, 176 
Entomology, 175, 176 177 
Environmentalism, 117 
Environmentalists, 117 

Environmental Overkill (Ray and Guzzo), 786 
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 118 
Environmental sciences, 116 120. See also 

Biology; Biomedical Sciences; Botany; 

Geography; Geology; Ocean Sciences 
Environmental scientists and current 

issues, 116 
Equal education, 20 
Equal Employment Opportunity Act, 6 
Equal Employment Opportunity and the AT&T 

Case (Wallace), 946 
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 

(EEOC), 31, 38 
Equal opportunity legislation, 52 
Equal Pay Act of 1963, 31 
Errors as Linguistic Evidence (Fromkin), 410 
Errors in Linguistic Performance: Slips of the 

Tongue, Ear, Pen, and Hand (Fromkin), 410 
Esau, Katherine: botanist, 376; career, 

377 378; concurrent positions, 377; 

education, 376; plant viruses, 93; president 

of BSA, 93; professional associations, 378; 

professional experience, 377 
Escape to the Mountain (Bonta), 244 
An Essay on Combustion (Fulhame), 96 
Essays and Obsen'ations, Physical and 

Literary (Colden), 91 
Essentials of Histology, 779 
Estrin, Gerald, 380 
Estrin, Thelma Austern: biomedical engineer 

and computer scientist, 378; career, 

379 380; computer applications in brain 



research, 103; computers in biomedical and 

neurophysiological research, 84, 114, 146; 

concurrent positions, 379; education, 378; 

Institute of Electrical and Electronics 

Engineers (IEEE), 114; photo, 115; 

professional associations, 380; professional 

experience, 378 379 
Eugenics policy, 121 
European medieval and Renaissance eras: 

alchemy, 96 
European scientists: World War II era 

dislocation of, 6 
Evans, Alice Catherine: career, 380 381; 

education, 380; microbiologist, 84, 380; 

photo, 381; professional associations, 381; 

professional experience, 380; U.S. 

Department of Agriculture (USDA) 

research, 84 
Evers, Charles, 544 
Everything You Need to Know to Feel 

Go(o)d, 759 
Evocative Objects: Things We Think With, 928 
The Evolution of Racism: Human Differences 

and the Use and Abuse of Science 

(Shipman), 859 
The Evolution of Sex (Hrdy), 528 
The Evolution of the Horse Brain 

(Edinger), 363 
Evolve!: Succeeding in the Digital Culture 

of Tomorrow (Kanter), 562 
Excavations at Cerro Azul, Peru: The 

Architecture and Pottery (Marcus), 654 
Exceptional Children (Goodenough), 446 
Expanding the Role of Women in the 

Sciences, 252 
Experimental Designs (Cox and Cochran), 323 
Experimental drugs, 633 
Experimental Food Study (Morgan), 702 
Experiments in Cellular Biodynamics 

(Guttman), 474 
Experiments with Crystals and Light, 979 
Exploding the Gene Myth (Hubbard), 123 
Exploding the Gene Myth (Hubbard 

andWald), 531 
Exploration of the Outer Solar 

System, 540 



1-22 | Index 



Exploring the African American 

Experience, 901 
Exploring the Dangerous Trades 

(Hamilton), 480 

Faber, Sandra (Moore), 625; astronomer and 

cosmologist, 383; career, 383 384; 

concurrent positions, 383; education, 383; 

galaxies, research on formation of, 75; 

professional associations, 384; professional 

experience, 383 
Falling for Science: Objects in Mind, 928 
Familiar Lectures on Botany (Phelps), 92 
Familiar Lectures on Natural Philosophy 

(Phelps), 92 
Family: gender inequality, 111; private realm 

of, 14; responsibilities, 50 51 
Family Networks: Retribalization and Healing 

(Attneave), 201 
The Family (Parsons), 738 
Faraday, Michael, 96 
Farkas, Allen, 237 
Farquhar, Marilyn (Gist): career, 385; cell 

biologist and experimental pathologist, 384; 

education, 384; professional associations, 

385 386; professional experience, 384 385 
Fair, Clifford, 386 
Farr, Wanda Kirkbride: career, 386 387; 

cellulose, discovery of, 43 44, 93; 

concurrent positions, 386; cytologist, 386; 

education, 386; professional associations, 

387; professional experience, 386 
Fatigue Study: The Elimination of Humanity's 

Greatest Unnecessary Waste (Gilbreth), 43 1 
Fausto Sterling, Anne: career, 387 388; con 

current positions, 387; criticism of genetic 

research, 82, 123; education, 387; embry 

ologist, 387; photo, 82; professional associ 

ations, 388; professional experience, 387 
Fawcett, Don, 498 

FDA. See U.S. Food and Drug Administration 
Fear and Conventionality (Parsons), 738 
Fedoroff, Nina Vsevolod: career, 389 390; 

concurrent positions, 389; education, 388; 

molecular biologist, 388; photo, 389; 

professional associations, 390; professional 



experience, 388 389; transposable elements 

in plants, 124 
Feeding the Family (Rose), 149, 817 
Female Choices: Sexual Behavior of Female 

Primates (Small), 876 
Female faculty, 4; as mentors and 

advisors, 33 34 
Female primates, 165 
Female role models: lack of, 20 
Female scientists: academia, 93; marrying 

another scientist, 5 1 
Female students and women's colleges, 27 
Feminism: academic, 13; caretaker role for 

humans, 117; medical ethics, 17; rejecting 

exclusion of women, 13; scientific ethics, 

16 17; scientific research impact, 13 17; 

women's health issues, 17 
Feminist anthropologists, 70 
Feminist archaeologists, 70 71 
Feminist geography, 125 
The Feminist Psychologist, 170 
Feminists: genetics explaining sexual 

orientation, 123; Marxist, 70; scientific 

fields, 15; surrogacy, 49 
Feminist sociologists, 172 
Feminist task of late twentieth and twenty first 

centuries, 14 
Ferguson, Angela Dorothea: career, 391 392; 

concurrent positions, 391; education, 390; 

pediatrician, 390; professional associations, 

392; professional experience, 390 391; 

sickle cell anemia, 57 
Ferguson, Margaret Clay: Botanical Society of 

America (BSA), 93; botanist, 392; career, 

392 393; concurrent positions, 392; 

education, 392; professional associations, 

393; professional experience, 392 
Fermi, Enrico, 437, 621 
Ferree, Clarence E., 782 
Festschrift: Language, Speech and Mind: 

Studies in Honor of Victoria A. Fromkin 

(Fromkin), 410 
Feynman, Richard P., 344 
Fiber and Integrated Optics, 420 
Field Book of Animals in Winter 

(Morgan), 703 



Index | 1-23 



Field Book of Fresh Water Fishes of North 

America, 600 
Field Book of Ponds and Streams: An 

Introduction to the Life of Fresh Water 

(Morgan), 703 
Field Manual of Prehistoric Southwestern 

Pottery Types (Ellis), 373 
Fijian Frontier (Thompson), 916 
Filene, Catherine, 581, 653, 747, 982 
Finding science gene, 8 12 
Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My 

Life (Jemison), 551 
Fine Structure of the Developing Avian Cornea 

(Hay), 498 
Fink, Kathryn Ferguson: biochemist, 393; 

career, 394; concurrent positions, 394; 

education, 393; professional associations, 

394; professional experience, 393 394 
Fink, Robert, 394 
The Fiord Region of East Greenland 

(Boyd), 247 
First Book on Grasses (Chase), 288 
First Lady Astronaut Trainees 

(FLATs), 63 
The First Miracle Drugs: How the Sulfa Drugs 

Transformed Medicine (Lesch), 242 
Fischer, Irene (Kaminka): career, 395; 

concurrent positions, 395; earth scientist in 

geodesy, 134; education, 394; geodesist and 

mathematician, 126, 394; National 

Aeronautics and Space Administration 

(NASA), 126; professional associations, 

396; professional experience, 395; U.S. 

Army's Defense Mapping Agency 

Topographic Center, 126 
Fisher, Anna L.: astronaut and physician, 396; 

astronautics, 63; career, 396 397; education, 

396; photo, 397; professional associations, 

397; professional experience, 396 
Fisher, Esther G.: patented roses, 93 
Fisher, William F, 396 
The Fisherman 's Encyclopedia, 600 
Fitzroy, Nancy (Deloye), 1022; career, 

398 399; education, 398; engineer, 398; 

professional associations, 399; professional 

experience, 398 



Flanigen, Edith Marie: career, 399 400; 

education, 399; inorganic chemist, 399; 

professional associations, 400; professional 

experience, 399 
Flannery, Kent, 654 

FLATs. See First Lady Astronaut Trainees 
Fleming, Williamina, 280, 513 
Fletcher, Alice: Native American life and, 69 
Flexible bodies: Tracking Immunity in 

American Culture from the Days of Polio to 

the Age of AIDS (Martin), 661 
Flugge, Wilhelm, 401 
Flugge Lotz, Irmgard: career, 401; education, 

400; engineer, 400; professional associa 

tions, 401; professional experience, 400 
Food and Your Body, 89 1 
Food Becomes You (Leverton), 616 
Food development and production, 42 
Food for the Worker, 891 
Food Plant Catalogue of the Aphids of the 

World (Patch), 741 
Foods, Their Selection and Preparation 

(Stanley), 887 
Foraminfiera Genera and Their Classification 

(Loeblich and Loeblich), 628 
Ford, Jack, 300 
Ford, Kent, 823 
Ford Motor Company, 119 
Forestry, 91 
For Prayer and Profit: The Ritual, Economic, 

and Social Importance of Beer in Gwembe 

District 1950 1983 (Colson), 311 
Fortune, Reo, 68 1 
Fossey, Dian, 165; anthropologist, primatologist, 

and zoologist, 402; career, 402 403; 

concurrent positions, 402; education, 402; 

mountain gorillas, study and protection of, 

164; photo, 402; professional associations, 

404; professional experience, 402; scientific 

research combined with public education and 

preservation efforts, 177 
Fossil collecting expeditions, 155 
Foster, Christian J., 318 
The Foundations of Nutrition, 817 
Foundations of Nutrition (Rose and 

MacLeod), 648 



1-24 | Index 



Foundations of Secure Computation, 556 

Fowler, William, 272 

Fowler Billings, Katharine Stevens: career, 

404 405; education, 404; geologist, 404; 

North America and Gold Coast of Africa 

expeditions, 130; professional associations, 

405; professional experience, 404 
Fox, Marye Anne (Payne): career, 406; 

concurrent positions, 405; education, 405; 

organic chemist and physical chemist, 405; 

professional associations, 406 407; 

professional experience, 405 
Franklin, Rosalind, xxiii; coal and carbon, 

structure of, 107; DNA, tobacco mosaic 

virus, and polio virus, x ray images of, 106; 

double helix structure of DNA, discovery of, 

106 107, 123; gene and DNA, 

discovery of, 80 
Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, 74 
Free, Alfred H„ 408 
Free, Helen (Murray): career, 407 408; clinical 

chemist, 407; concurrent positions, 407; 

education, 407; professional experience, 407 
Freud, Sigmund, 168, 928 
Friend, Charlotte: career, 408 409; concurrent 

positions, 408; education, 408; medical 

microbiologist, 408; professional 

associations, 409; professional 

experience, 408 
Fromkin, Victoria Alexandria (Landish): 

career, 410; concurrent positions, 410; 

education, 409; linguist and neurolinguist, 

409; professional associations, 410 411; 

professional experience, 410 
Fruton, Joseph S., 865 
Fuchs, Elaine V.: biochemist, cell biologist, 

geneticist, and molecular biologist, 411; 

concurrent positions, 411; education, 411; 

photo, 412; professional associations, 413; 

professional experience, 411 
Fulhame, Elizabeth, 96 
Full Circles, Overlapping Lives: Culture and 

Generation in Transition (Bateson), 219 
Fuller, Buckminster, 355 
Fuller, Rachel Brown, 499 
Full professor, 28 29 



Fundamentals of Mathematics for Linguistics 

(Partee), 740 
The Fungus Fighters: Two Women Scientists 

and Their Discovery, 263 
Furness, Caroline Ellen: astronomer, 413; 

career, 413 414; education, 413; photo, 414; 

professional associations, 414; professional 

experience, 413 

"Gaia hypothesis," 116 

Gaillard, Mary Katharine (Ralph): career, 

415 416; concurrent positions, 415; 

education, 415; professional associations, 

416; professional experience, 415; 

theoretical physicist, 415 
Galactic Novae (Payne Gaposchkin), 749 
Galaxies and Galactic Structure 

(Elmegreen), 374 
Galdikas, Birute Marija Filomena, 403; 

Orangutan Foundation International, 165; 

orangutan research station at Tanjung Puting 

Reserve, 165; orangutans, authority on, 

164 165 
Galilei, Galileo, 159; heliocentric theory of 

solar system, 73 
Galloway, Eilene Marie Slack, 62; American 

Astronautical Society, 63; American 

Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 

63; International Institute of Space 

Law, 63; NASA, 63; National Aeronautics 

and Space Act, 63; Women in 

Aerospace, 63 
Game Fish of the World, 600 
Gantt, Elisabeth: botanist, 416; career, 417; 

education, 416; photo, 417; plant physiology 

and photosynthesis, 94 95; professional 

associations, 417 418; professional 

experience, 417 
Gaposchkin, Cecilia Payne: doctorate in 

astronomy from Radcliffe College, 74 
Garden Enemies, 958 
The Gardener' s Bug Book, 958 
Gardner, Julia Anna: career, 418 419; 

education, 418; geologist, 418; 

Paleontological Society, 129, 157; 

professional experience, 418; professional 



Index | 1-25 



organizations, 419; U.S. Geological 

Survey, 129, 157 
Garmire, Elsa (Meints): career, 419 420; 

concurrent positions, 419; education, 419; 

electrical engineer and physicist, 419; laser 

and optical research patents, 161; photo, 

161; professional associations, 420; 

professional experience, 419 
Gast, Alice P., 1023; career, 421; chemical 

engineer, 420; education, 420; first 

university president, 32; photo, 421; 

professional associations, 421 422; 

professional experience, 420 421 
Gauge Theories in High Energy Physics, 415 
Gay and lesbian issues, 57 58 
Gay and Lesbian Medical Association 

(GLMA), 58 
Gayle, Helen Doris: CARE USA, 140 
Gayle, Helene Doris: career, 422 423; 

education, 422; epidemiologist and 

pediatrician, 422; photo, 423; professional 

associations, 423; professional 

experience, 422 
GE Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow Data Books 

(Fitzroy), 399 
Geiringer, Hilda (Von Mises): career, 424 425; 

concurrent positions, 424; education, 423; 

genetics and other bio information, 134; 

mathematician, 423; professional associa 

tions, 425; professional experience, 424 
Geller, Margaret Joan: astronomer, 

astrophysicist, and cosmologist, 425; career, 

426; concurrent positions, 425; education, 

425; formation of galaxies, research on, 75; 

photo, 426; professional associations, 426; 

professional experience, 425 
Gender: computers and, 103; condemnation 

of discrimination, 8; economics and, 110; 

social beliefs about, 11; stereotypes and 

education, 20 
Gender, Place, & Culture: A Journal of 

Feminist Geography, 125 
Gender and Society, 172 
Gender bias, 17; biology and botany, 81; 

mathematics, 132 
Gender identity, 70 



Gender roles, 6, 48 

Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women 's 

Equality in African American Communities 

(Cole and Guy Sheftall), 306 
Gender wage gap, xxi 
General Biochemistry (Simmonds 

and Fruton), 865 
General Electric, 44 

General Motors Corporation, 44, 103, 119, 161 
General Zoology (Guthrie and Anderson), 472 
Genes, 121 

Genes, Chromosomes, and Cancer journal, 820 
Genes and Cancer, 820 
Genes and Development, All, 470 
Genes and Gender II: Pitfalls in Research 

on Sex and Gender (Hubbard), 53 1 
Genes and Genomes: A Changing Perspective 

(Singer and Berg), 870 
Genetic Markers in Human Blood 

(Giblett), 429 
Genetics, 121 124. See also Biology; 

Biomedical Sciences; Chemistry; 

Crystallography; Medicine; breeding and 

hybridization of plants, 121; environment, 

effect of, 122; language and metaphors, 82; 

medical, 124; plants, 124; scientific 

discoveries, 123 
Genetics in Hematology (Ranney), 784 
Genetics in Relation to Insect 

Management, 527 
Genetics journal, 576 
Genetics science, 121 

Genetic Studies of Genius (Goodenough), 446 
Geneva Medical College, 135 
Genomics, 122 
Geodesy: What's That? My Personal 

Involvement in the Age Old Quest for the 

Size and Shape of the Earth (Fischer), 395 
Geography, 125 126. See also Economics; 

Environmental Sciences and Ecology; 

Geology; Meteorology; Ocean Sciences; 

Sociology 
The Geography of the Mediterranean Region: 

Its Relation to Ancient History, 848 
Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man 

(Lyell), 128 



1-26 | Index 



Geological research, 127 

Geological Society of America, 129, 130 

Geological Society of London, 156 

Geologists: Islamic world and China, 127 

Geology, 127 130. See also Astronomy and 
astrophysics; Environmental Sciences and 
Ecology; Geography; Paleontology; Ocean 
Sciences; academia, 128 129; chemistry, 
95; earth sciences, 128; professional 
associations, 130; structural, 127; subfields, 
127; United States, 129 

Geometry and Quantum Field Theory, 934 

Geometry (Fischer), 395 

Geosciences and minority women, 129 

Gerry, Eloise B.: botanist, 427; career, 
427 428; concurrent positions, 427; 
education, 427; professional associations, 
428; professional experience, 427; trees and 
forest products, analysis of, 94; U.S. Forest 
Service, 35 

Giant Fishes of the Ocean (La Monte), 600 

Giblett, Eloise Rosalie: career, 428 429; 
concurrent positions, 428; education, 428; 
geneticist and hematologist, 428; inherited 
immune deficiencies, 124; professional 
associations, 429; professional 
experience, 428 

Gibson, Eleanor Jack: career, 430; concurrent 
positions, 429 430; education, 429; learning 
and perception in young children, 168; 
professional associations, 430; professional 
experience, 429; psychologist, 429 

Gibson, James, 430 

Gifted Children (Hollingworth), 516 

Gilbreth, Frank, 431 

Gilbreth, Frank, Jr., 432 

Gilbreth, Lillian E. Moller, 1021; career, 
431 432; concurrent positions, 431; 
education, 430; engineer and industrial 
psychologist, 430; household efficiency 
studies, 150; industrial management 
engineer, 50; industrial psychology, 169; 
mother of twelve, 50; photo, 47; professional 
associations, 432; professional experience, 
431; research of efficiency, 50; Society of 
Mechanical Engineers, 112 



Gill, Jocelyn Ruth, 813; astronomer, 432; 
career, 433; education, 432; professional 
associations, 433; professional experience, 
432 433 

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, 109 

Girl friendly school environment, 19 

Girls: all girl high schools, 22; computer liter 
acy and education, 104; different education 
than boys, 20; educational inequality, 18; 
educational opportunities access, 19; 
elementary and high school advantages, 20; 
home economics, 19; labeling as smart, 21; 
math and science in high school, 22; math 
education of, 132; outperforming boys in 
educational outcome, 18; portraying scien 
tists as male, 21 22; science and technology 
education, 18 23; self perceptions, 21; 
wives and mothers, future roles as, 19 

Girls, Inc., 21 

Glass ceiling, xxi, 38; corporations, 43 

Gleitman, Henry, 434 

Gleitman, Lila R.: career, 434; concurrent 
positions, 433 434; education, 433; 
linguistics, 169; professional associations, 
434; professional experience, 433; 
psychologist, 433 

GLMA. See Gay and Lesbian Medical 
Association 

Global Change Biology, 665 

Global Mobilization for HIV Prevention: 
A Blueprint for Action, 423 

Glusker, Jenny (Pickworth): cancer causing 
chemicals, or carcinogens, 107; cancer 
researcher and crystallographer, 435; career, 
435 436; concurrent positions, 435; educa 
tion, 435; photo, 108; professional associa 
tions, 436; professional experience, 435 

Goeppert Mayer, Maria, 160, 1020; atomic 
nuclei, structure of, 160; career, 436 437; 
concurrent positions, 436; education, 436; 
Nobel Prize in Physics (1963), 160, 999; 
photo, 437; physicist, 436; professional 
associations, 437 438; professional experi 
ence, 436 

Goldberg, Adele: Association of Computing 
Machinery (ACM), 103; career, 438 439; 



Index | 1-27 



computer scientist and information 
technologist, 438; education, 438; ParcPlace 
Systems, 45; professional associations, 439; 
professional experience, 438; programming 
language for personal computer, 103 

Goldhaber, Gertrude Scharff, 37; career, 
439 440; concurrent positions, 439; 
education, 439; physicist, 439; professional 
associations, 440; professional 
experience, 439 

Goldhaber, Maurice, 37, 440 

Goldin, Claudia: National Academy 
of Sciences (NAS), 109 

Goldman Rakic, Patricia: career, 441; Cerebral 
Cortex journal, 146; education, 440; frontal 
lobe of brain, 146; neurobiologist, 440; 
professional associations, 441 442; profes 
sional experience, 440 441 

Gold Missus: A Woman Prospector in Sierra 
Leone (Fowler Billings), 405 

Goldring, Winifred: books on fossils for 
general public, 157; career, 442 443; 
education, 442; Paleontological Society, 
129, 157; paleontologist, 442; professional 
associations, 442 443; professional 
experience, 442; state paleontologist of New 
York, 156 

Goldstein, M. C, 221 

Goldstine, Adele: trained first group of women 
programmers, 101; wrote technical 
operator's manual for ENIAC, 101 

Goldwasser, Shafrira: career, 443 444; 
computer scientist and electrical engineer, 
443; concurrent positions, 443; education, 
443; professional associations, 444; 
professional experience, 443 

Good, Bill, 445 

Good, Mary (Lowe): career, 445; education, 
444; inorganic chemist and radiation 
chemist, 444; professional associations, 445; 
professional experience, 444 

Goodall, Jane, xxiii, 165, 403, 596, 704, 767; 
work with chimpanzees, 164 

Goodenough, Florence Laura, 524; career, 
446 447; education, 446; intelligence 
testing in children, 168; professional 



associations, 447; professional experience, 

446; psychologist, 446 
Good Health from Jane Brody's Kitchen, 255 
Good Housekeeping magazine, 259, 260, 431 
Good Morning America, 632, 720 
Gordon, Kate (Moore): career, 447 448; 

education, 447; professional associations, 

448; professional experience, 447; 

psychologist, 447 
Gordon, Ruth Evelyn: bacteriologist, 448; 

career, 448 449; education, 448; 

professional associations, 449; professional 

experience, 448 
Gorilla, 165 

Gorillas in the Mist (Fossey), 403, 404 
Gosling, Raymond, 107 
Governing the Commons: The Evolution of 

Institutions for Collective Action, 732 
Government: computer development, 37; 

family friendly and flexible work policies, 

38; focusing on research, 38; gender bias, 

37; glass ceiling, 38; highest level national 

appointments, 38 39; life scientists, 39; 

physical scientists, 39; promotion and pay 

policies, 38; publication pressures, 38; 

research agenda, 38; salaries, 37; tenure, 

37 38; women scientists, 29; women scien 

tist jobs, 35 39; women's jobs, 36; work/life 

balance, 37 
Government Risk Sharing in Foreign 

Investment, 968 
Graduate school and science, 25 27 
Graham, David, 450 
Graham, Frances (Keesler): career, 450; 

concurrent positions, 450; 

professional associations, 450 45 1 ; 

professional experience, 449 450; 

psychophysiologist, 449 
Graham, Norma: education, 451; professional 

associations, 452; professional experience, 

451; psychologist, 451 
Graham, Susan Lois: career, 452 453; 

computer scientist, 452; concurrent 

positions, 452; education, 452; professional 

associations, 452 453; professional 

experience, 452 



1-28 | Index 



A Grammar of Mayan Hieroglyphs 

(Bricker), 250 
Grandin, Temple: animal behavior, 67; animal 

scientist, 453; autism, 455; career, 454 455; 

concurrent positions, 454; education, 453; 

photo, 67; professional associations, 455; 

professional experience, 454 
The Granite State Geologist, 405 
Granli, Petter, 768 
Granville, Evelyn Boyd: career, 456 457; 

computer scientist, 456; education, 456; 

mathematician, 456; National Aeronautics 

and Space Administration (NASA), 133; 

Ph.D. in mathematics (1949), 54, 132 133; 

professional associations, 457; professional 

experience, 456 
Graphology and Psychology of Handwriting 

(Downey), 351 
Grasselli, Jeanette (Brown): analytical chemist 

and spectroscopist, 457; career, 457 458; 

education, 457; professional associations, 

458 459; professional experience, 457 
Graybiel, Ann Martin: career, 459 460; 

concurrent positions, 459; education, 

459; neuroscientist, 459; photo, 460; 

professional associations, 461; professional 

experience, 459 
The Great Horned Owl and Its Prey in the 

North Central States, 478 
Greene, Laura: career, 462; concurrent 

positions, 462; education, 461; physicist, 

461; professional associations, 462; 

professional experience, 461 
Green technologies, 43, 117 
Greer, Sandra Charlene: career, 463 464; 

concurrent positions, 463; education, 463; 

photo, 463; physical chemist, 463; 

professional associations, 464; professional 

experience, 463 
Greibach, Emil, 465 
Greider, Carol W., 239, 1024; cancer research, 

87; career, 466 467; education, 466; 

molecular biologist, 466; Nobel Prize in 

Physiology or Medicine (2009), 84, 87, 999; 

photo, 467; professional associations, 467; 

professional experience, 466; telomerase, 



discovery of, 84; telosomeres, 

research on, 79 
Greibach, Sheila Adele: career, 464 465; 

computer scientist and mathematician, 

464; education, 464; photo, 465; 

professional associations, 465; professional 

experience, 464 
Grice, Noreen, 483 
Griffin, Diane Edmund: career, 468 469; 

education, 468; microbiologist, 468; photo, 

469; professional associations, 469 
Gross, Carol A. (Polinsky): bacteriologist, 469; 

career, 470; concurrent positions, 470; 

education, 469; professional associations, 

470; professional experience, 470 
Gross, Elizabeth Louise: biochemist, 470; 

career, 471; education, 470; photovoltaic 

cells, 119; professional associations, 471; 

professional experience, 471 
Groundwater Contamination in the 

United States, 746 
Ground Water journal, 194 
Guam and Its People (Thompson), 916 
A Guide to Prairie Chicken Management, 478 
Guthrie, Mary Jane: career, 472; created 

in vitro ovaries, 177; cytologist and 

zoologist, 47 1 ; education, 47 1 ; profes 

sional associations, 472; professional 

experience, 472 
Guttman, Helene Augusta (Nathan): 

biochemist and microbiologist, 472; career, 

473 474; education, 472; professional 

associations, 474; professional 

experience, 473 
Guy Sheftall, Beverly, 306 
Guzzo, Louis R., 786 

Haas, Mary Rosamond: anthropologist and 
linguist, 475; career, 475 476; education, 
475; professional associations, 476; 
professional experience, 475 

Hahn, Dorothy Anna: career, 476 477; 
chemist, 476; education, 476; professional 
associations, 477; professional 
experience, 476 

Hahn, Otto, 162 



Index | 1-29 



Hamerstrom, Frances (Flint): books and 

autobiographies about observing habitats of 

ground birds and birds of prey, 175; career, 

478; education, 477; ornithologist and 

wildlife biologist, 477; professional 

associations, 478 479; professional 

experience, 477 
Hamerstrom, Frederick Nathan, Jr., 478 
Hamilton, Alice, 1019; career, 479 480; 

education, 479; industrial toxicologist, 479; 

occupational and environmental health 

studies, 118; photo, 118; professional 

associations, 480; professional experience, 

479; safety issues for handling toxic 

chemicals, 118 
Hamilton, Margaret: career, 48 1 ; computer 

scientist and systems engineer, 480; 

computer systems for Apollo command 

module and lunar excursion vehicle, 64; 

education, 480; Massachusetts Institute of 

Technology (MIT), 64; professional 

association, 481; professional 

experience, 480 
Hammel, Heidi: ASBMB president, 79; 

astronomer, 482; career, 482 483; 

concurrent positions, 482; education, 482; 

Hubble space telescope, 64; photo, 483; 

professional associations, 483; professional 

experience, 482 
Handbook of Birds of the Western United States 

(Bailey), 212 
Handbook of Child Psychology 

(Goodenough), 446 
Handbook of North American Indians, 504 
Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 6, 

Subarctic, 504 
Handbook of Paleontology for Beginners and 

Amateurs: Part I, The Fossils and Part 2, 

The Formations (Goldring), 443 
Handbook of Physiological Optics (von 

Helmholtz), 597 
A Handbook of the Trees of California 

(Eastwood), 361 
Hanna, Harriet, 223 
Harrier, Hawk of the Marshes 

(Hamerstrom), 478 



Harris, Jean Louise: career, 484; concurrent 
positions, 484; education, 484; M.D. and 
mayor of her town, 55; physician, 484; 
professional associations, 484 485; 
professional experience, 484 

Harris, Mary (Styles): African American health 
issues, 57, 87; African American women's 
health, 46; career, 486; concurrent positions, 
485; education, 485; epidemiologist and gene 
ticist, 485; Journey to Wellness, 139; profes 
sional associations, 486 487; professional 
experience, 485; sickle cell anemia, 87 

Harrison, Anna Jane, 1021; career, 487 488; 
chemist, 487; education, 487; photo, 487; 
professional associations, 488; professional 
experience, 487 

Harrison, Faye Venetia: anthropologist, 488; 
career, 489; concurrent positions, 488; 
education, 488; people of African descent, 
study of, 57; professional associations, 489; 
professional experience, 488 

Harrison Ross, Phyllis Ann: career, 490; con 
current positions, 490; disability, 169; edu 
cation, 490; pediatrician and psychiatrist, 55, 
490; professional associations, 490 491; 
professional experience, 490 

Hart, Helen: American Phytopathological 
Society, 94; career, 491; concurrent 
positions, 491; education, 491; plant 
pathologist, 491; professional associations, 
491 492; professional experience, 491; rust 
resistant wheat and other crops, 94 

Harvard Observatory, 74 

Harvard University, 157; Task Force on Women 
Faculty and Women in Science and 
Engineering, 33 

Harvey, Edith: sea urchins, research on, 174 

Harvey, Edmund Newton, 4920 

Harvey, Ethel Browne: career, 492 493; cell 
biologist, 492; concurrent positions, 492; 
education, 492; professional associations, 
493; professional experience, 492 

Haschemeyer, Audrey E. V.: Antarctica, 
research in, 154; biochemist and 
environmental physiologist, 493; career, 
493 494; concurrent positions, 493; 



1-30 | Index 



education, 493; professional associations, 
494; professional experience, 493; 
temperature change affecting biological 
processes offish, 80, 154 

Hassler Expedition, 83 

Hatfield, Elaine Catherine: career, 495; 
concurrent positions, 495; education, 494; 
love, sex, and choices of marital partners, 
studies on, 170; photo, 495; professional 
associations, 495 496; professional 
experience, 494; psychologist, 494 

Hawkes, Graham, 360 

Hawkes, Kristen: anthropologist, 496; career, 
496 497; concurrent positions, 496; 
education, 496; professional association, 
497; professional experience, 496 

Hay, Elizabeth Dexter: anatomist, cell 
biologist, and embryologist, 497; career, 
498 499; education, 497; professional 
associations, 498 499; professional 
experience, 497 498 

Hazen, Elizabeth Lee, 262, 1020; antifungal 
antibiotics, 80, 84, 86; career, 499; 
education, 499; microbiologist, 499; 
professional associations, 499 500; 
professional experience, 499 

Hazlett, Olive Clio: career, 501; early women 
mathematicians, 132; education, 500; 
mathematician, 500; professional 
associations, 501; professional 
experience, 500 

Health advocacy groups, 139 

Healthcare professionals, 135 

Healy, Bernadine Patricia, 15, 1022; American 
Heart Association, 15, 90, 140; American 
Red Cross, 140; cardiologist, 501; career, 
502 503; concurrent positions, 503; 
education, 501; health administrator, 501; 
National Institutes of Health, 15, 38, 90, 
149; photo, 15; professional associations, 
503; professional experience, 501 502 

Heart disease, 633 

Hedeman, Ruth, 772 

Heezen, Bruce C, 913 

Helm, June, 643; anthropologist and 
ethnologist, 503; career, 503 504; 



concurrent positions, 503; education, 503; 

professional associations, 504; professional 

experience, 503 
Henrich, Ferdinand, 477 
The Henry Draper Catalogue (Cannon), 280 
The Henry Draper Extension 

(Cannon), 280 
Henson, Jim, 976 
Hereditary diseases, 122 
Heredity, 121 

Herschel, Caroline: comets, discovery of, 73 
Herzenberg, Caroline Stuart (Littlejohn): 

career, 505 506; education, 505; physicist, 

505; professional associations, 506; 

professional experience, 505; testing lunar 

samples, 65, 161 
Hewish, Anthony: Nobel Prize in 

Physics, 74 
Hewlett, Sylvia Ann: career, 507 508; Center 

for Work Life Policy, 52, 111; concurrent 

positions, 507; economist, 506; education, 

506; photo, 507; professional associations, 

508; professional experience, 507 
HGP. See Human Genome Project 
Hibbard, Hope: career, 509; education, 508; 

marine biologist and zoologist, 508; marine 

invertebrates, tissue studies of, 175; 

professional associations, 509; professional 

experience, 508 509 
Hicks, Beatrice Alice, 1020; career, 510; 

education, 509; engineer, 509; professional 

associations, 510; professional experience, 

509; Society of Women Engineers 

(SWE), 113 
The Hidden Half: Studies of Plains Indians 

Women, 683 
Hidden Hunger (Macy Hoobler and 

Williams), 649 
High Field Transport in Semiconductors 

(Conwell), 316 
High school level science curricula, 19 
Hilbert, David, 809 
Hispanic Business, 310 
Hispanics, 56 
Hispanic women, 56 
History Channel, 291 



Index | 1-3 I 



A History of the Department of Chemistry: 
University of Missouri Columbia 
(Nightingale), 719 

Hitchcock, A. S., 288 

Hitchings, George, 79; photo, 371 

Hitler, Adolph, 424 

HIV. See Human immunodeficiency virus 

Hobart, Mary, 637 

Hockfield, Susan, 1023; career, 511; education, 
510; first university president, 32; 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
(MIT), 147; neuroscientist, 510; pain and 
nervous system, 147; photo, 511; 
professional associations, 511 512; 
professional experience, 511 

Hodgkin, Dorothy Crowfoot, 107, 435; 
crystallography, 97; education, 97; 
International Union of Crystallography, 97; 
Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1964), 97 98, 
106, 999; penicillin and insulin, con 
firmed structure of, 97, 106; penicillin 
and vitamin B12, molecular structure 
of, 97, 106; Royal Society, 97; X ray 
crystallography, 98 

Hoffleit, Dorrit (Ellen): astronomer, 512; 
career, 512 513; concurrent positions, 512; 
education, 512; photo, 513; professional 
associations, 513; professional 
experience, 512 

Hoffman, Darleane (Christian): career, 514; 
education, 513; nuclear chemist, 513; 
professional associations, 514 515; 
professional experience, 514 

Hoffman, Marvin, 514 

Hollingworth, Harry L., 516 

Hollingworth, Leta Anna Stetter, 446; career, 
515 516; education, 515; professional 
associations, 516; professional experience, 
515; psychologist, 515; psychology and 
education of women and children, 168 

Hollinshead, Ariel Cahill: cancer researcher 
and pharmacologist, 516; career, 517; 
concurrent positions, 516; education, 516; 
professional associations, 517; professional 
experience, 516 

Holmes, Mary Emilie, 129 



Home economics, 19, 147 150. See also 

Animal Sciences; Biochemistry; Biomedical 
Sciences; Botany; Chemistry;Economics, 
Nutrition 

Home Improvement TV show, 917 

The Home Maker and Her Job (Gilbreth), 431 

Homosexuality, scientific understandings of, 58 

Homosexuality in Perspective (Masters and 
Johnson), 553 

Hong Kong Naturalist, 245 

Hoobler, Raymond, 649 

The Hopi Way, 916 

Hopper, Grace Murray: career, 518 519; 
COBOL language, development of, 102, 
132; computer scientist and mathematician, 
517; concurrent positions, 518; digital 
computers, military and government 
development of, 132; education, 517; photo, 
132; professional associations, 519; 
professional experience, 518 

Hormones, 10 

Horner, Matina (Souretis): career, 519 520; 
education, 519; professional associations, 
520; professional experience, 519; 
psychologist, 519 

Horning, Evan, 521 

Horning, Marjorie G.: biochemist and 

pharmacologist, 520; career, 521; concurrent 
positions, 520; drug transfer between 
pregnant women and fetuses, 86; education, 
520; professional associations, 521; 
professional experience, 520 

Horstmann, Dorothy Millicent: career, 522; 
education, 521; epidemiologist, 521; photo, 
522; professional associations, 522; 
professional experience, 522 

Horticulture as women's work, 91 92 

Horticulturists, 91 

House Beautiful magazine, 806 

Household products technology, 42 

Howard Beckham, Ruth Winifred: career, 
523 524; concurrent positions, 523; educa 
tion, 523; Ph.D. in psychology (1934), 54, 
169; professional associations, 524; profes 
sional experience, 523; psychologist, 523 

Howard University, 150 



1-32 | Index 



Howell, J. T., 361 

Howes, Ethel Puffer: career, 525; education, 
525; professional associations, 526; profes 
sional experience, 525; psychologist, 525 

Howes, Ruth H, 506 

How Fluids Unmix (Levelt Sengers), 614 

How Schools Shortchange Girls (AAUW 
1992), 19 

How to Get Whatever You Want Out of Life 
(Brothers), 260 

How to Talk to Your Child about Sexuality 
(Wattleton), 952 

How to Teach Nutrition to Children, 891 

Hoy, Marjorie Ann (Wolf): career, 526; 

education, 526; entomologist and geneticist, 
526; genetic engineering of agricultural 
crops, 124; insect control in food crop 
plants, 177; professional associations, 527; 
professional experience, 526 

Hoyle, Fred, 272 

HPV. See Human papilloma viruses 

Hrdy, Sarah C. (Blaffer): concurrent positions, 
527; education, 527; evolutionary biologist 
and primatologist, 527; gender, evolution, 
and motherhood, 166; infanticide among 
primates, 166; professional 
experience, 527 

Huang, Alice Shih Hou: American Society of 
Microbiology, 56; career, 529; concurrent 
positions, 529; education, 529; microbiolo 
gist, 56, 529; professional associations, 
529 530; professional experience, 529 

Hubbard, Ruth (Hoffman): biochemist and 
biologist, 530; career, 530 531; concurrent 
positions, 530; education, 530; genetic 
information, overreliance on, 123; photo, 
531; professional associations, 531; 
professional experience, 530 

Hubble space telescope, 64 

Huchra, John, 426 

Hughes Schrader, Sally (Peris): career, 532; 
concurrent positions, 532; education, 532; 
professional associations, 532 533; profes 
sional experience, 532; zoologist, 532 

Human behavior: early studies, 167; 
explanations for, 1 1 



Human Ecology in Space Flight 

(Calloway), 279 
Human environments, 116 
Human Ethology (Hrdy), 528 
Human Genome Project (HGP), 122 
Human geography, 125 
Human Identification: Case Studies in Forensic 

Anthropology (Buikstra), 268 
Human immunodeficiency virus 

(HIV), 51 
Human nature and value judgment, 16 17 
Human papilloma viruses (HPV), 138 
Human Sexual Behavior (Hatfield), 495 
Human Sexual Inadequacy (Masters and 

Johnson), 553 
Human Sexuality: A Psychosocial Perspective 

(Westheimer and Lopater), 962 
Human Sexual Response (Masters and 

Johnson), 553 
Hunter College, 92, 93 
Huntington, George, 963 
Hurvich, Leo, 547 
Hutchins, Sandra Elaine: communications 

engineer, 533; computer scientist, 533; 

concurrent positions, 533; education, 533; 

professional experience, 533; voice 

recognition software, 103 
Hutton, James, 127 
Hwang, Jennie S.: career, 534 535; concurrent 

positions, 534; education, 534; engineer and 

materials scientist, 56, 534; professional 

associations, 535; professional 

experience, 534 
Hyde, Ida Henrietta, 766; American 

Physiological Society, 137; career, 536; 

education, 536; professional associations, 

536 537; professional experience, 536; 

psychologist, 536 
Hydrology, 142 
Hyman, Libbie Henrietta: career, 537; 

education, 537; professional associations, 

537; professional experience, 537; Society 

for Systematic Zoology, 174; zoologist, 537; 

zoology textbooks, 174 
Hypatia of Alexandria, 73, 75 
Hysteria, 170 



Index | 1-33 



IAU. See International Astronomical Union 
IBM. See International Business Machines 
Icebound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for 

Survival at the South Pole (Nielsen), 719 
Ichthyosaur, 156 
IEEE. See Institute of Electrical and 

Electronics Engineers 
IFHE. See International Federation for Home 

Economics 
If You Love This Planet: A Plan to Heal the 

Earth (Caldicott), 277 
/ in the Wind (Slye), 875 
The Impact of Family Planning Programs on 

Women 's Lives, 687 
Index to Grass Species (Chase), 288 
The Indian: America 's Unfinished Business 

(Brophy and Aberle), 179 
The Indian Christ, the Indian King: The 

Historical Substrate of Maya Myth and 

Ritual (Bricker), 250 
Indians of the Subarctic (Helm), 504 
Industrial and Engineering 

Chemistry, 648 
Industrial Poisons in the United States 

(Hamilton), 480 
Industrial Research & Development, 445 
Industrial Revolution and industries with needs 

for scientists, 41 
Industrial Toxicology (Hamilton), 480 
Industry: demand for scientists, 40 41; 

engineering jobs, 114; flexible hiring and 

advancement criteria, 40; life scientists, 39; 

management or profit related activities, 43; 

physical scientists, 39; salaries, 37; women 

scientist jobs, 40 46; work/life balance, 46 
Infant Metabolism (Stearns), 888 
Influences of Geographic, Environment, on the 

Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo 

Geography (Semple), 848 
Information technology (IT), 100 104. See also 

Engineering; Mathematics 
The Infrared Solar Spectrum, 873 
In Honor of Mary Haas, 476 
The Inner History of Devices, 928 
Innovation: Breakthrough Thinking at Du Pont, 

GE, Pfizer, and Rubbermaid (Kanter), 562 



In Praise of Imperfection: My Life and Work 

(Levi Montalcini), 619 
Insect Molecular Genetics, 527 
Instantons and 4 Manifold Topology, 934 
Institute of Electrical and Electronics 

Engineers (IEEE), 1 14 
Institute of Medicine of the National Academy 

of Science: "Lesbian Health: Current 

Assessment and Directions for the Future" 

(Solarz), 58 
Institute of Physics, 74 
Institutional Incentives and Sustainable 

Development: Infrastructure Policies 

in Perspective, 732 
Institutional model of economics, 109 
Institutions of higher learning excluding 

women, 2 
Instructors, 29 

Integrated Laboratory Sequence (Good), 445 
Interacting with the Dead: Perspectives on 

Mortuary Archaeology for the New 

Millennium (Buikstra), 268 
International Astronomical Union (IAU), 73 
International Business Machines (IBM), 103 
International Federation for Home Economics 

(IFHE), 150 
International Geographical Congress, 126 
International Institute of Space Law, 63 
International Journal of Women 's 

Studies, 252 
International Monetary Fund, 110 
International Perspectives in Public 

Health, 238 
International projects and professional 

networks, xxiii 
International Union of Crystallography, 97, 108 
International Year of Astronomy, 73 
Internet, 103 

Interpersonal Attraction (Hatfield), 495 
Intervirology, 469 
Intriligator, Devrie (Shapiro): astrophysicist 

and space physicist, 539; career, 539 540; 

education, 539; Pioneer spacecraft, analysis 

of data, 65; professional associations, 540; 

professional experience, 539 
Introduction to Astrodynamics, 65 1 



1-34 | Index 



Introduction to Botany in a Series of Familiar 

Letters (Wakefield), 92 
Introduction to Groundwater Modeling 

(Anderson and Wang), 194 
An Introduction to Language, 410 
Introduction to Mushroom Hunting 

(Charles), 287 
Introduction to VLSI Systems (Conway and 

Mead), 315 
Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics, 877 
The Invertebrates (Hyman), 537 
Invisible Seas, 313 
Invitation to Cognitive Science, Volume I 

Language, 434 
In vitro fertilization (IVF), 49 
Iowa State University, 93 
Iraqi women scientists, 824 
Iron, Life 's Universal Element: Why People 

Need Iron and Animals Make Magnets 

(Mielczarek and McGrayne), 691 
Irradiation of Polymeric Materials: Processes, 

Mechanisms, and Applications, 791 
Irwin, Mary lane: career, 541; computer 

scientist, 540; concurrent positions, 541; 

education, 540; professional associations, 

541; professional experience, 540 541 
Is My Baby All Right? (Apgar), 198 
Is She Coming Too?: Memoirs of a Lady Hunter 

(Hamerstrom), 478 
IT. See Information technology 
ITT Research Institute, 65 
IVF. See In vitro fertilization 

Jacklin, Carol Nagy, 645 

Jackson, Jacquelyne Mary (Johnson): career, 
543 544; concurrent positions, 543; 
education, 543; minority aging and needs of 
elderly African Americans documentary, 
173; professional associations, 543 544; 
professional experience, 543; 
sociologist, 543 

Jackson, Robert, 384 

Jackson, Shirley Ann, 1023; career, 544 546; 
concurrent positions, 544; education, 544; 
first university president, 32; Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology (MIT), 161; Nuclear 



Regulatory Commission (NRC), 161; photo, 

545; physicist, 544; professional associa 

tions, 546; professional experience, 544; 

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 161 
James, William: founder of modern American 

psychology, 167 
Jameson, Dorothea A.: career, 547; concurrent 

positions, 547; education, 546; professional 

associations, 547; professional experience, 

546 547; psychologist, 546 
Jan, Lily: career, 548; education, 548; 

neurobiologist, 548; professional 

associations, 548 549; professional 

experience, 548 
Jan, Yuh Nung, 548 

Jane Brady's Good Food Book (Brody), 255 
Jane Brody 's Guide to the Great Beyond 

(Brody), 255 
Jane Brady's Nutrition Book (Brody), 255 
Jeanes, Allene Rosalind: career, 549; chemist, 

549; education, 549; professional 

associations, 550; professional 

experience, 549 
Jemison, Mae Carol: astronaut, 56; astronaut 

and physician, 550; career, 550 55 1 ; 

concurrent positions, 550; education, 550; 

professional associations, 551; professional 

experience, 550; Spacelab J (photo), 57; 

weightlessness and motion sickness, study 

of, 140 
Jensen, Arthur, 364 
Jensen, J. Hans D., 437 
Jerrie Cobb, Solo Pilot (Cobb), 300 
Jobs for women scientists: academia, 28 34; 

business, 40 46; government, 35 39; 

industry, 40 46; nonprofit research, 40 46 
Joe Camel cartoon character, 723 
Johanson, Donald, 72 
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 136 
Johns Hopkins University, 78, 129, 

156 157, 176 
Johnson, Barbara Crawford: aerospace 

engineer, 551; career, 551 552; education, 

551; professional associations, 552; 

professional experience, 551 
Johnson, Claudia Alta, 978, 980 



Index | 1-35 



Johnson, Harold, 191 

Johnson, Lyndon B., 63, 980 

Johnson, Treat B., 477 

Johnson, Virginia (Eshelman): career, 553; 

education, 552; photo, 553; professional 

experience, 553; psychologist and sex 

therapist, 552; sexual behavior, 170 
Johnson Space Center, 64 
Johnston, Mary Helen: career, 554 555; 

education, 554; metallurgical engineer, 554; 

professional associations, 555; professional 

experience, 554 
Joliot, Frederic, 98, 344 
Joliot, Pierre, 98 
Joliot Curie, Irene, xxiii, 159, 344; Commis 

sioner for Atomic Energy, 98; director of 

Radium Institute, 98; doctorate with thesis 

on polonium, 98; Nobel Prize in Chemistry 

(1935), 98, 999; radioactivity, work on, 98 
Jones, Anita Katherine: career, 555 556; 

computer scientist, 555; education, 555; 

professional associations, 556; professional 

experience, 555 
Jones, Mary Ellen: ASBMB president, 79; 

biochemist, 556; career, 557; education, 

556; professional associations, 557 558; 

professional experience, 556 557 
Journal of American Folklore, 69, 226 
Journal of Applied Meteorology, 203 
Journal of Applied Psycholinguistics , 410 
Journal of Bacteriology, 470, 673, 852 
Journal of Biological Chemistry, 78, 

785, 894 
Journal of Cell Biology, 412 
Journal of Chemical Physics, 111 
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and 

Metabolism, 713 
Journal of Computers in Mathematics and 

Science Teaching, 465 
Journal of Cross Cultural Gerontology, 221 
Journal of Economic Growth, Games and 

Economic Behavior, 895 
Journal of Economic Theory, 895 
Journal of Experimental Medicine, 752 
Journal of Genetic Psychology, 523 
Journal of Geophysical Research, 395 



Journal of Geophysical Research 

Atmosphere, 606 
Journal of Language Acquisition, 282 
Journal of Minority Aging, 543 
Journal of Molecular Biology, 852 
Journal of Morphology, 283, 763 
Journal of Morphology and Physiology, 577 
Journal of Number Theory, 910 
Journal of Nutrition, 376, 648, 817 
Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental 

Therapeutics, 652 
Journal of Political Economy, 895 
Journal of Protozoology, 763 
Journal of Psychology, 523 
Journal of the American Chemical Society, 

406, 477 
Journal of the American College 

of Surgeons, 845 
Journal of the American Dietetic 

Association, 648 
Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 956 
Journal of Theoretical Biology, 646 
Journal of Virology, 469 
Journal of Vision, 452 
Journal on Emerging Technologies in 

Computing Systems, 541 
A Journey in Brazil (Agassiz), 83 
Journey to Wellness, 139, 486 
Joycelyn Elders, M.D.: From Sharecropper's 

Daughter to Surgeon General of the United 

States of America (Elders), 370 
Julia, A Life in Mathematics (Reid), 809 
Just, Ernest Everett, 995 

Kahneman, Daniel, 927; photo, 927 

Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, 162 

Kalnay, Eugenia: career, 559 560; education, 
559; global climate change, role of humans 
in, 144; meteorologist, 559; photo, 560; 
professional associations, 560; professional 
experience, 559; weather predictions based 
on ocean and atmospheric climates, 143 

Kanter, Rosabeth (Moss): career, 561 562; 
concurrent positions, 561; corporate culture, 
management, and job performance, 173; 
education, 560; management consultant and 



1-36 | Index 



sociologist, 560; professional associations, 

562; professional experience, 561 
Kanwisher, Nancy, 883; brain, functions of 

parts of, 147; brain, social and evolutionary 

development of, 147; career, 563; concurrent 

positions, 562; education, 562; 

neuroscience, 169; professional 

associations, 563; professional experience, 

562; psychologist, 562 
Kappler, John, 659 
Karle, Isabella Helen Lugoski, 37; American 

Crystallographic Association, 107; career, 

564; crystallographer, 564; education, 564; 

Naval Research Laboratory, 106 107; 

professional associations, 565; professional 

experience, 564; synthetic materials, 

development of, 107 
Karle, Jerome, 37, 564; Naval Research 

Laboratory, 106 107 
Karp, Carol Ruth (Vander Velde): career, 

565 566; education, 565; infinitary logic 

theory, 134; mathematician, 565; 

professional associations, 566; professional 

experience, 565 
Kassarjian, J. Barkev, 220 
Kaufman, Joyce (Jacobson): career, 566 567; 

chemist and pharmacologist, 566; education, 

566; professional associations, 567; 

professional experience, 566 
Kay, Alan, 438 
And Keep Your Powder Dry 

(Mead), 681 
Keller, Evelyn Fox: career, 568 569; 

education, 567; genetic research criticism, 

123; mathematical biologist, molecular 

biologist, and physicist, 567; photo, 568; 

professional associations, 569; professional 

experience, 568 
Kelly, H. J., 649 
Kempf, Martine: career, 569; computer 

scientist, 569; education, 569; professional 

experience, 569; voice recognition software, 

103, 114 
Kenyon, Cynthia J.: age related diseases, 87; 

career, 570 571; concurrent positions, 570; 

education, 570; molecular biologist, 570; 



photo, 571; professional associations, 571; 
professional experience, 570 

Kids: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way 
We Raise Our Children (Small), 876 

Kidwell, Margaret Gale: career, 572; education, 
572; evolutionary biologist and geneticist, 
572; fruit flies, transfer of genes in, 124; 
professional associations, 573; professional 
experience, 572 

Kieffer, Susan Werner: career, 573 574; 
concurrent positions, 573; education, 573; 
geologist, mineral physicist, and 
volcanologist, 573; professional 
associations, 574 575; professional 
experience, 573; volcanoes and crater 
impacts on other planets, 129 130 

Kies, Mary Dixon: first woman to receive 
patent, 41, 112 

Kimble, Judith: career, 575 576; concurrent 
positions, 575; education, 575; geneticist, 
575; nematodes (unsegmented worms), 124; 
professional associations, 576; professional 
experience, 575 

King, Augusta Ada Byron, Countess 
of Lovelace, 101 

King, Helen Dean: career, 576 577; 

geneticist, 576; heredity and breeding pure 
generations of rats, 124; professional 
associations, 577; professional 
experience, 576 

King, Mary Claire: BRCA1 gene, 124; breast 
cancer research, 124; career, 577 578; edu 
cation, 577; epidemiologist and geneticist, 
577; photo, 578; professional associations, 
578; professional experience, 577 

King, William, Earl of Lovelace, 101 

Kinsey, Alfred, 792 

The Kinsey Institute New Report on Sex, 793 

Kinships of Animals and Man: A Textbook of 
Animal Biology (Morgan), 703 

Klinman, Judith (Pollock): ASBMB president, 
79; biochemist and physical organic 
chemist, 579; career, 579; concurrent 
positions, 579; education, 579; professional 
associations, 580; professional 
experience, 579 



Index | 1-37 



Klumpke Roberts, Dorothea, 483 

Knopf, Adolph, 581 

Knopf, Eleanora Frances Bliss: career, 

580 581; concurrent positions, 580; 

education, 580; geologist, 580; professional 

associations, 581; professional experience, 

580; USGS, 129 
Knox, Robert S., 691 
Kofalk, Harriet, 212 
Kolodny, Robert, 554 
Koop, C. Everett, 554 
Kopell, Nancy J.: applied mathematician, 581; 

career, 581 582; concurrent positions, 581; 

education, 581; photo, 582; professional 

associations, 582; professional 

experience, 581 
Koshland, Daniel, 583 
Koshland, Marian Elliott: career, 583; cholera 

vaccine, 86; concurrent positions, 583; 

education, 582; immunologist, 582; 

professional associations, 583; professional 

experience, 582 583 
Kreps, Juanita (Morris), 1021; career, 584 585; 

economist, 584; education, 584; photo, 585; 

professional associations, 585; professional 

experience, 584; Secretary of 

Commerce, 110 
Krim, Mathilde (Galland): cancer, tuberculosis, 

and HIV/AIDS research, 124; career, 

586 587; concurrent positions, 586; 

education, 585; geneticist and virologist, 

585; photo, 586; professional associations, 

587; professional experience, 585 586 
Krueger, Anne (Osborn): career, 587 588; 

economist, 587; education, 587; 

International Monetary Fund, 110; National 

Academy of Sciences (NAS), 109; photo, 

110; professional associations, 588; 

professional experience, 587; 

World Bank, 110 
Kiibler Ross, Elisabeth: anthropology and 

sociology of death, 169; career, 589; con 

current positions, 589; education, 588; 

photo, 169; professional associations, 590; 

professional experience, 588 589; 

psychiatrist, 588 



Kuhlmann Wilsdorf, Doris: career, 590 591; 
concurrent positions, 590; education, 590; 
metallurgist and physicist, 590; patents for 
electrical brushes for machines and engines, 
161; professional associations, 591; profes 
sional experience, 590 

Kurtzig, Sandra L. (Brody): aeronautical 
engineer and computer scientist, 591; ASK 
Computer Systems, 45, 103; career, 

591 592; education, 591; professional 
experience, 591 

Kwolek, Stephanie Louise, 1021; career, 

592 593; education, 592; Kevlar, invention 
of, 43, 99; polymer chemist, 592; 
professional associations, 593; professional 
experience, 592 

LaBastille, Anne: career, 595 596; con 

current positions, 595; ecologist, 595; 

education, 595; photo, 596; professional 

associations, 596 597; professional 

experience, 595; science writers, 46; 

wildlife habitats of bird 

species, 119 
Laboratory Directions in General Zoology 

(Guthrie and Anderson), 472 
Laboratory Handbook for Dietetics (Rose and 

MacLeod), 648, 817 
Laboratory Identification of Pathogenic Fungi 

Simplified (Brown), 499 
A Laboratory Manual for Comparative 

Vertebrate Anatomy (Hyman), 537 
A Laboratory Manual for Elementary Zoology 

(Hyman), 537 
A Laboratory Outline of Neurology 

(Crosby), 326 
Laboratory Outlines of Physiology (Hyde), 536 
La Civilizacion Zapoteca: Como Evoluciono 

La Sociedad Urbana en el Valle de Oaxaca 

(Marcus and Flannery), 654 
Ladd Franklin, Christine: career, 597 598; 

education, 597; photo, 598; professional 

associations, 598; professional experience, 

597; psychologist, 597 
Ladies' Home Journal, 198, 934 
The Lady and the Sharks (Clark), 296 



1-38 | Index 



Lady with a Spear (Clark), 296 
Laird, Elizabeth Rebecca: career, 599; 

concurrent positions, 599; education, 598; 

physicist, 598; professional associations, 

599; professional experience, 598 599; 

Royal Canadian Air Force, 160; training 

women in sciences, 159 160 
Laissez faire economics, 109 
Lamarr, Hedy (Hedwig Eva Maria 

Kieslern), 5 
Lambert, Marjorie Ferguson, 71 
La Monte, Francesca Raimond: American 

Museum of Natural History, 154; career, 

600; education, 599; exhibits on marlin, 

swordfish, and other species, 177; 

ichthyologist, 177, 599; professional 

associations, 600; professional 

experience, 600 
Lancaster, Cleo: career, 601; education, 601; 

physiologist, 601; professional associations, 

601; professional experience, 601 
Lancefield, Rebecca Craighill: bacteriologist, 

602; career, 602; education, 602; 

professional associations, 602 603; 

professional experience, 602 
Land, Barbara, 755 
Land grant colleges, 3, 25, 66; food sciences 

and nutrition, 147 148 
Langevin Joliot, Helene, 98 
Langley Research Center, 64 
Langmuir, Irving, 243 

Language, Culture, and History (Haas), 476 
Language, Speech, and Mind (Fromkin), 410 
Language and Experience: Evidence from the 

Blind Child, 434 
Languages with Expressions of Infinite Length 

(Karp), 565 
Langurs of Abu: Female and Male Strategies 

of Reproduction (Hrdy), 528 
Large animal species, 177 
Latin American Macroeconomic Reform: 

The Second Stage, 588 
Latina women: issues facing, 57 
Latinos, 54 
Lavender ceiling, 57 
Lawrence, Ernest, 987 



Leacock, Eleanor (Burke): career, 603 604; 
concurrent positions, 603; cultural 
anthropologist, 603; education, 603; 
feminist anthropologist, 70; gendered 
hierarchies, 70; professional associations, 
604; professional experience, 603 

Leaflets of Western Botany journal, 361 

Leakey, Louis, 164 165, 403 

Leakey, Mary, 164, 403 

Leakey, Richard, 704, 767 

Leaky pipeline, xx xxi, 6, 25; academia, 31 32 

Learning to Be an Anthropologist and 
Remaining "Native," 683 

Leavitt, Henrietta Swan, 74, 280; astronomer, 
604; career, 604 605; education, 604; 
professional associations, 605; professional 
experience, 604 

Lectures on Set Theoretic Topology, 825 

Lectures to Young Ladies (Phelps), 92 

Ledley, Tamara (Shapiro): career, 606; 
climatologist, 605; concurrent positions, 
606; education, 605; polar regions role in 
shaping climate, 143; professional 
associations, 606 607; professional 
experience, 606 

Lee, Tsung Dao, 986 987 

Leeman, Susan (Epstein): career, 607 608; 
education, 607; endocrinologist and 
physiologist, 607; photo, 607; professional 
associations, 608; professional 
experience, 607 

Leetsma, David, 903 

Lehu, Pierre A., 962 

Lemisch, Jesse, 957 

LeMone, Margaret Anne: career, 609; 

concurrent positions, 608 609; education, 
608; meteorologist, 608; professional 
associations, 609; professional experience, 
608; women in meteorology, education and 
careers, 143 

Leopold, Aldo, 120, 478, 611 

Leopold, Estella Bergere: ancient environments 
studies, 158; career, 610 611; concurrent 
positions, 610; education, 610; 
paleoecologist, 94, 610; photo, 610; 
prehistoric organisms and environments. 



Index | 1-39 



120; professional associations, 611; 

professional experience, 610 
Lesbian women, 57 58 
Lesch, John E., 242 
Lesh Laurie, Georgia Elizabeth: career, 612; 

developmental biology, 611; education, 611; 

professional associations, 612; professional 

experience, 612 
L'Esperance, Elise Depew Strang: cancer, early 

detection and treatment of, 137; career, 613; 

concurrent positions, 613; education, 612; 

pathologist, 612; professional associations, 

613; professional experience, 612 613 
A Lesser Life: The Myth of Women 's Liberation 

in America (Hewlett), 508 
Leta Stetter Hollingworth (Hollingworth), 516 
Letters to a Young Feminist (Chesler), 291 
Levelt Sengers, Johanna Maria Henrica: career, 

614; concurrent positions, 614; education, 

614; physicist, 614; professional associa 

tions, 614 615; professional experience, 614 
Leverton, Ruth Mandeville: career, 615 616; 

concurrent positions, 615; education, 615; 

nutritionist, 615; professional associations, 

616; professional experience, 615 
Leveson, Nancy G.: aerospace engineer and 

computer scientist, 617; career, 617; 

concurrent positions, 617; education, 617; 

professional associations, 617 618; 

professional experience, 617 
Levi Montalcini, Rita, 1022; career, 618 619; 

concurrent positions, 618; education, 618; 

neuroembryologist, 618; Nobel Prize in 

Physiology or Medicine (1986), 999; photo, 

619; professional associations, 619; profes 

sional experience, 618 
Levy, David, 861 
Lewis, Edward B., 84 
Lewis, Margaret Adaline Reed: career, 620; 

concurrent positions, 620; education, 620; 

embryologist, 620; professional 

associations, 620 621; professional 

experience, 620; in vitro mammalian tissue 

cultures studying tumor growth, 177 
Lewis, Warren H., 620 
Libby, Leona Woods Marshall, 160; career, 



621 622; concurrent positions, 621; 

education, 621; photo, 622; physicist, 621; 

professional associations, 623; professional 

experience, 621 
Libby, Williard Frank, 621 
Life among the Cattle Owning Tonga: The 

Material Culture of a Zambian Tribe 

(Colson), 311 
Life magazine, 243, 589 
Life on the Line (Wattleton), 952 
Life oti the Screen: Identity in the Age of the 

Internet (Turkle), 928 
Life sciences, 83; nature of sex and gender, 13 
Life scientists: working outside 

of academia, 39 
Lifetime, 632 
The Life Work of Nobel Laureate Willard Frank 

Libby, 622 
Linares, Olga Frances: anthropologist, 623; 

career, 623 624; concurrent positions, 623; 

education, 623; professional associations, 

624; professional experience, 623 
Lindee, M. Susan, 710 
Linear Algebra and Its Applications journal, 

134,910 
Linnaeus, Carl, 174, 175; classes, 81, 82; 

orders, 81; zoological terminology, 82 
Lipmann, Fritz, 557 
Lippincott, Sarah Lee, 384; astronomer, 624; 

career, 624 625; concurrent positions, 624; 

education, 624; extrasolar planets, 

identifying, 75; professional associations, 

625; professional experience, 624 
Liskov, Barbara Huberman: career, 625 626; 

computer scientist, 100, 625; education, 625; 

professional associations, 626; professional 

experience, 625 
Living organisms or species: biological 

interactions and interdependency 

among, 116 
Lloyd, Rachel: American Chemical Society 

(ACS), 97 
Lochman Balk, Christina: career, 627; concur 

rent positions, 627; education, 626; geologist 

and paleontologist, 626; invertebrate fossils, 

129; meteor was responsible for 



1-40 | Index 



disappearance of dinosaurs research, 129; 

professional associations, 627; professional 

experience, 626 627 
Loeblich, Al, 628 
Loeblich, Helen Nina Tappan: career, 628; 

education, 627; living and fossil plant 

microorganisms research, 158; 

paleontologist, 627; professional 

associations, 628; professional 

experience, 628 
Long, Irene (Duhart): aerospace physician, 

629; career, 629; Chief Medical Officer, 64; 

education, 629; NASA, 64; Occupational 

Medicine and Environmental Health Office, 

140; professional associations, 629; 

professional experience, 629; space flight 

and weightlessness effect on blood oxygen, 

85; women astronauts, 85 
Long, Perrin H., 241 
Long, Sharon (Rugel): career, 630 631; 

concurrent positions, 630; developmental 

biologist and molecular biologist, 630; 

education, 630; legumes, genetics of, 124; 

photo, 630; professional associations, 631; 

professional experience, 630 
Look magazine, 243 
Loops, Floyd D., 503 
Lopater, Sanford, 962 
Los Alamos laboratory, 37 
Los Angeles Times, 394, 664, 910 
Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence 

(Agassiz), 83 
Love, Sex, and Intimacy: Their Psychology, 

Biology, and History (Hatfield), 495 
Love, Susan M.: breast cancer research, 46, 87, 

140; career, 632 633; concurrent positions, 

632; education, 631; photo, 632; 

professional associations, 633 634; 

professional experience, 63 1 632; 

surgeon, 631 
Love and Sex (Hatfield), 495 
Love Canal, 118 
Lovelace, William Randolph, 62 
Lovelock, James, 656 
Lubchenco, Jane, 1024; career, 635; concurrent 

positions, 634; conservation biologist and 



marine ecologist, 634; education, 

634; National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration, 39, 120, 142, 152; 

ocean ecosystems and global climate 

change, 120; photo, 142; professional 

associations, 635; professional 

experience, 634 
Lubic, Ruth (Watson): career, 636 637; care 

of families with children, founding 

organization to, 140; concurrent positions, 

636; education, 636; nurse midwife, 636; 

professional associations, 637 638; profes 

sional experience, 636 
Lubkin, Gloria (Becker): career, 638; 

education, 638; physicist, 638; 

Physics Today, 162; professional 

associations, 638 639; professional 

experience, 638 
Luchins, Abraham, 640 
Luchins, Edith Hirsch: concurrent positions, 

639; education, 639; gender role learning 

and teaching mathematics, 134; 

mathematical psychology, 134; 

mathematician, 639; professional 

associations, 640; professional 

experience, 639 
Lucid, Shannon (Wells), 356; astronaut and 

biochemist, 640; astronautics, 63; career, 

641 642; education, 640; photo, 641; 

professional associations, 642; professional 

experience, 640 641 
"Lucy" (Australopithecus afarensis), 72 
The Lung and Its Disorders in the Newborn 

Infant (Avery), 203 
Lung cancer, 633 
Lunn, James, 405 
Lurie, Nancy (Oestreich): anthropologist, 642; 

career, 643; concurrent positions, 642; 

education, 642; professional associations, 

643; professional experience, 642 
Lyell, Charles, 127, 128 
Lyell, Mary Elizabeth Horner: conchology 

(study of shells), 128 
Lynx Point People: The Dynamics of a 

Northern Athapaskan Band (Helm), 504 
Lyon, Mary, 283 



Index | 1-41 



Maccoby, Eleanor (Emmons), 793; career, 
645 646; education, 645; gender differences 
in developmental and social psychology of 
young children, 168; professional 
associations, 646; professional experience, 
645; psychologist, 645; work on intelligence 
tests, 168 

Macklin, Madge Thurlow: career, 646 647; 
education, 646; geneticist, 646; hereditary 
diseases and family history, 124; 
professional associations, 647; professional 
experience, 646 

MacLeod, Florence, 648 

MacLeod, Grace: calcium, iron, and other 
supplements, 149; career, 647 648; 
concurrent positions, 647; education, 647; 
energy metabolism of children, 149; 
nutritionist, 647; professional associations, 
648; professional experience, 647 

MacNeish, Richard, 504 

Macro molecules Regulating Growth and 
Development (Hay), 498 

Macy Hoobler, Icie Gertrude: American Insti 
tute of Nutrition, 149; career, 649; chemist, 
648; education, 648; nutrition, 80; nutrition 
or malnutrition and birth defects, 149; preg 
nant and lactating women, nutritional needs 
of, 149; professional associations, 650; pro 
fessional experience, 648 649; Recom 
mended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for 
vitamins, 80 

Madison, Dolley, 41 

MAES. See Society of Mexican American 
Engineers and Scientists 

Magic Trees of the Mind: How to Nurture Your 
Child's Intelligence (Diamond), 346 

The Maize Handbook, 945 

The Makah Indians: A Study of an Indian Tribe 
in Modern American Society (Colson), 311 

Makemson, Maud Worcester: astronomer, 650; 
career, 650 65 1 ; concurrent positions, 650; 
education, 650; professional associations, 
65 1 ; professional experience, 650 

Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological 
Development with Models, Metaphors, and 
Machines (Keller), 569 



Male: female brains and, 147; veterinarians, 66 

Male and Female (Mead), 680 

Male employees work/life balance, 48 

Male hormones (androgens), 10 

Maling, Harriet Mylander: career, 652; 

education, 651; pharmacologist, 651; 

professional associations, 652; professional 

experience, 652 
Maltby, Margaret Eliza: Barnard College, 159; 

career, 653; education, 652; physicist, 652; 

professional associations, 653; professional 

experience, 652; radioactivity and physics of 

sound research, 159 
Mama Poc: Story of the Extinction of a Species 

(LaBastille), 595 
Management in the Home (Gilbreth), 431 
Manhattan Project, 6; women, 160 161 
Manual of Grasses of the United States 

(Chase), 288 
A Manual of Home Making, 816, 935 
The Man Who Found the Missing Link: Eugene 

Dubois ' Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin 

Right (Shipman), 859 
The Mapmakers (Wilford), 914 
Marcet, Jane, 96 
Marcus, Joyce, 71; archaeologist, 654; career, 

654 655; education, 654; professional 

associations, 655; professional 

experience, 654 
Margulis, Lynn (Alexander): career, 656 657; 

cell biologist and microbiologist, 655; 

concurrent positions, 656; education, 655; 

"Gaia hypothesis," 116; photo, 656; 

professional associations, 657; professional 

experience, 655 646 
Margulis, Thomas, 657 
Maria Mitchell Association, 74 
Marine Biological Laboratory, 154 
Marine biology, 151 
Marine botany, 91 
Marine Game Fishes of the World 

(La Monte), 600 
Marine life, 151 
Mark, Jesse Jarue, 93 
Marlatt, Abby Lillian: career, 657 658; 

education, 657; educator and home 



1-42 | Index 



economist, 657; professional associations, 

658; professional experience, 657; 

University of Wisconsin, 30, 150 
Marrack, Philippa Charlotte: career, 659; 

concurrent positions, 659; education, 658; 

immunologist, 658; professional 

associations, 659; professional 

experience, 658 
Marriage, 50 
Marriage and Family among the Plateau Tonga 

of Northern Rhodesia (Colson), 311 
Marshall, Gloria, 900 
Martin, Emily: anthropologist, 660; biological 

process, inaccurate description of, 82; 

career, 660 661; education, 660; 

professional associations, 661; professional 

experience, 660 
Martin, Robert W., 867 
Marvin, Thomas Crockett, 661 
Marvin, Ursula Bailey: career, 661 662; 

concurrent positions, 661; education, 661; 

lunar rocks and meteorites, 130; planetary 

geologist, 661; professional association, 

662; professional experience, 661 
Marx, Karl, 109 
Marxist feminists, 70 
Maryland Academy of Sciences, 92 
Mary Swartz Rose: Pioneer in Nutrition 

(Eagles), 817 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 

2, 64, 97, 106, 113, 118, 143, 147, 159, 161; 

first female faculty member, 30 
Mastectomies, 633 

Masters, Betty Sue Siler: ASBMB president, 79 
Masters William H., 553; photo, 553 
Maternal leave policies, 50 
Mathematical Methods in Linguistics, 740 
Mathematical Models of Conception 

and Birth, 687 
Mathematical psychology, 134 
Mathematicians, 54 
Mathematics: See also Computer Sciences and 

Information Technology; Engineering; 

Physics; gender bias, 132; natural sciences, 

applied sciences and social sciences, 

foundation of, 131; perception as male 



field, 21; women in higher level, under 
representation of, 131; women with 
doctorates, 133 

Mathias, Mildred Esther: American Society of 
Plant Taxonomists, 93 94; botanist, 663; 
BSA, 93; career, 663 664; concurrent 
positions, 663; education, 663; photo, 94; 
professional associations, 664; professional 
experience, 663 

Math test scores: sex based difference, 18 

Matson, Pamela Anne: career, 664 665; 
education, 664; environmental scientist and 
soil scientist, 664; land use changes role on 
global warming, 120; photo, 665; profes 
sional associations, 665 666; professional 
experience, 664 

A Matter of Choices: Memoirs of a Female 
Physicist (Ajzenberg Selove), 187 

Matthews, Alva T: career, 666 667; concurrent 
positions, 666; education, 666; engineer, 
666; professional associations, 667; 
professional experience, 666 

Mattuck, Arthur, 236 

Maury, Antonia Caetana de Paiva Pereira, 74, 
280, 750; astronomer, 667; career, 667 668; 
education, 667; professional associations, 
668; professional experience, 667 

Maury, Carlotta loaquina: career, 668 669; 
education, 668; paleontologist, 156, 668; 
professional associations, 669; professional 
experience, 668 

Max Planck Institute of Developmental 
Biology, 84 

Mayer, Joseph, 436, 437 

McCammon, Helen Mary (Choman): career, 
669 670; education, 669; geologist and 
marine biologist, 669; living invertebrates 
and marine ecology research, 154; 
professional associations, 670; professional 
experience, 669 

McClintock, Barbara, 389, 472, 568, 831, 944, 
1022; career, 671; education, 670; genes 
moving between chromosomes, 87 88, 123; 
geneticist, 670; maize (corn) genetics, 85, 
123; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 
(1983), 44, 80, 95, 123, 999; (photo), 45; 



Index | 1-43 



professional associations, 671; professional 
experience, 670 

McCormick, Katharine Dexter: reliable 
contraception, 88; suffragist, 88 

McCoy, Elizabeth Florence: career, 672 673; 
education, 672; professional associations, 
673; professional experience, 672; soil 
microbiologist, 672 

McCracken, Isabel (Mary): beetles and birds 
genetics (Sierra Nevada mountains), 176; 
career, 673 674; education, 673; 
entomologist, 673; photo, 674; professional 
associations, 674; professional 
experience, 673 

McFadden, Lucy Ann Adams: asteroids and 
dead comets, 75; astronomer and geophysi 
cist, 674; career, 675; concurrent positions, 
675; education, 674; NASA's planetary 
geology program, 130; photo, 77; profes 
sional associations, 675; professional 
experience, 674 

McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch, 691 

McMath, Robert, 772 

McNutt, Marcia Kemper, 1024; Cabinet level 
Secretary of the Interior, 39; career, 
676 677; concurrent positions, 676; educa 
tion, 676; marine geophysicist, 676; Monte 
rey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 
44 45, 130, 152, 153 654; plate tectonics, 
130, 154; professional associations, 677; 
professional experience, 676; sea floor, 
mapped and measured depth of, 154; USGS, 
39, 152, 154 

McSherry, Diana Hartridge: career, 678; 
computer scientist and medical physicist, 
677; concurrent positions, 678; education, 
677; professional associations, 678; 
professional experience, 677 678 

McWhinnie, Mary Alice: biologist, 678; career, 
679; education, 678; krill in ocean food 
chain, studies of, 154; professional 
associations, 679; professional experience, 
679; wintering in Antarctica, 154 

Mead, Carver, 315 

Mead, Margaret, 16, 219, 225 226, 1019; 
anthropologist, 680; career, 680 681; 



concurrent positions, 680; education, 680; 
Franz Boas and, 69; nonacademic audience, 
70; photo, 680; professional associations, 
681; professional experience, 680; sexuality 
and sex roles, 70; Society for Applied 
Anthropology, 69 

Measurement of Intelligence by Drawings 
(Goodenough), 446 

Meat Marketing and Technology magazine, 455 

The Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity 
(Morgan), 283 

Medical colleges, 3 4 

Medical ethics, 17 

Medical genetics, 124 

Medical science: nature of sex and gender, 13 

Medical studies: exclusion of female patients 
from, 88 89 

Medicine, 135 141. See also Biochemistry; 
Biology; Biomedical Sciences; Genetics; 
Neuroscience; Psychiatry and Psychology; 
academia, 137 138; female representation 
in, 137 138; women and, 5; as women's 
work, 91 92 

Medicine, Beatrice A.: anthropologist, 681; 
career, 682 683; concurrent positions, 682; 
education, 681; Native American women 
and families, 57, 70; professional 
associations, 683; professional 
experience, 682 

Meinel, Aden, 684 

Meinel, Marjorie Pettit: astronomer, 683; 
career, 684; concurrent positions, 684; 
education, 683; professional associations, 
684 685; professional experience, 684 

Meitner, Lise, xxiii; nuclear fission, 162 

Men: brains of, 10 11; depression, 170; 
employed computers, 101; GI Bill for 
education for returning veterans, 5; IQ 
scores, 11; math scores on SAT, 10; mental 
health disorders, 170; needing jobs more 
than women, 41; object oriented, 10; teach 
ing, 29 30; undergraduate college 
degrees, 18 

Men and Women of the Corporation 
(Kanter), 561 

Mendel, Gregor, 121 



1-44 | Index 



Mendel in the Kitchen: A Scientist's View of 
Genetically Modified Foods (Brown and 
Fedoroff ), 390 

Mendenhall, Dorothy Reed: career, 685 686; 
concurrent positions, 685; education, 685; 
Hodgkin's disease, 136; infant health and 
mortality, 136 137; medical researchers, 
136; professional associations, 686; 
professional experience, 685; research 
physician, 685 

Menge, Bruce A., 635 

Menken, Jane Ava (Golubitsky): career, 687; 
concurrent positions, 687; demographer and 
sociologist, 173, 686; education, 686; photo, 
173; professional associations, 687 688; 
professional experience, 686 687 

Mental health and relationship advice, 46 

Mental Testing: Its History, Principles, and 
Applications (Goodenough), 446 

The Mental Traits of Sex (Woolley), 167, 981 

Mentoring Physical Oceanography Women to 
Increase Retention (MPOWIR), 153 

Mentors, 43 

Merian, Maria Sibylla, 175 

Merriam, Clinton Hart, 212 

Mesoamerican Writing Systems: Propaganda, 
Myth, and History in Four Ancient 
Civilizations (Marcus), 654 

Metallurgy and chemistry, 95 

Metaphysics, 163 

Metcalf, Betsy, 41 

Meteorology, 141 144. See also Astronomy 
and Astrophysics; Environmental Sciences 
and Ecology; Geology; Geography; Ocean 
Sciences; hydrology, 142; National Weather 
Service meteorologists, 142; professional 
associations, 144; related to climatology, 
141 142 

Methods in Enzymology, 557 

Mexican Americans, 56 

Michael, Helen Abbott, 96 

Michel, Helen (Vaughn): career, 688 689; 
education, 688; meteor responsible for 
disappearance of dinosaurs, 129; nuclear 
chemist, 688; professional experience, 688 

Micheli Tzanakou, Evangelia: biomedical 



engineer, biophysicist, and neurophysicist, 
689; career, 689 690; computer applications 
in brain research, 103; concurrent positions, 
689; education, 689; professional associa 
tions, 690; professional experience, 689 

Microbial Pathogenesis, 469 

Microelectronics Technology: Polymers for 
Advanced Imaging and Packaging, 791 

Mid Atlantic Ridge, 130, 153 

Middle Childhood: Practical Tips to Develop 
Greater Peace and Cooperation for Parents 
of Children Ages 7 12 (Brothers), 260 261 

Midwest land grant colleges, 3 

The Midwife's Tale, 637 

Mielczarek, Eugenie Vorburger: biophysicist 
and solid state physicist, 690; career, 691; 
concurrent positions, 690; education, 690; 
metal and biological compounds research, 
162; professional associations, 691; profes 
sional experience, 690 

Milbank, Anne Isabella (Lady Byron), 101 

Mildred Mathias: A Lifetime of Memories 
video, 664 

Miller, Elizabeth Cavert: biochemist, 691; 
career, 692; concurrent positions, 692; 
education, 691; professional associations, 
692; professional experience, 691 

Miller, James A., 692 

Millikan, Robert A., 649 

Mind, Life, and Universe: Conversations with 
Great Scientists of Our Time (Margulis), 657 

Mind and Nature (Bateson), 220 

Minerals: isolation of, 148; Recommended 
Daily Allowances (RDA), 148, 149 

Minneapolis Tribune, 254 25 

Minnesota Algae (Tilden), 918 

Minorities in Aging (Jackson), 543 

Minority women: African Americans, 54 56; 
Asian Americans, 54 56; gay and lesbian 
issues, 57 58; geosciences, 129; Hispanics, 
56; Latinos, 54; Mexican Americans, 56; 
national professional organizations, 58; 
Native Americans, 54, 57; sciences, 54 58; 
scientists, 57 

Mintz, Beatrice: biologist, 84, 692; career, 693; 
education, 692; mammalian genetics and 



Index | 1-45 



skin cancer, 84; photo, 693; professional 

associations, 693 694; professional 

experience, 693 
Mirror, Mirror: The Importance of Looks in 

Everyday Life (Hatfield), 495 
Misfortunes as Blessings in Disguise: The Story 

of My Life (Hoffleit), 513 
Missile Envy (Caldicott), 277 
MIT. See Massachusetts Institute of 

Technology 
Mitchell, Helen Swift: career, 694 695; 

concurrent positions, 694; education, 694; 

nutritionist, 694; professional associations, 

695; professional experience, 694; 

Recommended Daily Allowances 

(RDA), 149 
Mitchell, Joan L.: career, 695 696; concurrent 

positions, 695; education, 695; JPEG image 

compression format, 44; physicist, 695; 

professional associations, 696; professional 

experience, 695 
Mitchell, Maria, xix, 92, 374, 513, 772; 

American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 

76; American Association for the 

Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2, 76; 

Association for the Advancement of 

Women, xix, 76; discovering comet, 74, 76; 

first American female astronomer, 76; first 

professional female scientist, 74; Nantucket 

Atheneum, 76; training young women, 76; 

U.S. Coast Survey, 76; Vassar College, 2, 74; 

Vassar College observatory, 76 
Mitchell, Mildred Bessie: career, 697 698; 

clinical psychologist, 696; education, 696; 

professional associations, 698; professional 

experience, 696 697 
Modern Algebra, Second Course (Bates), 218 
Modern Urine Chemistry, 408 
Molecular biologists, 83 84 
Molecular Biology of the Cell journal, 852 
The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age 

(Nelkin and Anker), 710 
Molecules, 97 
Molecules of Emotion: Why You Feel the Way 

You Feel (Pert), 759 
Monosson, Emily, 51 



Montagnier, Luc, 138 

Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, 86 

Montalcini, Rita Levi: Nobel Prize in 

Physiology or Medicine (1986), 146; rapid 
cell growth leading to cancer, 88 

Monte Albdn (Marcus), 654 

Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 
44, 130, 152 154 

Moore, Emmeline: American Fisheries Society, 
118; aquatic biologist, 698; career, 698 699; 
education, 698; professional associations, 
699; professional experience, 698; water 
pollution on freshwater fish, 118 

Moore, Ernest Carroll, 448 

Moore, R. L., 825 

Morawetz, Cathleen (Synge): applied 
mathematician, 699; career, 699 701; 
Courant Institute of Mathematical Science at 
New York University, 134; education, 699; 
photo, 700; professional associations, 701; 
professional experience, 699 

More Outbound Journeys in Pennsylvania 
(Bonta), 244 

Morgan, Agnes Fay: biochemist and 

nutritionist, 701; career, 702; concurrent 
positions, 701; education, 701; professional 
associations, 702; professional experience, 
701; University of California, 
Berkeley, 149 150 

Morgan, Ann Haven: career, 703; ecologist and 
zoologist, 702; education, 702; freshwater 
animals and insects, biology and ecology of, 
175; professional associations, 703; 
professional experience, 702 

Morgan, Thomas Hunt, 122, 283 

The Morning Star Rises (Makemson), 65 1 

Morrill Act of 1862, 25, 66 

Morris, Ann: husband wife teams, 71 

Moss, Cynthia Jane, 767, 768; African elephant 
expert, 119, 177; career, 704; concurrent 
positions, 703; education, 703; professional 
associations, 704; professional experience, 
703; wildlife biologist, 703; world trade in 
ivory, 177 

Mossbauer, Rudolph, 506 

Mother Care/Other Care (Scarr), 838 



1-46 | Index 



Mother Daughter Wisdom: Understanding the 

Crucial Link between Mothers, Daughters, 

and Health (Northrup), 720 
Motherhood, the Elephant in the Laboratory 

(Monosson), 51 
Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants 

and Natural Selection (Hrdy), 528 
Mothers on Trial: The Battle for Children and 

Custody (Chesler), 291 
The Mountain Gorilla: Ecology and Behavior 

(Schaller), 403 
Mountain Wolf Woman, Sister of Crashing 

Thunder (Lurie), 643 
Mount Holyoke, 3, 25, 97, 174; female science 

faculty, 30; undergraduate science 

programs, 4 
Movement and Mental Imagery, 948 
MPOWIR. See Mentoring Physical 

Oceanography Women to Increase Retention 
Ms. Foundation, 19 
Ms. magazine, 928 
Muir, John, 117 
Mulliken, Robert, 621 
Munson, Paul, 557 
Murray, Sandra Ann: career, 705; cell biologist 

and molecular biologist, 705; concurrent 

positions, 705; education, 705; professional 

associations, 706; professional 

experience, 705 
Mushrooms and Other Common Fungi 

(Patterson and Charles), 747 
Mycologia journal, 287 
My Double Life: Memoirs of a Naturalist 

(Hamerstrom), 478 
"Mystery House" game, 975 976 
My Summer in a Mormon Village (Bailey), 212 
Myths of Gender: Biological Theories about 

Women and Men (Fausto Sterling), 388 

Nantucket Atheneum, 76 

Napadensky, Hyla Sarane (Siegel): career, 707; 

combustion engineer, 707; education, 707; 

professional associations, 707; professional 

experience, 707 
Naples Zoological Station, 123 
NAS. See National Academy of Science 



NASA. See National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration 

National Academy of Engineering, xx, 
181, 182 

National Academy of Sciences (NAS), xx, 
xxiii, 1, 2; Animal, Nutritional, and 
Microbial Sciences section, 65; Behavioral 
and Social Sciences section, 68 69; 
Biomedical Sciences section, 86; Economics 
section, 109; "Engineer Girl," 115; lesser 
position of social sciences in, 69 

National Academy of Sciences Web site, 22 

National Aeronautics and Space Act, 63 

National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration (NASA), xix, 61, 62, 64, 
114, 126, 129, 130, 133; astronaut program, 
149; creation, 63; satellite observatories 
design, 75; scientists, 140; women engineers 
and scientists, 63 64; women in astronaut 
program, 37 

National Aerospace and Space Act, 62 

National Alliance for Hispanic Health, 140 

National Assessment of Educational 
Progress, 22 

National Black Women's Health Project, 139 

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, 633 

National Bureau of Standards, 161 

National Council for Marine Resources and 
Engineering Development, 152 

National Geographic, 221 222, 296, 596, 768 

National Institute of Standards and 
Technology, 134 

National Institutes of Health (NIH), 15, 35, 90, 
122, 140; female subjects in government 
funded medical and pharmacological 
research proposals guidelines, 90, 139; 
sources of research funding, 33; women in 
national clinical trials, 89 

National Museum of Ethiopia, 72 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration (NOAA), xix, 120, 142, 152 

National Organization of Gay and Lesbian 
Scientists and Technical Professionals 
(NOGLSTP), 58 

National professional organizations 
for minority women, 58 



Index | 1-47 



National Research Council, 161, 182 

National Science Board, 180 

National Science Foundation (NSF), 21, 180; 

family responsibilities and unemployment 

(2006), 50; government jobs for women 

scientists, 35; minority women (2006), 54; 

sources of research funding, 33; Women in 

Engineering Proactive Network, 115 
National Society for Black Engineers, 58 
National Weather Association, 144 
National Weather Bureau: employing women 

during and after World War II, 143 
National Weather Service, 142 
National Women's Health Network, 139 
Native Americans, 54, 57 
Native American Women: A Perspective, 683 
Natural environments, 116 
Natural Fertility, 687 
Natural Health magazine, 721 
Natural History and Evolution 

of Paper Wasps, 960 
Natural Obsessions: The Search for the 

Oncogene (Angier), 195 
Natural sciences: mathematics and, 131; 

politics and religion, 17 
Nature: role in physical as well as spiritual 

well being, 117 
Nature Guides for Schools, Volunteer 

Organizations, Camps, and Clubs 

(Cady), 276 
Nature journal, 107, 162,497 
Navajo Grammar, 789 

Navajo Religion: A Study of Symbolism, 789 
Naval Ordnance Laboratory, 161 
Naval Research Laboratory, 37, 107 
Naval Stores Handbook (Gerry), 428 
Navrotsky, Alexandra A. S.: career, 708 709; 

composition and thermal chemistry of Earth, 

130; concurrent positions, 708; education, 

708; geochemist and geophysicist, 708; 

professional associations, 709; professional 

experience, 708 
Navy: training women as pilots, 63 
The Neandertals: Changing the Image 

of Mankind, 858 
Neighborhood Governance (Shalala), 850 



Nelkin, Dorothy (Wolfers): career, 709 710; 
education, 709; New York University, 173; 
professional associations, 710; professional 
experience, 709; sociologist, 709 

NerdGirls Web site, 21 

Nerve cells (neurons), 145 

Nerve growth factor (NGF), 146 

Nervous system: study of, 144 

Nesheim, Robert, 279 

Network of Indian Psychologists 
newsletter, 202 

Neufeld, Elizabeth (Fondal): ASBMB, 79; 
biochemist and geneticist, 710; career, 
711 712; concurrent positions, 711; 
education, 710; human genetic diseases, 
124; photo, 711; professional associations, 
712; professional experience, 711 

Neuroscience, 144 147. See also 
Biochemistry; Biology; Biomedical 
Sciences; Genetics; Medicine; Psychiatry 
and Psychology; higher degrees in, 145; 
precursors to, 145; subdisciplines, 144 

New, Maria (Landolo): career, 713 714; 
concurrent positions, 713; education, 712; 
pediatric endocrinology, 87; pediatrician, 
712; professional associations, 714; 
professional experience, 712 713 

The New Butterick Cook Book, 816 

"The Newcastle Circle" salon, 3 

New England Female Medical College, 136 

The New Explorers (Land), 755 

A New Look at Love (Hatfield), 495 

New Mexico Journal of Science, 858 

New Mind, New Body: Bio Feedback, New 
Directions for the Mind (Brown), 262 

Newnham College, 107 

The New Nuclear Danger (Caldicott), 277 

Newsweek magazine, 781 

Newton, Isaac, 159 

New World, New Rules: The Changing Role 
of the American Corporation, 968 

New York Botanical Society, 92 

New York Infirmary for Women and Children, 
4, 136 

New York Times, 195, 254 255, 672 

New York University, 173 



1-48 | Index 



NGF. See Nerve growth factor 

Nice, L. Blaine, 715 

Nice, Margaret Morse: bird behaviors, 
175 176; career, 714 715; concurrent 
positions, 714; education, 714; ornithologist, 
714; photo, 176; professional associations, 
715; professional experience, 714 

Nichols, Roberta J.: career, 716; education, 
715; energy efficient vehicles, 119; environ 
mental engineer, 715; professional associa 
tions, 716; professional experience, 716 

Nickerson, Dorothy: agricultural and 

horticultural color graded standards, 160; 
career, 717; education, 717; physicist, 717; 
professional associations, 717; professional 
experience, 717; U.S. Department of Agri 
culture, 160 

Nielsen, Jerri Lin (Cahill), 633; career, 

718 719; education, 717; photo, 718; 
physician, 717; professional experience, 717 

Nielsen, Nancy: president of AMA, 137 
Nightingale, Dorothy Virginia: career, 

719 720; concurrent positions, 719; 
education, 719; organic chemist, 719; 
professional associations, 720; professional 
experience, 719 

Nightingale, Florence: American Statistical 

Association, 136; Royal Statistical Society, 

136; Women's Medical College, 136 
Nightline, 291 

NIH. See National Institutes of Health 
Ninety Nine Gnats, Nits, and Nibblers 

(Berenbaum), 233 
Ninety Nine More Maggots, Mites, and 

Munchers (Berenbaum), 233 
Nixon, Richard, 786 
NOAA. See National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration 
Nobel Prizes, xxiii; women winners of, xx 
Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, 

Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries 

(Anker Johnson), 192 
Noether, Amalie (Emmy): mathematician, 133 
NOGLSTP. See National Organization of Gay 

and Lesbian Scientists and Technical 

Professionals 



No Immediate Danger: Prognosis for a 

Radioactive Earth (Bertell), 238 
Nomads of Western Tibet: The Survival of a 

Way of Life (Beall and Goldstein), 222 
Nonprofit research centers and government 

money, 42 
Nonprofit research jobs for women scientists, 

40 46 
Nonscientist (or nonprofessional) men, 5 1 
Normal Lives for the Disabled (Gilbreth), 432 
North American Game Fishes 

(La Monte), 600 
Northrup, Christiane: African American 

women's health, 46; career, 720 721; 

education, 720; photo, 87; physician, 720; 

professional associations, 721; professional 

experience, 720; traditional and alternative 

medicines, 87 
Notes on Nursing (Nightingale), 136 
Novello, Antonia (Coello), 368, 1022; career, 

722 723; concurrent positions, 722; 

education, 721; pediatrician, 721; photo, 

722; professional associations, 723; 

professional experience, 721 722; U.S. 

Surgeon General, 38, 56, 140 
No Woman Tenderfoot: Florence Merriam 

Bailey, Pioneer Naturalist (Kofalk), 212 
NRC. See Nuclear Regulatory Commission 
Nuclear arms race, 37 
Nuclear Madness: What You Can Do 

(Caldicott), 277 
Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer 

(Caldicott), 277 
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), 161; 

Committee on Gender Differences in 

Careers of Science, Engineering, and 

Mathematics Faculty, 182 
Nuclear sciences, 160; chemistry, 95 
Nursing as serious profession, 136 
Nusslein Volhard, Christiane: Albert Lasker 

Medical Research Award, 84; British Royal 

Society, 84; Director at Max Planck Institute 

of Developmental Biology, 84; genetics, 84; 

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 

(1995), 84, 999; U.S. National Academy 

of Science, 84 



Index | 1-49 



Nutrition, 42, 147 150. See also Animal 

Sciences; Biochemistry; Biomedical 

Sciences; Botany; Chemistry; Economics; 

biology, 148; chemistry, 148; ethnocentrism 

of early reformers, 150 
Nutrition and Chemical Growth in Childhood 

(Macy Hoobler), 649 
Nutrition and Health (Calloway), 279 
Nutrition and Physical Fitness (Calloway), 279 
Nutrition in Health and Disease (Mitchell), 695 
Nutrition in Nursing (Mitchell), 695 
Nutrition Reviews, 279 
Nutrition Work with Children (Roberts), 807 
Nyberg, Karen LuJean, 37; astronaut, 64; 

deep sea training, 64; Environmental 

Control systems Engineer, 64 

Obama, Barack, xix, 152, 635, 677, 837, 930; 

photo, 412, 820, 899 
Oberlin College, 3, 25 
Observational astronomy, 73 
Observations of Variable Stars Made at Vassar 

College, 414 
Ocampo, Adriana C: career, 725 726; 

education, 725; National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration (NASA), 129; 

planetary geologist, 725; professional 

associations, 726; professional 

experience, 725 
Oceanography, 151; doctorates, 152 153; 

history of, 152; interdisciplinary nature, 152 
Oceans, 151 152 
Ocean sciences, 151 154. See also Biology; 

Botany; Environmental Sciences and 

Ecology; Geography; Geology; 

Meteorology; Paleontology; Zoology; 

marine biology, 151; oceanography, 151; 

professional organizations, 152, 153 
Ochoa, Ellen: astronaut, electrical engineer, 

726; career, 727; education, 726; first 

Hispanic astronaut, 56; photo, 727; 

professional associations, 728; professional 

experience, 726 
Of Caves and Shell Mounds, 950 
Office of Research on Women's Health, 90 
Off Ramps and On Ramps: Keeping Talented 



Women on the Road to Success 

(Hewlett), 508 
Ogilvie, Ida Helen, 129; career, 728 729; 

concurrent positions, 728; education, 728; 

geologist, 728; professional associations, 

729; professional experience, 728 
Ohama Plains Indians, 69 
Oil acquisition and production, 119 
Old, Black, and Alive movie, 543 
Old boys' networks and corporations, 43 
The Old Fashioned Woman (Parsons), 738 
Olsen, Ken, 224 

On Death and Dying (Kubler Ross), 589 
One World or None: A Report to the Public on 

the Full Meaning of the Atomic Bomb, 953 
On the Beach (Shute), 276 
On the Instincts and Habits of Solitary Wasps 

(Peckham and Peckham), 754 
On the Origin of Species (Darwin), 174 
Operation SMART (Science, Math and 

Relevant Technology) Web site, 21 
Oppenheimer, J. Robert, 762 
Oprah magazine, 291, 812 
Oprah Winfrey Show, 632, 720 
Optical Society of America, 162 
Optics Letters, 420 
Oral contraceptives, 88, 89 
Orangutan Foundation International, 165 
Orangutans, 165 
Orders, 81 

Organic Chemistry, 406 
The Origin of Concepts (Carey), 281 
The Origin of Eukaryotic Cells (Margulis), 646 
The Origins of Agriculture: An International 

Perspective, 950 
Orloff, Jack, 938 
Ornithology, 175 176 
Osborn, Mary Jane (Merten): ASBMB 

president, 79; biochemist and molecular 

biologist, 729; career, 729; education, 729; 

photo, 730; professional associations, 730; 

professional experience, 729 
Ostrom, Elinor, 1024; career, 731 732; 

concurrent positions, 731; economist, 731; 

education, 731; Nobel Prize in Economic 

Sciences (2009), 110, 999; photo, 731; 



1-50 | Index 



professional associations, 732 733; 

professional experience, 731 
Ostrom, Vincent, 732 
Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and 

Culture Shape the Way We Parent 

(Small), 876 
Our Bodies, Ourselves, 139, 140 
Our Bodies, Ourselves: Menopause, 140 
Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy 

and Birth, 140 
Ourselves Growing Older, 140 
Outbound Journeys in Pennsylvania 

(Bonta), 244 
Outlawing discrimination, 6 
Outlines of Experimental Physiology 

(Hyde), 536 
Owens, Joan Murrell: career, 733 734; 

education, 733; marine geologist, 154, 733; 

paleontologist, 733; professional 

experience, 733 
Oxford Encyclopedia of Evolution, 497 

Pacific Discovery journal, 367 

Palade, George, 385, 761 

The Paleobiology of Plant Protists 

(Loeblich), 628 
Paleobotany, 91, 155 
Paleoceanography, 155 
Paleoclimatology, 155 
Paleoecology, 120, 155 
Paleogeography, 155 
Paleontological Society, 129, 157, 158 
Paleontology, 155 158. See also Anthropology 

and Archaeology; Biology; Botany; 

Geology; Zoology; British women, 156; 

professional organizations, 158; stereotypes, 

156; subfields, 155 
Palmer, Katherine Hilton Van Winkle: 

American Malacological Union, 157; 

career, 735; concurrent positions, 735; 

education, 735; mollusk fossils, 157; 

paleontologist, 735; professional 

associations, 735 736; professional 

experience, 735 
ParcPlace Systems, 45 
Pardi, Leo, 960 



Pardue, Mary Lou: career, 736 737; cell 
biologist and geneticist, 736; concurrent 
positions, 736; education, 736; insect 
genetics, 124; professional associations, 
737; professional experience, 736 

Parents, attitudes about science, 21 22 

Parrish, Judith, 130 

Parsons, Elsie Worthington Clews, 789, 1019; 
American Anthropological Association, 69; 
anthropologist and sociologist, 737; career, 
738; education, 737; Franz Boas, 69; Journal 
of American Folklore, 69; professional asso 
ciations, 738; professional experience, 738 

Partee, Barbara (Hall): anthropologist and 
linguist, 739; career, 739 740; concurrent 
positions, 739; education, 739; linguistics, 
169; photo, 739; professional associations, 
740; professional experience, 739 

Part time scientists and family 
responsibilities, 50 51 

Pasadena Recommendations for Gender 
Equality in Astronomy, 77 

Pasteur Institute, 138 

Patapsco Female Institute, 92 

Patch, Edith Marion: aphids, life histories and 
ecology of migratory, 176; career, 741; 
education, 740; Entomological Society of 
America, 176; entomologist, 740; 
professional associations, 741; professional 
experience, 740 

Pate Cornell, Elisabeth Lucienne (Marie): 
career, 742 743; concurrent positions, 742; 
education, 741 742; industrial engineer, 
741; photo, 742; professional associations, 
743; professional experience, 742 

Patent Act of 1790, 41 

Pathogenic Microorganisms Including Bacteria 
and Protozoa: A Practical Manual for 
Students, Physicians, and Health 
Officers, 975 

Pathways to Work: Employment among Black 
Teenage Females (Wallace), 946 

Patriarchy: capitalism and, 109; questioning 
naturalness of, 70 

Patriarchy: Notes of an Expert Witness 
(Chesler), 291 



Index | 1-51 



Patrick, Jennie R.: career, 744; chemical 
engineer, 743; concurrent positions, 744; 
education, 743; professional associations, 
745; professional experience, 744 

Patrick, Ruth: algae in freshwater ecosystems, 
95; botanist and limnologist, 745; career, 
745 746; concurrent positions, 745; 
education, 745; professional associations, 
746; professional experience, 745 

Patsy Mink Equal Opportunity in Education 
Act (2002), 31 

Patterns of Culture (Benedict), 225 

Patterns of Living in Puerto Rican 
Families, 807 808 

Patterson, Flora Wambaugh, 287; Bureau of 
Plant Industry, 36; career, 747; education, 
747; plant pathologist, 747; professional 
association, 747; professional experience, 
747; USDA's Division of Vegetable 
Pathology, 93 

Pauling, Linus, 435 

Payne, Nellie Maria de Cottrell: agricultural 
chemist and entomologist, 748; career, 
748 749; concurrent positions, 748; 
education, 748; professional associations, 
749; professional experience, 748 

Payne Gaposchkin, Cecelia Helena, 426; 
astronomer, 749; career, 749 750; educa 
tion, 749; Harvard Observatory, 30; photo, 
29; professional associations, 750; profes 
sional experience, 749 

Payton, Carolyn (Robertson), 1021; career, 
750; counseling and social work, 169; 
education, 750; Peace Corps, 169; 
professional associations, 750; professional 
experience, 750; psychologist, 750 

Peace Corps, 169 

Peace Symbols, 207 

Pearce, Louise: career, 752 753; concurrent 
positions, 752; education, 752; pathologist, 
752; professional associations, 753; 
professional experience, 752 

Peckham, Elizabeth Gifford, 176; 
arachnologist and entomologist, 753; 
career, 753 754; education, 753; 
professional associations, 754; 



professional experience, 753; social lives 

of wasps, 177 
Peckham, George Williams, 753 
Peden, Irene (Carswell), 113; career, 755; 

education, 754; electrical engineer and radio 

scientist, 754; photo, 755; professional 

associations, 755 756; professional 

experience, 754 
Pediatric Medicine (Avery), 203 
Peebles, Florence, 472; career, 756 757; 

education, 756; embryology of chicks, 177; 

plants and animals tissue regeneration 

research, 177; professional associations, 

757; professional experience, 756; 

zoologist, 756 
Peking Natural History Bulletin, 245 
Pennington, Mary Engle: career, 757 758; 

chemist and food scientist, 757; education, 

757; food research laboratory, 36; 

poultry and egg production guidelines, 148; 

professional associations, 758; 

professional experience, 757; 

USDA, 148 
Pennsylvania Game News, 244 
The People of the Denendeh: Ethnohistory 

of the Indians of Canada 's Northwest 

Territories, 504 
Perceiving the Affordances: A Portrait of Two 

Psychologists (Gibson), 430 
Perception and Psychophysics, 216 
Perils Amidst the Promise: The Ecological Risk 

of Transgenic Plants in a Global Market, 

802 803 
The Permeability of Living Cells (Brooks and 

Brooks), 257 
Personality and Government (Thompson), 916 
Perspectives in Computer Science, 556 
Pert, Candace Dorinda (Bebe): brain chemicals 

and emotions, connection between, 146; 

brain's opiate receptors, 80, 145; career, 759; 

concurrent positions, 758; education, 758; 

endorphins, 146; neurophysiologist and 

pharmacologist, 758; photo, 146; 

professional associations, 759; professional 

experience, 758; Women in Neuroscience 

(WIN), 145 



1-52 | Index 



Petermann, Mary Locke: animal ribosomes, 80; 

biochemist, 760; career, 760 761; 

concurrent positions, 760; education, 760; 

photo, 761; professional associations, 761; 

professional experience, 760 
Petrology, 127 
Pettit, Edison, 684 
Pettit, Hanna Steele, 684 
Pfafflin, Sheila, 252 
Pharmaceuticals, 43 
Pharmacology: See Biochemistry; Biomedical 

Sciences; Botany; Chemistry; Medicine; 

chemistry and, 95 
Phelps, Almira Hart Lincoln: American 

Association for the Advancement of 

Science, 92; botanist, 92; Maryland 

Academy of Sciences, 92; Patapsco Female 

Institute, 92 
Philadelphia College of Pharmacology, 96 
Phillips, Melba Newell: career, 762; concurrent 

positions, 762; education, 761; physicist, 

761; professional associations, 762 763; 

professional experience, 761 762 
Philosophical Letters: or, Modest Reflections 

upon some Opinions in Natural Philosophy, 

Philosophical and Physical Opinions 

(Cavendish), 3 
Philosophy, 145 
Phrenology, 145 
The Physical and Chemical Properties of 

Ribosomes (Petermann), 761 
Physical Foundations of Radiology, 778 
Physical geography, 125 
Physical sciences: knowledge and inquiry, 13; 

politics and religion, 17 
Physical scientists: working outside of 

academia, 39 
Physicians for Social Responsibility, 119 
Physics, 158. See also Astronomy and 

Astrophysics; Chemistry; Crystallography; 

Engineering; Mathematics; chemistry, 95; 

crystallography, 105; history, 159; important 

discoveries of twentieth century, 97; 

representation of women, 162 163 
Physics and Chemistry of Earth Materials 

(Navrotsky), 709 



Physics Today, 162, 638 
Physiologists, 64 

Physiology, 86 87; chemistry and, 95 
Phytopathology, 91 
Phytopathology journal, 491 
Pickering, Edward C, 605, 668 
Pickett, Mary: industrial robots, 103 
Pioneer Award of the Electronic Frontier 

Foundation, 5 
Pioneers in Home Economics, 816 
Pitelka, Dorothy Riggs: cancer causing viruses, 

177; career, 763 764; concurrent positions, 

763; education, 763; professional associa 

tions, 764; professional experience, 763; 

zoologist, 763 
Pittman, Margaret: bacteriologist, 764; career, 

765; concurrent positions, 764; education, 

764; professional experience, 764; 

professional organizations, 765 
Planck, Max, 162 
Planetary geologists, 127 
Planet Earth: The Latest Weapon of War, 

A Critical Study into the Military arid the 

Environment (Bertell), 238 
Plant Anatomy (Esau), 377 
Plant biology, 90 
The Plant Doctor: The How, Why and When of 

Disease and Insect Control in Your 

Garden, 958 
Plant Doctoring Is Fun (Westcott), 959 
Plant genetics, 91, 124 
Plant Physiology journal, 880 
Plants: biochemical studies on, 91; breeding 

and hybridization, 121; scientific study of, 

90 95 
Plants, Viruses, and Insects (Esau), 377 
Plant sciences, 90. See also Botany 
Plate tectonics, 128, 130 
Playboy magazine, 963 
The Pleasure Bond: A New Look at Sexuality 

(Masters and Johnson), 553 
PMS. See Premenstrual syndrome 
Point to the Stars, 625 
Polish Countrysides (Boyd), 247 
Political Economy of Policy Reform in 

Developing Countries (Krueger), 588 



Index | 1-53 



The Politics of Women 's Biology 

(Hubbard), 531 
Polymers in Microlithography : Materials and 

Processes, 791 
Pool, Judith Graham: blood coagulation, 86; 

career, 766; concurrent positions, 766; 

education, 765; hemophilia, 87; 

physiologist, 765; professional associations, 

766; professional experience, 766 
Poole, Gray, 813 
Poole, Joyce, 704; African elephant 

endangered, 119; career, 767 768; 

concurrent positions, 767; education, 767; 

professional associations, 768; professional 

experience, 767; wildlife biologist, 767; 

world trade in ivory, 177 
Poole, Lynn, 813 
Pope, Kevin O., 726 
Popenoe, Dorothy Hughes, 71 
Popular Flora of Denver, Colorado 

(Eastwood), 361 
Popular Science magazine, 626 
The Population Bomb (Ehrlich and Ehrlich), 

118,367 
The Population Explosion (Ehrlich and 

Ehrlich), 367 
Portraits in the Wild: Behaviour Studies of East 

African Mammals (Moss), 704 
Positive Plus: The Practical Plan to Liking 

Yourself Better (Brothers), 260 
Postdoctoral fellowship or position, 28 
Postpartum depression, 170 
Potter, Helen Beatrix: conservationist, 

mycologist, and naturalist, 500 
Pour El, Marian Boykan: career, 768 769; 

computer scientist and mathematician, 

768; concurrent positions, 768; education, 

768; professional associations, 769; 

professional experience, 768; theoretical 

physics, 134 
Power, Prayer, and Production: The Jola 

of Casamance, Senegal, 623 
Practical Spectroscopy Series, Vols. 1 3, 

Infrared and Raman, 458 
Prairie Years (Hollingworth), 516 
Pregnancy, 50 



Pregnancy Sickness: Using Your Body 's 

Natural Defenses to Protect Your Baby 

to Be (Profet), 774 
The Prehistory of Languages (Haas), 476 
Premenstrual syndrome (PMS), 170 
Prenatal genetic testing, 122 
Pressing Needs in School Sciences, 978 
Pressman, Ada Irene: career, 769 770; control 

systems engineer, 769; education, 769; 

professional associations, 770; professional 

experience, 769 
Prichard, Diana (Garcia): career, 770 771; 

chemical physicist, 770; education, 770; 

photographic materials, 161; professional 

associations, 771; professional 

experience, 770 
Primakoff, Henry, 303 
Primate research centers, 164 
Primatologists, 177; gender roles and biases 

among humans, 165 
Primatology, 164 166. See also Anthropology 

and Archaeology; Biology; Biomedical 

Sciences; Genetics; Paleontology; 

Psychiatry and Psychology; Zoology; 

relationship to other fields, 165; women 

doctorates, 164 165 
Prince, Helen Walter Dodson: astronomer, 771; 

career, 772; concurrent positions, 772; 

education, 771; professional associations, 

772 773; professional experience, 771 772 
Princeton University, Institute for Advanced 

Study, 133 
Principles of Geology (Lyell), 127 128 
Principles of Physical Science, 762 
Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem 

Ecology, 665 
Prinz, Dianne Kasnic: career, 773; 

concurrent positions, 773; education, 773; 

professional associations, 773 774; 

professional experience, 773; solar 

physicist, 773 
Private employment and discrimination, 43 
Private industry: advancement, 43; women 

managers, 43; women scientists, 29, 42 
Probability, Statistics, and Truth (Von Mises 

and Geiringer), 425 



1-54 | Index 



Problems in Fresh Water Fisheries 

(Moore), 698 
Proceedings of the Entomological 

Society, 283 
Proceedings of the National Academy 

of Sciences journal, 576 
Proceedings of the Washington Academy 

of Sciences, 393 
Professional organizations, 1 2 
Profet, Margie: biomedical researcher and 

evolutionary biologist, 774; career, 774 775; 

education, 774; professional associations, 

775; professional experience, 774 
Profitable Promises: Essays on Women, 

Science, and Health (Hubbard), 531 
Progesterone Function: Molecular and 

Biochemical Aspects, 779 
Programming Languages: History and 

Fundamentals, 834 
Properties, Types and Meaning, 740 
Property Tax and the Voters (Shalala), 850 
Prophecy and Power among the Dogrib 

Indians, 504 
Prosser, Inez, 523; African Americans in 

psychology, 169 
Protecting Your Baby to Be: Preventing Birth 

Defects in the First Trimester (Profet), 774 
Protein Chemistry journal, 797 
Provosts, 29 
Psychiatry, 167 774. See also Anthropology 

and Archaeology; Neuroscience; Sociology 
Psychoanalytic Politics (Turkle), 928 
Psychological Norms in Men and Women 

thesis, 981 
Psychological Review, 282 
Psychological Science, 282 
Psychologists, 64, 167; academia, 168 
Psychology, 145, 167 774. See also 

Anthropology and Archaeology; 

Neuroscience; Sociology; women, 42, 169 
"Psychology Constructs the Female," 957 
The Psychology of Beauty (Howes), 525 
Psychology of Emotion (Hatfield), 495 
The Psychology of Management (Gilbreth), 431 
The Psychology of Sex Differences (Maccoby 

and Jacklin), 645 



The Psychology of Subnormal Children 

(Hollingworth), 516 
The Psychology of the Adolescent 

(Hollingworth), 516 
Psychosomatic Wellness: Healing Your Body 

Mind CD (Pert), 759 
Public colleges and women, 66 
Pueblo Indian Religion (Parsons), 738 
The Pueblo Indians of New Mexico, Their 

Land, Economy, and Civil Organization 

(Aberle), 179 
Purdue University, 86 
Pure mathematics, 131 
Purine and Pyrimidine Nucleotide 

Metabolism, 557 

Quantification in Natural Languages (Partee 

and Bach), 740 
Quarterly Review of Biology, 775 
Quasi stellar Objects (Burbidge and 

Burbidge), 273 
The $64,000 Question, 260 
Quimby, Edith Hinkley: career, 777 778; 

education, 777; professional associations, 

778; professional experience, 777; 

radiological physicist, 777 
Quimby, Shirley L., 777 

Race: scientific understandings of, 14; working 

mothers and, 48 
Race: Science and Politics (Benedict), 225 
Race, Social Class, and Individual Differences 

in IQ, 838 
Racial bias, 17 

Radcliffe College, 3, 74, 83, 173 
Radiation, 97, 633 

Radiation Protection Dosimetry, 342 
Radical mastectomies, 633 
Radioactive Isotopes in Clinical 

Practice, 778 
Radium Institute, 98 
Rakic, Pasko, 441 
Ramakrishnan, Venkatraman, 106 
Ramaley, Judith (Aitken), 877; career, 

779 780; education, 779; endocrinologist 

and reproductive biologist, 779; professional 



Index | 1-55 



associations, 780; professional 

experience, 779 
Ramey, Estelle Rosemary White: career, 

780 781; concurrent positions, 780; 

education, 780; endocrinologist, 780; 

professional associations, 781; professional 

experience, 780 
Ramwell, Peter, 853 
Rand, Gertrude (Marie): career, 782; education, 

782; professional associations, 782 783; 

professional experience, 782; 

psychologist, 782 
Ranney, Helen Margaret: career, 783 784; 

concurrent positions, 783; education, 783; 

genetics and blood diseases, 87; 

hematologist, 783; professional associations, 

784; professional experience, 783; sickle 

cell anemia, 57, 87 
Ratner, Sarah: argininosuccinic acid, test for 

identifying, 80; biochemist, 784; concurrent 

positions, 785; education, 784; professional 

associations, 785; professional experience, 

784; protein metabolism and amino acids, 80 
Ray, Dixy Lee: career, 786; concurrent 

positions, 786; education, 785; 

environmental policy, 154; governor of state 

of Washington, 154; photo, 786; 

professional associations, 787; professional 

experience, 785 786; zoologist, 785 
RDA. See Recommended Daily Allowances 
R&D magazine, 879 
RDS. See Respiratory distress syndrome 
Reagan, Ronald, 805, 903 
The Realities of Affirmative Action, 794 
The Real Number System (Bates), 218 
Recent Advances in Knowledge of the 

Phytoseiida, 527 
Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA), 

148, 149 
Recommended Hazard Classification 

Procedures for In Process Propellant and 

Explosive Material, 707 
A Reconstruction of the Basic Jemez Pattern 

of Social Organization (Ellis), 373 
Recursive Methods in Economic 

Dynamics, 895 



Redactron, 45 

Redcloud, Mitchell, Sr., 643 

Rees, Mina Spiegel, 1021; career, 788; 

education, 787; jet rocket propulsion and 

high speed computers, 132; mathematician, 

787; photo, 788; professional associations, 

788 789; professional experience, 787 788 
Reflections of Eden: My Years with the 

Orangutans of Borneo (Galdikas), 165 
Reflections of Interdependence: Issues for 

Economic Theory and U.S. Policy, 968 
Reflections on Gender and Science 

(Keller), 569 
"Reflections on the Present Condition of the 

Female Sex, with Suggestions for Its 

Improvement" (Wakefield), 109 
Regeneration (Hay), 498 
Rehmann, Elsa, 806 
Reichard, Gladys Amanda: anthropologist, 

789; career, 789; concurrent positions, 789; 

education, 789; professional associations, 

790; professional experience, 789 
Reichmanis, Elsa: career, 790 791; computer 

scientist and organic chemist, 790; 

education, 790; materials used in integrated 

circuits, 102; photo, 102; professional 

associations, 791; professional 

experience, 790 
Reid, Constance, 809 
Reinisch, June Machover: career, 792 793; 

concurrent positions, 792; education, 791; 

photo, 792; professional associations, 793; 

professional experience, 791; 

psychologist, 791 
Rekindling Romance for Dummies 

(Westheimer), 962 
Religious Chastity (Parsons), 738 
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 161 
Research and Development magazine, 791 
Reskin, Barbara R: career, 794 795; 

concurrent positions, 794; education, 793; 

professional associations, 795; professional 

experience, 794; sexual and racial inequality 

in workplace, 173; sociologist, 793 
Resnik, Judith A., 642; astronaut and electrical 

engineer, 795; career, 796; education, 795; 



1-56 | Index 



photo, 796; professional experience, 

795 796 
Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), 203 
Restoring Fiscal Sanity: How to Balance the 

Budget, 805 
Reunion Under Mount Saint Elias, 336 
Revel, Jean Paul, 498 

Rewarding Careers for Women in Physics, 978 
Rhythmic Phenomena in Plants, 904 
Ribonucleic acid (RNA), 121 
Richards, Ellen Swallow, 30, 890, 891; 

environmental science, 118; industrial 

pollution research, 117 118; Massachusetts 

Institute of Technology (MIT), 2, 97 
Richards, Ian, 769 
Richardson, David, 797 
Richardson, Jane S.: biochemist, 797; career, 

797 798; concurrent positions, 797; 

education, 797; mapping proteins, 107; 

professional associations, 798; professional 

experience, 797 
Ride, Sally Kristen, 299, 642, 796, 844, 

902 903, 1022; astronaut and physicist, 63, 

798; career, 798 800; education, 798; 

professional associations, 800; professional 

experience, 798 
Riley, Jack, 801 
Riley, Matilda (White): aging and employment 

opportunities for elderly, 173; career, 801; 

concurrent positions, 801; education, 800; 

professional associations, 801 802; 

professional experience, 800 801; 

sociologist, 800 
Rissler, Jane Francina: bioengineering plants, 

124; botanist, 802; career, 802 803; 

education, 802; genetically modified food 

plants, ecological impact of, 95; professional 

associations, 803; professional 

experience, 802 
Rivlin, Alice (Mitchell), 1022; career, 

804 805; concurrent positions, 804; 
Congressional Banking Office, 110; 
Congressional Budget Office, 38; economist, 
803; education, 803; Federal Reserve Board, 
110; photo, 804; professional associations, 

805 806; professional experience, 803 804 



RNA. See Ribonucleic acid 

"Roberta Williams Anthology" games, 976 

Roberts, Edith Adelaide: botanist, 806; career, 

806 807; education, 806; professional 

associations, 807; professional 

experience, 806 
Roberts, Lydia Jane, 1020; career, 807 808; 

education, 807; nutritionist, 807; 

professional associations, 808; professional 

experience, 807; Recommended Daily 

Allowances (RDA), 149; University of 

Chicago, 30 
Robinson, Julia Bowman, 1022; career, 

808 809; education, 808; "Hilbert's Tenth 

Problem," 134; mathematician, 808; 

professional associations, 809; professional 

experience, 808 
Robinson, Raphael M., 808 
Rockefeller Foundation, 133 
Rocket science, 61 
Roemer, Elizabeth: astronomer, 809; career, 

810; comets, counting and tracking, 75; 

education, 809; professional associations, 

810; professional experience, 809 
Role models for nonacademic employment, 43 
Rolf, Ida P.: biochemist, 811; career, 811 812; 

education, 811; physical therapist, 811; 

professional experience, 811 
Rolfing: The Integration of Human Structure 

(Rolf), 812 
Roman, Nancy Grace: astronomer, 812; career, 

813; concurrent positions, 813; education, 

812; National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration (NASA), 75; professional 

associations, 813; professional 

experience, 812 
Romanowicz, Barbara: career, 814; education, 

814; geophysicist and seismologist, 814; 

professional associations, 814; professional 

experience, 814 
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, Jr., 241 
Root nodule Bacteria and Leguminous 

Plants, 673 
Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the Frontiers 

of Management, 562 
Rose, Anton, 817 



Index | 1-57 



Rose, Flora, 935; career, 815 816; Cornell 

University, 30, 150; education, 815; home 

economist, 815; photo, 815; professional 

associations, 816; professional 

experience, 815 
Rose, Mary Davies Swartz, 647; career, 816; 

chemist, 816; education, 816; nutritionist, 

816; photo, 148; professional associations, 

816; professional experience, 816; vitamins 

and minerals research, 148 
Rose, Richard, 817 
Rosenblatt, Joan (Raup): career, 818; 

education, 818; mathematical statistician, 

818; National Institute of Standards and 

Technology, 134; professional associations, 

818 819; professional experience, 818 
Roster of Women in the Geosciences 

Professions, 662 
Rothberg, Lewis, 317 
Rowley, Janet Davison: career, 819 820; 

cytogeneticist and geneticist, 819; 

education, 819; photo, 820; professional 

associations, 820 821; professional 

experience, 819 
Roy, Delia Martin: career, 821 822; education, 

821; geochemist and materials scientist, 821; 

materials, properties of, 130; professional 

associations, 822; professional 

experience, 821 
Roy, Rustum, 822 
Royal Astronomical Society and Institute 

of Physics, 74 
Royal Society of London, 3, 97 
Royal Statistical Society, 136 
Rubin, Vera (Cooper): astronomer and 

cosmologist, 822; career, 823 824; 

concurrent positions, 823; dark matter, 75; 

education, 822; galaxies, formation of, 75; 

photo, 823; professional associations, 824; 

professional experience, 822 823 
Rudin, Mary Ellen (Estill): abstract geometry, 

134; career, 825 826; education, 825; 

mathematician, 825; professional 

associations, 826; professional 

experience, 825 
Rudin, Walter, 825 



Rudnick, Dorothea: career, 826 827; 

concurrent positions, 826; education, 826; 

embryologist, 826; professional 

associations, 827; professional 

experience, 826 
Rush College, 137 
Russell, Elizabeth Shull: career, 827 828; 

concurrent positions, 827; education, 827; 

geneticist, 827; hereditary diseases, genetic 

studies on, 124; professional associations, 

828; professional experience, 827 
Russell, William L., 828 
Ruth Benedict: A Humanist in Anthropology 

(Mead), 226 
Ryan, Francis, 831 
Ryle, Martin: Nobel Prize in Physics, 74 

Sabin, Florence Rena, 949, 1019; American 
Association of Anatomists, 136; anatomist, 
829; career, 829 830; education, 829; John 
Hopkins School of Medicine, 136; Johns 
Hopkins School of Medicine, 2; National 
Academy of Sciences, 2; photo, 2; 
professional associations, 830; professional 
experience, 829 

Sabloff, Jeremy A., 655 

Sacks, Oliver, 455 

Sacred Bond: The Legacy of Baby 
M (Chesler), 291 

Safe Handling of Radioactive Isotopes 
in Medical Practice, 778 

Sagan, Carl, 657 

Sagan, Dorion, 657 

Sager, Ruth: career, 831; education, 830; 
geneticist, 830; mammalian genetics, 87, 
124; photo, 831; professional associations, 
831 832; professional experience, 830; 
tumor suppression in genes, 87 

Saif, Linda: animal scientist and 

microbiologist, 832; animal viruses, 67, 85; 
career, 832 833; education, 832; 
professional associations, 833; professional 
experience, 832 

Saif, Mo, 832 

jSalud! A Latina 's Guide to Total Health 
Body, Mind, and Spirit (Delgado), 338 



1-58 | Index 



The Samaritans ' Dilemma: The Political 
Economy of Development Aid, 732 

Sammet, Jean Elaine: Association of 

Computing Machinery (ACM), 103; career, 
834; computer programming languages, 
103; computer scientist, 833; concurrent 
positions, 833; education, 833; International 
Business Machines (IBM), 103; professional 
associations, 834; professional 
experience, 833 

Sanger, Margaret, 89, 951; American Birth 
Control League, 88 

Sarachik, Myriam Paula (Morgenstein), 824; 
career, 835; concurrent positions, 835; 
education, 835; physicist, 835; professional 
associations, 835 836; professional 
experience, 835 

SARS. See Severe Acute Respiratory 
Syndrome 

Savitz, Maxine (Lazarus): career, 837; 

education, 836; electrochemist and organic 
chemist, 836; heating and lighting buildings, 
batteries, and fuel efficient cars, standards 
for, 119; professional experience, 836 837; 
professional organizations, 837 

Scarlet Fever (Dick), 349 

Scarr, Sondra (Wood): career, 838 839; 
concurrent positions, 838; education, 837; 
professional associations, 839; professional 
experience, 838; psychologist, 837 

Schaller, George, 403 

Scharrer, Berta Vogel: career, 839 840; 
concurrent positions, 839; education, 839; 
neuroendocrinologist, 177, 839; professional 
associations, 840; professional experience, 
839 

Scharrer, Ernst, 839 

Schiebinger, Londa, 13, 14, 82 

Schrader, Franz, 532 

Schwan, Judith A.: career, 841; chemical 
engineer, 840; education, 840; professional 
association, 841; professional experience, 840 

Schwarzer, Theresa Flynn: career, 842; 
education, 841; geologist and petroleum 
geologist, 841; professional associations, 
842; professional experience, 841 842 



Science, technology, engineering, and 

mathematics (STEM), xx, 131; encouraging 
girls to change life with, 21; women 
majoring in, xxi 

Science and Animals: Addressing 
Contemporary Issues, A1A 

Science and technology education 
and girls, 18 23 

Science curricula: Cold War and, 19; 
high school level, 19; weeding out 
candidates, 26 27 

Science degrees: business, industry, or 
nonprofit organizations, 41; increases in 
numbers of women, xx; self employment, 41 

Science Digest, 797 

Science doctorates, 4 

Science education, 19 

Science for the Airplane Passenger, 979 

Science gene, finding, 8 12 

Science journal, 852, 880, 995 

Science magazine, 870 

Science mandate, 4 5 

Sciences: access to, xix xx; bachelor's degrees, 
25; college, 25 27; educational and 
professional opportunities, 8; female 
teachers of, 3; gendered assumptions, 14; 
girls and young women encouragement, 7; 
graduate school, 25 27; importance of, xix; 
language of, 16; leaky pipeline, xx xxi; 
male discipline, 21, 117; minority women, 8, 
54 58; negative socialization and 
discrimination, 9; Nobel Prizes, xx; 
objective data, 16; politics and religion, 
16 17; professional culture of, 14; sex based 
differences, 8 12, 18; sexism, 13; social and 
cultural assumptions, 82; social beliefs and 
goals, 16; social historical political context, 
16; status hierarchy of fields, 26; subjective 
interpretations, 16; surrogacy, 49; U.S. gov 
ernment commitment to, 2; value neutral, 17; 
women and, xix, xx, xxi; women's repre 
sentation in, xx xxi; work/life balance 
problem, 32 

Scientific American, 259, 293 

Scientific disciplines: aerospace science, 
61 65; animal sciences, 65 67; 



Index | 1-59 



anthropology, 68 72; archaeology, 68 72; 
astronautics, 61 65; astronomy, 73 77; 
astrophysics, 73 77; biochemistry, 77 80; 
biology, 81 85; biomedical sciences, 86 90; 
botany, 90 95; chemistry, 95 99; 
climatology, 100; computer sciences, 
100 104; crystallography, 105 108; earth 
sciences, 108; ecology, 116 120; 
economics, 108 111; engineering, 112 115; 
environmental sciences, 116 120; genetics, 
121 124; geography, 125 126; geology, 
127 130; home economics, 131, 147 150; 
information technology (IT), 100 104; 
listing of scientists in: aerospace and 
astronautics, 1001; animal sciences, 1001; 
anthropology and archaeology, 1002 1003; 
astronomy and astrophysics, 1002; 
biochemistry, 1003; biomedical sciences, 

1004 1005; botany (plant sciences), 

1005 1006; chemistry, 1006 1007; 
computer science and information 
technology, 1007; crystallography, 1007; 
economics, 1007 1008; engineering, 
1008 1009; environmental sciences and 
ecology, 1009; genetics, 1010; geography, 
1010; geology, 1010 1011; mathematics, 
1011 1012; medicine, 1012; meteorology, 
1013; miscellaneous, 1017; neurosciences, 
1013; nutrition and home economics, 1013; 
ocean sciences, 1014; paleontology, 1014; 
physics, 1014 1015; primatology, 1015; 
psychiatry and psychology, 1015 1016; 
zoology, 1016 1017; mathematics, 

131 134; medicine, 135 141; meteorology, 

141 144; neuroscience, 144 147; nutrition, 

147 150; ocean sciences, 151 154; 

paleontology, 155 158; pharmacology, 158; 

physics, 158; plant sciences, 164; 

primatology, 164 166; psychiatry, 167 174; 

psychology, 167 174; sociology, 171 173; 

women's presence and representation in, 

xxi; zoology, 174 178 
Scientific ethics and feminism, 16 17 
Scientific research: claims of objectivity, 17; 

funding for, 33; impact of feminism on, 

13 17 



Scientific revolution: eighteenth century, 8; 

enlightenment, 14; Margaret Lucas 

Cavendish contribution to, 3 
Scientist from the Santa Clara Pueblo, Agnes 

Naranjo Stroud Lee, 898 
Scientists: business and industry, 29; higher 

education, 96; industrial demand for, 40 41; 

professional identity, 1; women as assistants 

or spouses of, 96 
Scientists Who Work with Astronauts (Poole 

and Poole), 813 
Scott, Juanita (Simons): career, 843; 

developmental biologist, 842; education, 

842; professional associations, 843; 

professional experience, 842; water 

pollutants and toxins, 85 
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 152, 153 
The Sea Around Us (Carson), 154, 285 
Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans 

(Earle), 360 
Sea Legs: Tales of a Woman Oceanographer 

(Crane), 325 
Search for the Great Sharks, 296 
Seaside Studies in Natural History 

(Agassiz), 83 
The Second Self: Computers and the Human 

Spirit (Turkle), 928 
"Secret Communications System," 5 
The Secret of Culture (Thompson), 916 
The Secret Pleasures of Menopause 

(Northrup), 720 
Seddon, Margaret Rhea: astronaut and 

physician, 844; astronautics, 63; career, 

844 845; education, 844; professional 

associations, 845; professional 

experience, 844 
Sedlak, Bonnie loy: career, 846; cell biologist 

and developmental biologist, 845; education, 

845; professional associations, 846; 

professional experience, 845 
Seeing the Forest and the Trees: 

Human Environment Interactions 

in Forest Ecosystems, 732 
Sega, Ronald M., 357 
The Segregation and Recombination of 

Homologous Chromosomes as Found in Two 



1-60 | Index 



Genera of Acrididae (Orthoptera) 

(Carothers), 282 
Seibert, Florence Barbara: biochemist, 846; 

career, 846 847; concurrent positions, 846; 

education, 846; photo, 847; professional 

associations, 847 848; professional 

experience, 846; skin test for tuberculosis, 

79, 86; University of Pennsylvania, 79 
Seibert, Mabel, 847 
Seismology, 130 
Self employment, 45 46 
Semple, Ellen Churchill: Association of 

American Geographers, 125; career, 848; 

concurrent positions, 848; education, 848; 

geographer, 848; professional associations, 

848 849; professional experience, 848 
Sengers, Jan V., 614 
Sensory Processes, 216 
Sesame Street, 338 

"Seven Sisters" East Coast women's colleges, 3 
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome 

(SARS), 67, 85 
Sex, Age, and Work: The Changing 

Composition of the Labor Force 

(Kreps), 584 
Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive 

Societies (Mead), 680 
Sex based differences: in ability, 20; spatial 

abilities, 9 10 
Sex for Dummies (Westheimer), 962 
Sex hormones and spatial reasoning, 10 
Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the 

Construction of Sexuality 

(Fausto Sterling), 388 
Sex in the Marketplace: American Women 

at Work (Kreps), 584 
Sexism, 17 
Sex Segregation in the Workplace: Trends, 

Explanations, Remedies, 794 
Sexual Behavior in the Human Female 

(Kinsey), 792 
Sexual Behavior in the Human Male 

(Kinsey), 792 
Sexually Speaking show, 962 
Shalala, Donna Edna: career, 850; concurrent 

positions, 849; education, 849; photo, 849; 



political scientist, 849; professional 

associations, 850; professional 

experience, 849 
The Shape of Red: Insider/Outsider Reflections 

(Hubbard), 531 
Shapiro, Lucille (Cohen): career, 851 852; 

education, 851; molecular biologist, 851; 

photo, 851; professional associations, 852; 

professional experience, 85 1 
Shaw, Jane E.: career, 853; clinical 

pharmacologist and physiologist, 852; 

concurrent positions, 853; education, 852; 

motion sickness, transdermal drug patches 

for, 86; professional associations, 853 854; 

professional experience, 853 
Shaw, Mary M., 103; career, 854 855; 

computer scientist, 854; concurrent 

positions, 854; education, 854; photo, 854; 

professional associations, 855; professional 

experience, 854 
Sherman, Patsy O'Connell, 1020; career, 856; 

chemist, 856; education, 856; professional 

associations, 856 857; professional 

experience, 856 
Shields, Lora Magnum: biologist, 857; 

botanist, 57; career, 857; education, 857; 

professional associations, 858; professional 

experience, 857; uranium mining and 

nuclear testing, effect of, 57 
Shipman, Pat: ancient humans and physical 

environments, 158; career, 858 859; 

concurrent positions, 858; education, 858; 

paleoanthropologist, 858; professional 

associations, 859; professional 

experience, 858 
Shockley, Dolores Cooper: career, 860; 

concurrent positions, 860; education, 859; 

pharmacologist, 86, 859; professional 

associations, 860; professional 

experience, 859 
Shoemaker, Carolyn (Spellmann), 675; career, 

861 862; comets, counting and tracking, 75; 

concurrent positions, 861; education, 860; 

photo, 861; planetary astronomer, 860; 

professional associations, 862; professional 

experience, 861 



Index | 1-61 



Shoemaker, Gene, 675, 861 

Shotwell, Odette Louise: career, 862 863; 

concurrent positions, 862; education, 862; 

organic chemist, 862; professional 

associations, 863; professional 

experience, 862 
Shreeve, Jean'ne Marie: career, 863 864; 

education, 863; inorganic chemist, 863; 

photo, 864; professional associations, 

864 865; professional experience, 863 
Shull, Aaron Franklin, 828 

Shute, Nevil, 276 

Sierra Club, 117 

Sierra On Line, 45 

The Significance of the Dated Prehistory 

of Chetro Ketl, Chaco Canyon, 

N.M. (Ellis), 373 
Signs journal, 209 

Silent Spring (Carson), 118, 284, 285 
Simmonds, Sofia: biochemist, 865; career, 

865 866; education, 865; professional 
associations, 866; professional 
experience, 865 

Simmons, Gail: biologist, 51; College of 

New Jersey, 5 1 
Simon, Dorothy Martin: career, 866 867; 

education, 866; physical chemist, 866; 

professional associations, 867; professional 

experience, 866 
Simpson, Joanne Malkus (Gerould): 

American Meteorological Society, 143; 

career, 868; concurrent positions, 868; 

education, 867; forecaster for military in 

World War II, 143; meteorologist, 867; 

professional associations, 869; professional 

experience, 867 868; women in 

meteorology, 143 
Simpson, Robert, 868 
Simulation and Its Discontents, 928 
Singer, Maxine (Frank), 824; biochemist and 

geneticist, 869; career, 870; concurrent 

positions, 869; education, 869; genetic code, 

deciphering, 122; photo, 121; professional 

associations, 870 871; professional 

experience, 869; recombinant DNA 

standards, 80 



Sinkford, Jeanne Frances (Craig): career, 872; 

concurrent positions, 871; education, 871; 

physiologist, 871; professional associations, 

872 873; professional experience, 871 
Sitterly, Bancroft W., 873 
Sitterly, Charlotte Emma Moore: astronomer 

and astrophysicist, 873; career, 873 874; 

education, 873; professional associations, 

874; professional experience, 873 
Skinner, B.F, 646 
Sky & Telescope magazine, 513 
Slee, Margaret Higgins Sanger: American Birth 

Control League, 89; American birth control 

movement, 89; Comstock Law of 1873, vio 

lation of, 89 
Slye, Maud Caroline: cancer researcher, 87; 

career, 874 875; education, 874; 

pathologist, 874; photo, 875; professional 

associations, 875; professional 

experience, 874 
Small, Meredith F, 166; anthropologist and 

primatologist, 875; career, 875 876; 

education, 875; primates, mating and 

childrearing, 166; professional associations, 

876; professional experience, 875 
Smalltalk 80: The Interactive Programming 

Environment (Goldberg), 439 
Smalltalk 80: The Language and Its 

Implementation (Goldberg), 439 
SmartGirl Web site, 21 
Smith, Adam, 109 
Smith, Elske (Van Panhuys): astronomer and 

environmental scientist, 876; career, 877; 

concurrent positions, 877; education, 876; 

professional associations, 877; professional 

experience, 876 877; sun, areas on sun, 75 
Smith, Sam, 856 
Smith College, 3 4, 25, 93 
Smithsonian, 768 
Smithsonian Institution, 69 
Snyder, Solomon, 759 
The Social Consequences of Resettlement: The 

Impact of the Kariba Resettlement upon the 

Gwembe Tonga (Colson), 311 
Social Contexts of American Ethnology, 

1840 1984, 504 



1-62 | Index 



Social Development (Maccoby), 645 
Social Freedom (Parsons), 738 
Social Life on the Navajo Indians 

(Reichard), 789 
Social policies, 121 
Social Rule (Parsons), 738 
Social sciences: academic feminism, 13; 

mathematics and, 131 
Society for Advancement of Chicanos and 

Native Americans in Science, 58 
Society for American Archaeology, 71 
Society for Applied Anthropology, 69 
Society for Marine Mammology, 153 
Society for Plant Morphology 

and Physiology, 94 
Society for Sedimentary Geology, 158 
Society for Systematic Zoology, 174 
Society for the Psychology of Women, 170 
Society for Women's Health Research, 90 
Society of American Archaeology, 71 
Society of Automotive Engineers 

International, 115 
Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, 58 
Society of Lesbian and Gay 

Anthropologists, 70 
Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1 12 
Society of Mexican American Engineers and 

Scientists (MAES), 58 
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, 157, 158 
Society of Women Engineers (SWE), 113 
Society of Women Environmental 

Professionals, 120 
Sociologists, 172 

Sociologists for Women in Society, 172 
Sociology, 171 173. See also Anthropology 

and Archaeology; Economics; Geography; 

Psychology and Psychiatry; Women's 

and Gender Studies programs 

and departments, 172 
Soil Science Society of America Proceedings 

journal, 880 
Solar Flares, 877 
Solomon, Susan: atmospheric chemist, 878; 

career, 878 879; chlorofluorocarbons 

(CFC), 119; concurrent positions, 878; 

education, 878; photo, 879; professional 



associations, 879 880; professional 

experience, 878 
So Many Galaxies. . .So Little Time, 426 
Some Firsts in Astronomical Photography 

(Hoffleit), 513 
Somerville College, 97 
Sommer, Anna Louise: career, 880 881; 

education, 880; plant nutritionist, 880; 

professional associations, 881; 

professional experience, 880; soil, 

identified minerals in, 98 
Songs and Solaces (Slye), 875 
Sorbonne, 159 

Southern African Journal of Demography, 687 
Southworth, Effie: USDA, 93 
Space program: women's entrance into, 62 
Space race, 37, 61 
Space Technology magazine, 845 
Spaeth, Mary Louise: career, 881 882; 

education, 881; physicist, 881; professional 

experience, 881 
Spatial abilities, sex differences in, 9 10 
Spatial Vision, 452 
Special Talents and Defects 

(Hollingworth), 516 
Species preservation effects, 175 
Speech Errors as Linguistic Evidence 

(Fromkin), 410 
Spelke, Elizabeth, 11, 281, 563; career, 

882 883; education, 882; infants, language 

and knowledge, 147; neuroscience, 169; 

professional associations, 883; professional 

experience, 882; psychologist, 882 
Springfield Republican newspaper, 994 
Spurlock, Jeanne: career, 884; concurrent 

positions, 884; education, 883; professional 

associations, 884 885; professional 

experience, 884; psychiatrist, 883 
Stadtman, Earl, 886 
Stadtman, Thressa Campbell: biochemist, 885; 

career, 885 886; concurrent positions, 885; 

education, 885; professional associations, 

886; professional experience, 885 
Standards for Data Collection from Human 

Skeletal Remains (Buikstra), 268 
Stanford University, 123, 176, 177 



Index | 1-63 



Stanish, Charles, 654 

Stanley, Louise, 1019; career, 887; chemist and 

home economist, 886; education, 886; 

professional associations, 887; professional 

experience, 887; USDA, 149; USDA's 

Bureau of Home Economics, 36 
Stars in the Making (Payne Gaposchkin), 749 
Statistical Mechanics (Goeppert Mayer 

and Mayer), 437 
Statistics and women, 42 
STATUS newsletter, 77 
Stay at home fathers, 49 
Staying Strong and Healthy from 9 to 99 

(Healy), 503 
Stearns, Genevieve: biochemist, 887; career, 

888; education, 887; professional 

associations, 888; professional 

experience, 888 
Stein, Barry, 561 
Steitz, Joan (Argetsinger): biochemist and 

molecular biologist, 888; career, 889 890; 

concurrent positions, 889; education, 888; 

professional associations, 890; professional 

experience, 889 
Steitz, Thomas A., 106, 890 
STEM. See Sciences, technology, engineering, 

and mathematics 
Stem Cell, 412 
Stephen Hawking 's Universe: On the Dark Side 

TV show, 824 
Stepping Stones: The Reminiscences of a 

Woman Geologist in the Twentieth Century 

(Fowler Billings), 405 
Stern, Frances: concurrent positions, 

891 892; dietitian and social worker, 

890; education, 890; professional 

associations, 892; professional 

experience, 890 891; urban poor and 

immigrants, 148 
Stevens, Nettie Maria: chromosomes as 

paired structures, 123; insects and 

supernumerary chromosomes, 123; sex 

determination, 121, 123 
Stickel, Lucille Farrier: career, 892; education, 

892; pesticides and chemical residues in 

animal brain tissue, 176; professional 



associations, 892 893; professional 
experience, 892; zoologist, 892 

Stickel, William F, 892 

Stiebeling, Hazel Katherine: career, 893 894; 
education, 893; food chemist and nutritionist, 
893; government dietary guidelines, 149; 
professional associations, 894; professional 
experience, 893; Recommended Daily 
Allowances (RDA), 149; U.S. Department of 
Agriculture (USDA), 149 

Stokey, Nancy: career, 894 895; concurrent 
positions, 894; economist, 894; education, 
894; National Academy of Sciences (NAS), 
109; photo, 895; professional associations, 
895; professional experience, 894 

Stoll, Alice Mary: biophysicist, 896; career, 
896; concurrent positions, 896; education, 
896; physical effects of extreme heat and 
forces on body, 84; professional 
associations, 897; professional 
experience, 896 

Stone, Lucy, 137 

Stony Island: A Plea for its Conservation 
(Baber), 207 

Strang, May, 613 

Stratigraphy, 127, 157 

The Strength of Our Mothers: African and 
African American Women and Families, 901 

Streptococci in Relation to Man in Health and 
Disease (Williams), 975 

Stress and the Art of Bio feedback 
(Brown), 262 

Strictly for the Chickens (Hamerstrom), 478 

Stroud Lee, F Agnes Naranjo: career, 

897 898; chromosomes, birth defects, and 
radiation therapy, 85; education, 897; 
national research lab, 57; professional asso 
ciations, 898; professional experience, 897; 
radiation and human health, 57; radiation 
biologist, 897 

Structural geology, 127 

Structural Petrology (Knopf), 580 

Stubbe, Joanne: career, 898 899; chemist, 898; 
concurrent positions, 898; education, 898; 
photo, 899; professional associations, 
899 900; professional experience, 898 



1-64 | Index 



Studies in African Linguistics, 410 

Studies in the Life History of the Song Sparrow 

(Nice), 715 
Succeeding with Objects: Decision 

Frameworks for Project Management 

(Goldberg), 439 
The Successful Woman: How You Can Have a 

Career, a Husband, and a Family And Not 

Feel Guilty about It (Brothers), 260 
Sudarkasa, Niara: anthropologist, 900; career, 

900 901; concurrent positions, 900; 

education, 900; people of African descent, 

57, 70; professional associations, 901; 

professional experience, 900 
Sullivan, Kathryn D.: astronaut and geologist, 

63, 153, 901; career, 902 903; concurrent 

positions, 902; education, 901; NOAA, 153; 

photo, 902; professional associations, 903; 

professional experience, 901 902 
Sullivant Moss Society, 92 
Summers, Lawrence, 8 9, 20; childcare 

subsidies, 48; scientific research, lack of 

funding for, 33; scientific research and 

faculty positions, 47 
Supermind, the Ultimate Energy 

(Brown), 262 
Supersonic Flow and Shock Waves 

(Courant), 700 
Supplement to Handbook of Middle American 

Indians, 250 
Surgery, 633 
Surrogacy, 49 

"Survey of Earned Doctorates," xx xxi 
Swarthmore College, 3 
SWE. See Society of Women Engineers 
Sweeney, Beatrice Marcy (Eleanor): botanist, 

904; career, 904; education, 904; 

professional associations, 904 905; 

professional experience, 904 
Swimming Against the Tide: African American 

Girls and Science Education, 55 
Symbiosis in Cell Evolution 

(Margulis), 646 
Symbiotic Plant: A New Look at Evolution 

(Margulis), 657 
Synge, John, 700 



Szostak, Jack, 239, 466; research on 
telosomeres, 79 

"Take Our Daughters to Work Day," 19 
Taking Wing: Archaeopteryx and the Evolution 

of the Bird Flight (Shipman), 859 
Talbot, Mignon: career, 907 908; education, 

907; geologist, 907; professional 

association, 908; professional 

experience, 907 
The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Potter), 500 
Task Force on Women Faculty and Women in 

Science and Engineering, 33 
Taussig, Helen Brooke, 136, 1021; career, 

908 909; education, 908; endocrinologist, 

908; photo, 908; professional associations, 

909; professional experience, 908 
Taussky Todd, Olga: algebraic number theory 

and matrix theory, 134; career, 909 910; 

concurrent positions, 909; education, 909; 

mathematician, 909; professional associa 

tions, 910; professional experience, 909 
Taylor, Elizabeth, 587 
Taylor, Kathleen Christine: career, 911; 

catalytic converters, development of, 119; 

chemical engineer, 910; concurrent 

positions, 911; education, 910; 

professional association, 911; 

professional experience, 911 
Taylor, Lucy Hobbs, 872 
Taylor, Susan: ASBMB president, 79 
Teaching: men and women, 29 30 
Teaching Nutrition to Boys and Girls (Rose), 

149, 817 
Technology: importance of, xix; perception as 

male field, 21 
Teenage Sexuality, Pregnancy, and 

Childbearing, 687 
Temin, Howard, 529 

Ten Lectures on Wavelets (Daubechies), 331 
Tereshkova, Valentina, 300; first woman in 

space, 62 
Terman, Lewis, 446 
Tesoro, Giuliana (Cavaglieri): career, 912; 

concurrent positions, 912; education, 912; 

polymer chemist, 912; professional 



Index | 1-65 



associations, 912 913; professional 

experience, 912 
Tewa Tales (Parsons), 738 
Textbook of General Zoology (Curtis 

and Guthrie), 472 
Tharp, Marie: career, 913 914; education, 

913; geologist, 913; maps of ocean floor, 

153; professional associations, 914; 

professional experience, 913; 

underwater geology, 153 
"The Functions of Allergy: Immunological 

Defense against Toxins," 775 
Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan 

Project (Howes and Herzenberg), 506 
Theodor Boveri: Life and Work of a Great 

Biologist, 827 
Theories of Organic Chemistry (Hahn and 

Johnson), 477 
Theory and Application of Mathematics for 

Teachers (Granville), 457 
Theory of Program structures: Schemes, 

Semantics, Verification 

(Greibach), 465 
Theory of the Earth (Hutton), 127 
These Rights They Seek (Jackson), 544 
Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports from 

My Life with Autism (Grandin), 455 
The Third Planet: Exploring the Earth from 

Space, 800 
Thomas, Martha Jane (Bergin): analytical 

chemist and physical chemist, 914; career, 

914 915; concurrent positions, 914; 
education, 914; professional associations, 
915; professional experience, 914 

Thompson, Laura Maud: anthropologist, 915; 
career, 916; education, 915; professional 
associations, 916; professional experience, 

915 916 

Thoreau, Henry David, 117 

Thornton, Kathryn (Cordell): astronaut and 

physicist, 916; career, 917; education, 916; 

photo, 917; professional experience, 917 
Tilden, Josephine Elizabeth: algae, ocean 

ecosystem, and human health, 118; botanist, 

154, 918; Canadian research station, 93; 

career, 918 919; coastal and Pacific algae, 



93, 154; education, 918; professional 

associations, 919; professional 

experience, 918 
Tilghman, Shirley M., 1023; career, 920 921; 

concurrent positions, 920; education, 919; 

first university president, 32; molecular 

biologist, 919; photo, 920; professional 

associations, 921; professional experience, 

919 920 
Time magazine, 243, 271, 704, 772, 928 
Tinsley, Beatrice Muriel (Hill): astronomer, 

921; career, 921 922; education, 921; 

professional associations, 922; professional 

experience, 921 
Tinsley, Brian, 922 
Tiscano, William B., 321 
Title VII of 1964 Civil Rights Act, 31 
Today Show, 291,632, 720 
Todd, John "Jack," 910 
Tolbert, Margaret Ellen (Mayo): biochemist, 

922; career, 923 924; education, 922; 

professional associations, 924; professional 

experience, 923 
To My Sisters . . . A Gift for Life 

documentary, 486 
Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When 

Business Is Down (Hewlett), 508 
To Space and Back, 800 
To Tell the Truth, 269 
To the Heart of the Nile: Lady Florence Baker 

and the Exploration of Central Africa 

(Shipman), 859 
Toward a Science of Mankind 

(Thompson), 916 
Townes, Charles H., 420 
Townsend, Marjorie Rhodes: aerospace 

engineer and electronics engineer, 924; 

astronomical and meteorological satellites, 

64; career, 925; education, 924; professional 

associations, 925; professional experience, 

924 925 
Trade and Employment in Developing 

Countries, 588 
Traits, 121 
Transactions of the American Mathematical 

Society, 501 



1-66 | Index 



Transactions of the American Microscopical 

Society, 763 
Transactions on Programming Languages and 

Systems, 453 
Transforming India 's Economic, Financial and 

Fiscal Policies, 588 
Transfusion journal, 429 
Trashing the Planet (Ray and Guzzo), 786 
A Treatise on Domestic Economy 

(Beecher), 149 
Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, 628 
Tree Ring Analysis and Dating in the 

Mississippi Drainage (Ellis), 373 
Treisman, Anne: career, 926; concurrent 

positions, 926; education, 926; photo, 927; 

professional associations, 927; professional 

experience, 926; psychologist, 926 
Trends in Genetics journal, 852 
T Rex and the Crater of Doom 

(Alvarez), 574, 688, 726 
Troy Female Seminary (New York), 92 
Tufts University, 21, 97 
Turkle, Sherry: career, 928 929; computer 

shaping identities and behavior, 103, 173; 

concurrent positions, 928; education, 928; 

human relationship to computers, 169; 

professional associations, 929; professional 

experience, 928; psychologist and 

sociologist, 928 
Twentieth century conservation 

movement, 117 
20/20, 720 
The Two Sexes: Growing Up Apart, Coming 

Together (Maccoby), 646 
Tyson, Laura (D' Andrea): career, 930 931; 

concurrent positions, 930; dean of business 

schools, 110; economic advisor to 

presidents, 110; economist, 929; education, 

929; photo, 930; professional associations, 

93 1 ; professional experience, 930 

Uhlenbeck, Karen (Keskulla): career, 933 934; 
concurrent positions, 933; education, 933; 
mathematician, 933; professional 
associations, 934; professional experience, 
933; theoretical physics, 134 



Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher, 637 

An Ultraviolet Multiples Table, 873 

UMBI. See University of Maryland 

Biotechnology Institute 
Under Mount Saint Elias: The History and 

Culture of the Yakutat Tlingit 

(De Laguna), 336 
Understanding Computers (Hopper), 519 
Under the Sea Wind (Carson), 154, 285 
United Nations Commission on the Status 

of Women, 117 
United States: astronauts, 61; environmental 

studies and science, 117; farming and 

animal care, 67; food production, 66; 

geology, 129; medical schools, 135; 

National Aeronautics and Space 

Administration (NASA), 61, 62; primate 

research centers, 164; rural versus urban 

population, 66; science education, 19; 

scientific revolution of eighteenth century, 1 
Universities: feminist economic theory, 

110 111; first female presidents, 32; gender 

and economics, 110; nepotism rules, 50; 

professional museum development and 

management, 69 
University and college presidents, 29 
University of British Columbia, 21, 165 
University of California, 165 
University of California, Berkeley, 56, 80, 

150, 174 
University of Chicago, 25, 78, 125, 143, 145, 

149, 158, 174 
University of Cincinnati, 93, 145, 169, 176 
University of Erlangen, 133 
University of Gottingen, 133, 159 
University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute 

(UMBI), 154 
University of Michigan, 129 
University of Minnesota, 93 
University of Oxford, 97 
University of Pennsylvania, 67, 79 
University of Tubingen, 84 
University of Vienna, 162 
University of Wisconsin, 150 
University of Wurzburg, 123 
University of Zurich, 94 



Index | 1-67 



Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships 

(Grandin and Barron), 455 
The Uranium People, 623 
Urban Anthropology, 489 
Urinalysis in Clinical Laboratory Practice 

(Free and Free), 408 
U.S. Army's Defense Mapping Agency 

Topographic Center, 126 
U.S. Census Bureau and stay at home 

fathers, 49 
U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 51, 138 
U.S. Coast Survey, 152 
U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries, 152 
U.S. Congress and educational equity, 19 
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 2, 6, 

66, 142, 147, 160; botanists, 93; employers 

of women scientists, 36, 67, 148; sources of 

research funding, 33 
U.S. Department of Defense: Ada 

programming language, 101; largest 

employer of women, 36 
U.S. Department of Energy, 119, 182 
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 182 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 119 
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 88 
U.S. Forest Service, 35 
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), xix, 2, 

129, 152, 157; first female scientist 

hired at, 35 
U.S. government: agricultural production, 147; 

business and industry regulations, 118; Cold 

War commitment to scientific research, 113; 

dietary standards, 148; Manhattan Project, 

160; National Council for Marine Resources 

and Engineering Development, 152; 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration (NOAA), 152; Native 

American, ethnographic studies of, 69; 

science mandate, 4 5; scientific ocean 

research and conservation, 152; scientific 

priorities, 119 
U.S. military science and technology research 

programs, 37 
U.S. National Academy of Science, 84 
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, 41 
U.S. Public Health Service, 35 



U.S. Weather Bureau, 142, 152 

US Black Engineer & Information Technology 

magazine, 546 
USDA. See U.S. Department of Agriculture 
USGS. See U.S. Geological Survey 

Vaccines: development of, 86 

Value neutral, 17 

Vanishing Wilderness, 600 

Van Rensselaer, Martha, 815 816; career, 935; 

education, 935; home economist, 935; 

photo, 936; professional associations, 936; 

professional experience, 935; School of 

Home Economics at Cornell University, 150 
Van Straten, Florence Wilhemina: career, 

936 937; concurrent positions, 936; 

education, 936; meteorologist, 936; 

professional associations, 937; professional 

experience, 936; weather forecasting for 

military operations, 143 
Variable Stars and Galactic Structure 

(Payne Gaposchkin), 749 
Variable Stars (Payne Gaposchkin), 749 
Vascular Differentiation in Plants (Esau), 377 
Vassar, 3, 25; female science faculty, 30; 

undergraduate science programs, 4 
Vaughan, Martha: biochemist, 937; career, 938; 

concurrent positions, 938; education, 937; 

professional associations, 938; professional 

experience, 937 
Vennesland, Birgit: carbohydrate metabolism, 

80; career, 939; concurrent positions, 939; 

education, 938; enzymologist and plant 

biologist, 938; professional associations, 

939; professional experience, 938 
Veterinary science, 65 66 
The View, 720 
Villa Komaroff, Lydia: biotechnology com 

pany, 56; career, 939 941; cell biologist, 

molecular biologist, neurobiologist, 56; 

concurrent positions, 939; education, 

939; insulin, development of, 80, 84; pro 

fessional associations, 941; professional 

experience, 939 
Virology, 469 
Viruses in Plant Hosts (Esau), 377 



1-68 | Index 



Virus Research, 469 

Visual Pattern Analyzers (Graham), 452 

Vitamins: Recommended Daily Allowances 

(RDA), 148, 149 
Vitetta, Ellen Shapiro: career, 942; concurrent 

positions, 942; education, 941; 

immunologist and microbiologist, 941; 

professional associations, 942; professional 

experience, 941 
Von Helmholtz, Hermann, 597 
Von Mises, Richard, 424 
von Neumann, John, 968 
Voyager: An Adventure to the Edge of the Solar 

System, 800 
Voyage to Greenland (De Laguna), 336 

WAC. See Women's Army Corps 

Waelsch, Salome Gluecksohn: blood cells and 

chromosomal defects, 177; career, 943; 

education, 943; geneticist, 943; mice, 

genetic mutations, 177; professional 

associations, 943 944; professional 

experience, 943 
Wage gap, xxi 

Wakefield, Priscilla Bell, 92, 109 
Walbot, Virginia Elizabeth: biologist and 

plant geneticist, 944; career, 944 945; 

concurrent positions, 944; education, 944; 

photo, 945; professional associations, 945; 

professional experience, 944; transposable 

genes, 123 
Wald, Elijah, 531 
Wald, George, 530 
Walden (Thoreau), 117 
Walk, Richard D., 430 
Walker, Alan, 859 
Walk in My Shoes: An Odyssey into Womanlife 

(Densen Gerber), 343 
Walk When the Moon is Full 

(Hamerstrom), 478 
Wallace, Phyllis Ann: career, 946; concurrent 

positions, 946; economist, 54, 945; 

education, 945; professional associations, 

946 947; professional experience, 946; 

racial and sexual discrimination in 

workplace, 111; Yale University, 111 



The War against Parents: What We Can Do for 

America's Beleaguered Moms and Dads 

(Hewlett and West), 508 
Warga, Mary Elizabeth: career, 947 948; 

concurrent positions, 947; education, 947; 

Optical Society of America, 162; physicist, 

947; professional associations, 948; 

professional experience, 947; teaching and 

research, 162 
Washburn, Margaret Floy: American 

Psychological Association, 167; career, 

948 949; education, 948; professional 

associations, 949; professional experience, 

948; psychologist, 948 
Washington University, 79 
WASPs. See Women's Air Force Service Pilots 
Wasps Social and Solitary (Peckham), 754 
The Watcher at the Nest (Nice), 715 
Watson, James D., 80, 327, 511, 889; Nobel 

Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1962), 

106, 107, 123 
Watson, Patty Jo (Andersen): anthropologist 

and archaeologist, 949; career, 950; 

concurrent positions, 949; education, 949; 

professional associations, 950; professional 

experience, 949 
Wattleton, Faye (Alyce): career, 950 952; 

concurrent positions, 950; education, 950; 

nurse midwife, 950; photo, 950; profes 

sional associations, 952; professional 

experience, 950 
Way, Katharine, 160; atomic bomb, ethical 

considerations of, 161; career, 953; 

concurrent positions, 953; education, 952; 

National Bureau of Standards and National 

Research Council, 161; Naval Ordnance 

Laboratory, 161; Oak Ridge National 

Laboratory, 161; physicist, 952; 

professional associations, 953; 

professional experience, 952 
The Way Life Begins: An Introduction to Sex 

Education (Cady and Cady), 275 
Weak Interactions, 415 
The Wealth of Nations (Smith), 109 
Weather observations and forecasting, 142 
Weaver, Edwin, 488 



Index | 1-69 



Weaver, Sigourney, 404 

Weertman, Johannes, 954 

Weertman, Julia (Randall): career, 954; 

education, 953; metallurgist and solid state 
physicist, 953; metals, structure and 
temperature resistance of, 107; professional 
associations, 954 955; professional 
experience, 954 

Weisburger, Elizabeth Amy (Kreiser): 
biochemist and toxicologist, 955; 
carcinogenic (or cancer causing) effects of 
chemicals, 99; career, 955 956; education, 
955; professional associations, 956; profes 
sional experience, 955 

Weisburger, John H., 956 

Weisstein, Naomi, 16; career, 957; concurrent 
positions, 956; education, 956; professional 
associations, 957 958; professional 
experience, 956; psychological definition of 
femininity, 170; psychologist, 956 

Weld, William, 562 

Wellesley, 3, 25, 93, 94, 174; female science 
faculty, 30 

We Mainline Dreams: The Odyssey House 
Story (Densen Gerber), 343 

West, Cornel, 508 

Westcott, Cynthia: career, 958 929; concurrent 
positions, 958; education, 958; plant 
pathologist and writer, 45, 93, 958; 
professional associations, 929; professional 
experience, 958; rose diseases, 93 

Westcott 's Plant Disease Handbook 
(Westcott), 958 

West Eberhard, Mary Jane: career, 960; 
concurrent positions, 960; education, 
959; entomologist, 959; paper wasps and 
insects, social behavior of, 177; professional 
associations, 960; professional 
experience, 959 

Westheimer, Ruth (Karola) (Siegel): career, 
961 962; concurrent positions, 961; 
education, 961; family, relationships, and 
sexuality, 170; mental health and relation 
ship advice, 46; photo, 961; professional 
associations, 962 963; professional 
experience, 961; psychologist, 961 



Wet nursing: social controversy 

over, 82 
Wexler, Nancy Sabin: career, 963 964; 

concurrent positions, 963; education, 963; 

Huntington's disease, 124, 146 147; 

neuropsychologist, 963; professional 

associations, 964; professional 

experience, 963 
What Every Woman Ought to Know about Love 

and Marriage (Brothers), 260 
What Is Life? (Sagan and Margulis), 657 
What Is Sex? (Sagan and Margulis), 657 
What's Love Got to Do with It? The Evolution 

of Human Mating (Small), 876 
What's Up, Dr. Ruth?, 962 
What Women Should Know about Men 

(Brothers), 260 
Wheeler, Anna Johnson Pell: career, 965; 

education, 964; mathematician, 132, 964; 

professional associations, 965; professional 

experience, 965 
Wheeler, Arthur, 965 
Wheeler, Mary E: career, 966 967; 

concurrent positions, 966; education, 966; 

engineer and mathematician, 966; 

professional associations, 967; professional 

experience, 966 
When the Bough Breaks: The Cost of 

Neglecting Our Children (Hewlett), 508 
Where the Galaxies Are, 426 
Where Women Work: A Study of Yoruba 

Women in the Marketplace and in 

the Home, 900 901 
White families gender expectations, 55 
Whitehead, Mary Beth, 49 
Whiting, Sarah, 280 
Whitman, Marina (von Neumann), 1021; 

career, 968; concurrent positions, 967; 

economist, 967; education, 967; General 

Motors Corporation, 44; professional 

associations, 968 969; professional 

experience, 967 
Whitney, Mary, 413 414 
Whitson, Peggy A., 1023; astronaut, 969; career, 

969 970; concurrent positions, 969; educa 

tion, 969; International Space Station, 63; 



1-70 | Index 



photo, 970; professional associations, 

970 971; professional experience, 969 
Who's Bashing Whom: Trade Conflict in High 

Technology Industries (Tyson), 930 
Who 's Who among the Microbes, 975 
Widnall, Sheila (Evans), xx xxi, 1022; 

aeronautical engineer, 971; career, 971 972; 

concurrent positions, 971; education, 971; 

leaky pipeline, xx xxi; photo, 39; 

professional associations, 972; professional 

experience, 971; Secretary of the U.S. Air 

Force, 38 39 
Widowed (Brothers), 260 
Wieschaus, Eric, 84 
Wigner, Eugene, 953 
Wild Animals of Glacier National Park 

(Bailey), 212 
The Wilderness World of Anne LaBastille 

(LaBastille), 596 
Wildflower, 249 
Wilford, John Noble, 914 
Wilhelmi, Alfred Ellis, 973 
Wilhelmi, Jane Anne Russell: career, 973; 

education, 973; endocrinologist, 973; 

professional associations, 974; professional 

experience, 973 
Wilkins, Maurice: Nobel Prize in Physiology or 

Medicine (1962), 107 
Willard, Emma, 92 
Williams, Anna Wessels: bacteriologist, 974; 

career, 974 975; concurrent positions, 974; 

education, 974; professional associations, 

975; professional experience, 974 
Williams, H. H., 649 
Williams, Kenneth, 975, 976 
Williams, Roberta: career, 975 976; computer 

gaming industry, 103, 975; education, 975; 

photo, 976; professional experience, 975; 

Sierra On Line, 45 
Williams, Ryan Patrick, 655 
Williamson, Oliver, 732 
The Will Temperament and Its Testing 

(Downey), 351 
Wilsdorf, Heinz G.F., 591 
Wilson, Carol G., 362 
Wilson, Edmund Beecher, 123, 532 



WIN. See Women in Neuroscience 

The Wisdom of Menopause: Creating Physical 
and Emotional Health and Healing during 
the Change (Northrup), 720 

With a Daughter's Eye (Bateson), 220 

With Child: A Diary of Motherhood 
(Chesler), 290 

Witkin, Evelyn Maisel: bacteria, genetics of, 
85; career, 977; concurrent positions, 977; 
education, 977; geneticist, 977; 
professional associations, 977; 
professional experience, 977 

"The Wizard and the Princess" game, 976 

Wolf, David, 357 

Wolfson, Sabina, 451 

Woman: An Intimate Geography (Angier), 195 

Woman in Space program, 62 

The Woman in the Body: A Cultural Analysis of 
Reproduction (Martin), 661 

Woman into Space: The Jerrie Cobb Story 
(Cobb), 300 

The Woman Rebel (Slee), 89 

Woman's Inhumanity to Woman (Chesler), 291 

Woman 's Nature: Rationalizations of 
Inequality (Hubbard), 531 

The Woman That Never Evolved (Hrdy), 528 

Women: acquired immune deficiency 

syndrome (AIDS), 51; agriculture related 
fields, 3; alchemists, 96; amateur science in 
nineteenth century, 40; autism and, 455; 
brains of, 10 11; care and treatment of sick, 
135; chemists, 96; childcare, 48 49; climate 
change and, 117; as computers, 101; com 
puters, impact on, 103; depression, 170; 
doctorates, 5; eclectic careers, xxii; educa 
tion and Title IX, 3 1 ; employments suitable 
for, 14; engineers, 114; engineers and scien 
tists, 63 64; with family, 51; farming and 
commercial agriculture, 67; field work, 71; 
firsts in careers, xxii xxiii; food and, 147; 
gender wage gap, xxi; glass ceiling, xxi; 
government research projects careers, 5 6; 
healthcare, patients and consumers of, 139, 
170; health issues, 17; health movement, 
140; helping professions, 20; herbal medi 
cines, 86; higher education, xxii, 2, 4, 



Index | 1-71 



30 31; human immunodeficiency virus 
(HIV), 51; institutional barriers, 14; IQ 
scores, 11; issues that affect, 172 973; 
language oriented, 10; liberation movement 
and anthropology, 70; Manhattan Project, 
160 161; math scores on SAT, 10; medical 
colleges, 4; medicine, 5; mental health dis 
orders, 170; Nobel Prize winners, xx; physi 
cians, 137; pioneers, xxii; post World War II 
era backlash, 42; professional organizations, 
43; professional recognition for work, xxii; 
professional recognitions, xx; psychological 
theories about, 168; psychology, 169; public 
colleges, 66; science and, xix, 25 27; sci 
ence doctorates, 4; science outside of aca 
demia, 2 3; scientific disciplines in 
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, 
xxii; scientific professions, exclusion from, 
13; scientific research, 33; social and insti 
tutional barriers to, 12; social subordination, 
116 117; space program, 62; STEM disci 
plines and careers, xxi; succeeding in col 
lege science courses, 27; supported scientific 
work, xxii; taught science, 3; teaching, 
29 30; technology and technology related 
careers, 103 104; traditional fields for, 6; 
undergraduate degrees, 18, 172; vaccines, 
development and, 86; veterinary medicine, 
66; work/life balance, xxi 

Women, Minorities and Employment 
Discrimination (Wallace), 946 

Women and Aging, 489 

Women and Economics: A Study of the 
Economic Relation between Men and 
Women as a Factor in Social Evolution 
(Gilman), 109 

Women and Madness (Chesler), 290 

Women and Men at Work, 794 

Women and the American Economy 
conference, 585 

Women and Wilderness (LaBastille), 596 

Women in Aerospace, 65 

Women in Engineering network, 115 

Women in Engineering Proactive Network, 115 

Women hi Industry: Their Health and 
Efficiency (Baetjer), 209 



Women in Neuroscience (WIN), 145 

Women in science: history of, xix, 1 7; 
statistics on, 6 

Women in the Field: America 's Pioneering 
Women Naturalists (Bonta), 244 

Women Look at Biology Looking at Women 
(Hubbard), 531 

Women managers, 43 

Women of Color in U.S. Society 
(Baca Zinn), 209 

Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs), 62 

Women's Army Corps (WAC), 160 

Women 's Bodies, Women 's Wisdom 
(Northrup), 720 

Women scientists: anti nepotism rules, 37; bar 
riers in scientific disciplines, xxii; climate 
change, 117; co ed and black schools, 3; 
discrimination and barriers, 7; European 
researchers, xxiii; female support, 47; femi 
nist perspective, 15; food development and 
production, 42; geological and oceano 
graphic expeditions, 37; government, 29; 
government research agencies, xix; house 
hold products technology, 42; job market, 5; 
laboratory assistant positions, 29; nonaca 
demic careers, 42; non tenure track lectur 
ing and research, 29; nutrition, 42; popular 
media careers, 45 46; positive outlook for, 
4; private industry, 29; role models, 47; sci 
entific inquiry, 15 16; self employment, 
45 46; training new generation of, 4; U.S. 
Department of Agriculture (USDA), 36; 
women's colleges, 3; work/life 
balance, 47 52 

Women Scientists from Antiquity to the Present 
(Herzenberg), 506 

Women's colleges, 3, 25; female 
college professors, 30; female 
students, 27 

Women's Environmental Council, 120 

Women's Interest Group, 72 

Women's Medical College of New York, 96, 
136, 137 

Women's movement, 42, 52 

Women 's Progress: Promises and 
Problems, 884 



1-72 | Index 



Women 's Ritual in Formative Oaxaca: 

Figurine Making, Divination, Death and the 
Ancestors (Marcus), 654 

Women's Veterinary Association, 67 

Women 's Work, Men 's Work: Sex Segregation 
on the Job, 794 

Wood, Elizabeth Armstrong: American 
Crystallographic Association, 107; career, 
978 979; crystallographer, 978; education, 
978; lasers, development of, 107; 
professional associations, 979; professional 
experience, 978 

Woods, Geraldine (Pittman): career, 979 980; 
education, 979; embryologist and science 
consultant, 979; professional associations, 
980; professional experience, 979 

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, 45, 130, 
144, 152, 153 

Woodswoman (LaBastille), 596 

Woodswoman II (LaBastille), 596 

Woodswoman III (LaBastille), 596 

Woodswoman IV (LaBastille), 596 

The Woody Plants of Ohio (Braun), 249 

Woolley, Helen Bradford Thompson: career, 
981 982; education, 981; professional 
associations, 982; professional experience, 
981; psychologist, 981; woman scientists, 
frustrations of, 167 168 

Worcester Insane Asylum, 168 

Worcester State Hospital, 168 

Word processors, 102 

Work, public world of, 14 

Workers at Risk: Voices from the Workplace 
(Nelkin), 709 

Work/family conflict, 48 

Working mothers, 48 

Working with Your Woodland: A Landowner's 
Guide (Beattie), 223 

Work/life balance, xxi; biological and family 
demands, 50; childcare, 48 49; combining 
academic science career with family, 50 52; 
conflict between work and family life, 48; 
equal opportunity legislation, 52; family 
responsibilities, 50 51; male employees, 48; 
marriage, 50; maternal leave policies, 50; 
pregnancy, 50; scientific research and 



faculty positions, 47; women's movement, 

52; working mothers, 48 
Workplace, 48 
World Bank, 110 
World Class: Thriving Locally in the Global 

Economy (Kanter), 561 
The World Is Blue: How Our Fate and the 

Ocean 's Are One (Earle), 360 
World Population and U.S. Policy: The Choices 

Ahead, 687 
The World Trade Organization as an 

International Organization (Krueger), 588 
World War II: labor shortage, 36; shortage of 

male workers, 113 
World War I industries need for scientists, 41 
Wormington, Hannah Marie: Society of 

American Archaeology, 7 1 
Wright, Margaret H: career, 983; computer 

scientist and mathematician, 982; education, 

982; professional associations, 983; 

professional experience, 982 983 
Wrinch, Dorothy Maud: biochemist, 983; 

career, 984 985; education, 983; mapping 

proteins, 107; photo, 984; professional 

associations, 985; professional 

experience, 984 
Wu, Chien Shiung, 160, 289; career, 

986 987; concurrent positions, 986; educa 

tion, 985; elementary particle physics, 161; 

nuclear physicist, 56, 985; photo, 986; 

professional associations, 987; 

professional experience, 985 986; 

radiation detectors, 107, 161 
Wu, Ernie, 988 
Wu, Ying Chu (Lin) Susan: aeronautics engi 

neer, 56; aerospace engineer, 988; career, 

988; concurrent positions, 988; education, 

988; professional associations, 989; profes 

sional experience, 988 
Wulf, William, 556 



Xerox Corporation, 103 

X ray, discovery of, 97 

X ray crystallography, 98, 105 

XY sex chromosome system, 123 



Index | 1-73 



Yale University, 148, 149 

Yalow, Rosalyn Sussman, 1021; biomedical 
physics, 161; career, 991 993; concurrent 
positions, 991; education, 991; hormones, 
effect on health and disease, 87; medical 
physicist, 991; Nobel Prize in Physiology or 
Medicine (1977), 80, 161 162, 999; photo, 
992; professional associations, 993; 
professional experience, 991 

Yang, Ning, 986 987 

Yates, Josephine Silone: Natural Sciences at 
Lincoln University, 3 

Yellowstone, 117 

Yonath, Ada E.: antibiotics, effect on bacteria, 
106; bacterial ribosomes, 106; 
crystallography, 106; Nobel Prize in 
Chemistry (2009), 98, 106, 999; structural 
biology, 106; U.S. National Academy of 
Sciences, 106; Weizmann Institute of 
Science, 106; X ray crystallography, 98 

Yosemite, 117 

Young, Anne Sewell: astronomer, 993; career, 
993 994; education, 993; professional 
associations, 994; professional 
experience, 993 

Young, Charles, 994 

Young, Roger Arliner: career, 995; education, 
994; professional experience, 994; sea 



urchin eggs and other organisms, 175; 
zoologist, 175, 994 
Your Diabetes and How to Live with It, 616 

Zakrzewska, Maria, 137; New York Infirmary 

for Women and Children, 136 
Zapotec Civilization: How Urban Society 

Evolved in Mexico 's Oaxaca Valley (Marcus 

and Flannery), 654 
Zeller, Edward, 354 
Zinn, Maxine Baca: Latino families and 

Mexican American women, 57, 173 
Zoback, Mary Lou: career, 997; 

concurrent positions, 997; education, 997; 

geophysicist, 997; plate tectonics and 

earthquake fault lines, 130; professional 

associations, 997 998; professional 

experience, 997 
Zoologists: research on human health and 

disease, 177 
Zoology, 174 178. See also Animal Sciences; 

Biology; Biomedical Sciences; 

Environmental Sciences and Ecology; 

Genetics; Ocean Sciences, Primatology; 

biology, 174; classification and naming 

(taxonomy) of plants and animals, 174; 

popular field of study for women, 174 
zur Hausen, Harald, 138 



About the Author 



TIFFANY K. WAYNE, Ph.D., is an independent scholar who resides in Santa 
Cruz, California. A specialist in U.S. history and women's history, she is a former 
Affiliated Scholar with the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stan- 
ford University. Dr. Wayne's previous books include Woman Thinking: Feminism 
and Transcendentalism in Nineteenth-Century America, Encyclopedia of Tran- 
scendentalism, and Women's Roles in Nineteenth-Century America. 



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